Matt and I met at the river at 9AM, the plan was to target crappie and bluegill. Weather called for a day of rain so we decided to tail close to home and target panfish at a local haunt. Armed some new jigs a good buddy of mine in Florida poured a few weeks back and a bay all to ourselves I couldn't wait. I had high hopes for fun fish filled day as I didn't to to bad here on Saturday. The jigs were prototypes and have never been used so I was anxious to give them a whirl. Only three exist and will ever so I tried to keep them away from the darting pike and weeds..turned out it was the only bait I used all day. Fished over a completely new spot for the morning hours and did well, catching a few crappie here and there. The size were on the small side but a sure sign of activity in the area. When I thought it was time to move Matt caught a good fish..giving us some confidence to stay put just a bit longer. I believe he was using a small pink jig and tail from Custom Jigs & Spins, meanwhile I was pounding away with my friends jig. I caught another one around 9'' and then the fish vanished.
We were working a steep drop right off of the weedline in 10-13 feet of water. Bottom was hard and very weedy. The morning went on and we decided to move to another spot I had marked some fish earlier on in the day. Once we started working our jigs in the water column it was clear that crappie were on and nipping baits in full force...I 'flipped' the trap and started raising fish. Matt then hooks into a good fish, needless to say we didn't have to move the rest of the day. The sun started to set and the crappies were getting more aggressive. Fish averaged 10-12'' and were keying into white, pink and chartreuse pattern jigs and plastics .
One of the biggest crappie I have ever seen was almost landed as well. Matt was fiddling with some gear in his tackle box when his rod got a good smack....he fought the thing right up to the hole and the hook popped right out, fish still in hole we both kind of just starred at it in amazement before it clicked to grab it...must have been at least 13'' - 15''. Just dogging' it at the hole. We were screaming. You probably would too if you had a crappie fill your entire 8'' hole and get stuckMatt with a few slabs caught early in the morning
Smaller of pack...
I would like to give credit too...
Got into a couple of nice bluegill as well
Double SLABS! Released...
But not all, heres Matt with his 'take' on the day
Can't wait to get back at it this week
-Andrew Cameron
