My first crappie

[Seamonkey84]

A coworker and I finaly had a day off together to do some fishing. We set out to one of my usual lakes in limerick to target jumbo perch and have a fish fry on the ice.  Him armed with my HB fishin buddy and myself with a vex sonar phone, we proceeded to Swiss cheese the from a bay through to the basin.  We marked fishin almost every hole, but they just weren't biteing no matter the lure we used.  Finally after almost two hours I hooked onto the first fish.

My first crappie, and I had to make it chase it to finally hook on.
It turned out to be the only fish we kept today, but it was delicious!
The only other fish caught was a dinky yellow perch I caught, my buddy got the skunk even though we were on top of schools of something or another.

[franklin fisher]

Congratulations!  I got my first crappie a couple weeks ago. They are awesome eating.  Haven't been able to find them again.  Gonna try again this weekend.

[Seamonkey84]

My friend that lives minutes from the lake didn't even know they were in there, we heard about them just two weeks ago by another local. I'm going to be hunting for them in there and other lake in that area for now on.  Too different from trout to compare the two, but one of the best fish I've eatten yet. Dipped in pancake-beer batter and fried in oil, can't be simpler and Sooo good.

[chum bucket]

They are good to eat, nice job on the crappie.

[Seamonkey84]

Thanks, if I didn't have eletronics I would not have caught it. Two marks were eyeballing it for close to a minute while I tried different strokes, finally I was pulling it up to check the bait and it followed, I did a slow retrieve and it nailed it after chasing for almost ten feet. I couldn't believe it when I pulled it out of the hole. I tried to get his buddy to come back but nothing.

[stickbait]

That's it, you're hooked now!! Congrats on the first.

[bee]

Congrats. Drill Drill Drill Move Move Move

[rdhammah]

here's a tip for you....crappie look upward. your bait needs to be ABOVE them, even if only 2 inches. as you found out, they will chase the bait. tease them while raising your bait/jig. Sometimes, it just takes a little, sometimes a lot.

[saltyshores]

I remember catching my first crappie, followed by many more with MG39. It's an addictive sport. Good going.

[Seamonkey84]

Thanks for the tips, it was my first time draining both batteries on my Milwaukee drill on one trip. it was more than enough to cover the area, just couldn't find any biters that day.  Like I said, original plan yesterday was to target perch and sunfish for lunch on the ice, didn't even think about crappie since my friend had never heard of them being there and he's fished that lake open water almost every week for the past 7 years for bass. 
Oh, I did the math based on the cig pack for scaleing, that was a 13-14" fish!

[MG39]

My friend that lives minutes from the lake didn't even know they were in there, we heard about them just two weeks ago by another local. I'm going to be hunting for them in there and other lake in that area for now on.  Too different from trout to compare the two, but one of the best fish I've eatten yet. Dipped in pancake-beer batter and fried in oil, can't be simpler and Sooo good.

Shhhhhh

[woodchip]

I went out today and I don't think they were biting that good ,could see fish on my Vex.  most of the time bite the had to be coached. Did end the day with 3 -  8"  White Perch.

[MG39]

I went out today and I don't think they were biting that good ,could see fish on my Vex.  most of the time bite the had to be coached. Did end the day with 3 -  8"  White Perch.

That's a bummer.

[Seamonkey84]

I tried the same area again today, just two hours before sundown. No crappie, but I did catch many small and a few medium YP, 5 small Largemouths, and one big sunfish, all released to grow bigger.  Bite was much better today, too bad I didn't have longer to fish and left the cooking gear at home.  No pics today since I just got a new phone but didn't get a case for it yet, so it didn't leave the pocket or get touched with wet hands lol.

[cjg]

Sunfish taste as good as crappie 

[Fishn'Rod]

Sunfish taste as good as crappie 

x2

[Seamonkey84]

I hope to go out at least one more time next week to try and do another cookout. Hopefully I'll be able to get some for the pan and do a proper comparison of different species.