it's what's for dinner. I usually don't keep many fish but every now and then enough for a fish fry is warranted. Far from even a one person limit but enough to feed a few of us for an evening. I have been on a hot crappie bite lately. Similar pattern from a few years ago when they show up at the mouth of the larger tributaries to the Potomac. You will know they are there when you see flipping or small splashes on the surface. Sometimes this is crappie, other times it's the bait fish they are eating. Other times I think it's some other fish but for whatever reason, this is when there are decent numbers of crappie around. The rig is rather standard. use a small, weighted float about 2 inches long and slender, with about 4 feet of line to a 1/32oz or 1/16oz jig head and then either a 2 inch twister tail, tube or for best results a one inch gulp minnow in green. Gulp is basically crappie crack. I'm sure you could do very well on minnows too as there are decent numbers of one inch minnows swimming around the shore. Last week we saw mid spring like conditions with a few days near 60 degrees, actually mid 60's. I went mid week to check on it just to see if there were fish and sure enough guys were bailing them. Well, one guy was anyway. I caught a few in 20 minutes but had to get back to work. Plus I only had a decent size bass rod with me, not your best crappie rod but it did the trick. The next day a major cold front hit and temps dropped 30 degrees, with some snow and blinding winds to 30 mph gusts at times. But this was the day that Ryan didn't have basketball, it was too cold to go to the park, so we went fishing. Somehow we sort of hid out of the wind and I figured once the fish showed up, they should still be there. Sure enough it was as easy as taking candy from a baby. One after another of decent crappie and even a largemouth. I thought about eating a few but let them all go.
Later the next day after work we invited some friends. The fish were not where they were on Thursday or Wednesday. The water was little lower and there was some boat traffic from the rescue guys that may have spooked the fish. We got into a few largemouth, bluegill and finally right at dark found some crappie. But only two. Wasn't sure what was wrong but I think they were holding near the structure this time. Usually they don't which I know defies everything about crappie fishing. For some odd reason these fish hold out in the middle of the hole at the mouth of the creek, like near where the creek current enters the river current. There's depth there but I wouldn't call this the deepest spot around. Anyway, here's some pictures. The fishing is good. I just pulled up to the spot again so I'm going to give it another go.
There's a decent number of bass here too. Not big but odd to see largemouth bass actively feeding when it was that cold. This was Feb 9th with a crazy weather shift from 60's on the 8th to 30's and 30 MPH wind gusts at the time.
Feb 9th bass
Crappie from Feb 9th
Another bass from the 10th
Beautiful sunset on the 9th or 10th. Usually you only take pics of sunsets when you don't catch anything but on this day we had both, a nice sunset and plenty of fish.
Here's a nice stringer from the 12th. We caught many others too that were released plus a few bluegill too. Had two reports from friends of very slow fishing but they were using different techniques. Try the float and suspend the bait, keep it small.
So quick update. I fished yesterday from about 4pm to 5pm and it was red hot. A fish almost every cast. There was a strong east wind coming form the land but wasn't bad hiding behind the bridge. I was even experimenting with no floats, two inch scentless twister tails, jigging, it all worked. But again the gulp got eaten far quicker. I'd venture to say I caught about 30 crappie in the time frame. Many of them were small, likely males but there were a few jumbos too. I released everything, hopefully educated them a little. I doubt I'll keep anymore crappie. The last batch didn't taste very good for some reason. I ate it two nights ago and today I'm not feeling so well. Been to the bathroom a few times but that could have been the draft beer from Witlows and the Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders "beer tie" in Rosslyn, Va. Who knows. But crappie fishing is about as good as it gets close to home. Gotta love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment