March 23, 2005

Water Temp 52 degrees.

"OH YEAH!" and "THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout!" have been pretty frequent phrases in my boat lately. The much needed warm trend has arrived and the Crappie action fired up immediately!

March 17th was the first sunny, warmer day we had after about a week of unusually cold weather. I fished this day with Ken Hamm and his step son, Kevin. Two comments stand out in my mind from this day. Ken told me that I had "made a friend for life" and for about one hour, Kevin kept saying "This it too easy!". Great fishing with you guys!

I have Crappie fished every day for the past week and have caught 30 to 63 nice size Crappies each day. A lot of these are 1.5 Lbs a piece. Good time!

CRAPPIE
I've been fishing mostly shallow. Swimming 1/16 oz jigs 3 to 7 ft deep, and fishing a chartreuse jig under a bobber, set 3 ft deep. One day I caught fish on a bobber and jig set 18" deep, you could actually see the Crappie roll on your bait before the bobber went down! "Cool".
I know Crappie are being caught from 2' to 28' of water on jigs and on minnows, casting, trolling, and Spider Rigging. But I feel the most important thing in catching Crappie is understanding what they're doing. This time of year is pre-spawn for Crappie. The water isn't warm enough for them to spawn, but they are looking for the warmest water they can find. During a warm trend, that water is shallow, whether suspended over deep water or sitting tight to a stump in the shallows.

BASS
I hear bass are still being caught on jerk baits and crank baits. I would LOVE to go Small Mouth fishing, but I'm booked with Crappie for now. Darn!

See ya next week.

Captain Kirk, out.