Thanks @AlabamaSpothunter. The extended forecast is looking good, with highs in the 40's to low 50's starting tomorrow. Water's already up to 40 in some areas. Hopefully they'll start staging on the breaks soon. 

I put together a new toy this morning for this summers night excursions. It's a single Mag 12 blade, with about 1oz of weight on the shaft. I tossed it around a bit today to see how it runs. Just as I'd hoped it runs pretty shallow, even slow rolled. Lots of thump at a slow speed, two 5/0 4x strong VMC trebles on the business end. 

6 minutes ago, gimruis said:

It’s going to be a LONG time before I can muskie fish here. Season doesn’t open until June.

That sucks. Hopefully y'all get that situation remedied soon.

That's so cool Tim, always so impressive how you catch these fish on tackle you make yourself.   I try to outsource that to the Japanese as much as I can 🤣   

Spent the afternoon chasing down the crappie and found the big pre-spawners staged up. Ended the afternoon with 8 over 2.0 pounds, including 1 over 3 pounds, a new PB. Also had about 8 between 1-2 pounds and a few shorter. Best 8 fish weighed a combined 20.27 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's one seriously impressive bag of crappie @Team9nine. Nice work brother.

Dude! That is a nice sack of specks!

11 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Spent the afternoon chasing down the crappie and found the big pre-spawners staged up. Ended the afternoon with 8 over 2.0 pounds, including 1 over 3 pounds, a new PB. Also had about 8 between 1-2 pounds and a few shorter. Best 8 fish weighed a combined 20.27 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crappie bite in my neck of the woods is going to perk up very soon. In fact, it already is pretty good.  What kind of presentations are you using? Artificial or live bait? 

11 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Spent the afternoon chasing down the crappie and found the big pre-spawners staged up. Ended the afternoon with 8 over 2.0 pounds, including 1 over 3 pounds, a new PB. Also had about 8 between 1-2 pounds and a few shorter. Best 8 fish weighed a combined 20.27 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice ~ !

You know you're into slabs when you're back reeling on Crappie !

Congrats on the new Personal Best as well.

A-Jay

 

1 hour ago, greentrout said:

Crappie bite in my neck of the woods is going to perk up very soon. In fact, it already is pretty good.  What kind of presentations are you using? Artificial or live bait? 

Small shad bodies on 1/32-1/16 oz jig heads; casting.

Great job @Team9nine and awesome fish!  

 

I find it ironic the Crappie brigade on my home lake doesn't come out for another month or so, yet the biggest Crappie I see all year are from Dec. to March. 

 

 

41 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Great job @Team9nine and awesome fish!  

 

I find it ironic the Crappie brigade on my home lake doesn't come out for another month or so, yet the biggest Crappie I see all year are from Dec. to March. 

Back in Indiana, it was the same way - April and May when the fish were close to, or actually spawning, drew the crappie crowds. I think they’re mostly shallow water cove fishermen.

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Back in Indiana, it was the same way - April and May when the fish were close to, or actually spawning, drew the crappie crowds. I think they’re mostly shallow water cove fishermen.

That’s me.

 

They’re relatively easy to catch once you find them that time of year. Problem is I never catch anything bigger than about 12-13 inches. It’s like trying to catch a unicorn.

4 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Great job @Team9nine and awesome fish!  

 

I find it ironic the Crappie brigade on my home lake doesn't come out for another month or so, yet the biggest Crappie I see all year are from Dec. to March. 

 

 

You might have more DD LM if they would kill every crappie, just sayin !  Crappie is one of the worst things to have in a small lake managed for largemouth 

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

You might have more DD LM if they would kill every crappie, just sayin !  Crappie is one of the worst things to have in a small lake managed for largemouth 

 

Interesting!

 

About 30 years ago we stocked a pond in NE PA with LM and crappie. Over the years the LM grew and some 5 or 6-lb bass were caught along with many different year classes.

 

We never caught a crappy until about 4 years ago when my wife caught a 14-inch crappie. After that, we started catching crappie most being between 8 and 12 inches. BUT we have not been catching any bigger bass. Three or four pounds have been max for the past few years. 

 

Could crappie be the reason?

 

BTW there are some ponds above the pond we fish that did hold crappie and there have been some high water incidents when the dams above had been breached allowing the crappies to enter. 

@Dogface, don’t know about your area but anyone managing ponds in the southeast will tell you please please please don’t stock crappie 

That's a really good rule of thumb if we're talking about 1-10acre ponds based simply on carrying capacity and diversity of habitat.    Crappie predate on Bass eggs and fry, but equally 17.5"+ Largemouth predate Crappie quite heavily.   If the body of water is big enough, a natural harmonic order usually results.   

 

Small trophy Bass micro managed ponds like the ones you pay to fish, 100% don't stock Crappie.   

47 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Dogface, don’t know about your area but anyone managing ponds in the southeast will tell you please please please don’t stock crappie 

Ditto

)Stocking Crappie is Not Ideal for Small Ponds (pondking.com)

Thanks guys. It is a small pond maybe 2 to 3 acres. 

Fished 2 days North of Puerto Vallarta.  Landed 6 tuna, and two dorado the first day, 5 tuna, one dorado the second day.  All were caught skipping a soft plastic flying fish under a kite, trolling at 8 to 10 Kts.  This can be the most exciting way to fish tuna, but requires a the right conditions, and excellent team work with the crew, and anglers.  Drives the tuna crazy when all goes well.

 

Tuesdays haul 

 

Just a few crappie bites today, but two of them were the right ones 

 

A new PB at 3.46 lbs (top 2 pics), and another at 2.53 lbs. (last pic)

 

 

 

That’s the biggest crappie I’ve ever seen. 

I’d never go to the grocery store again 

 

 

                                       

I only target Bass but occasionally catch something else.  I got into a couple Blue Cats today.   The first one was 15ish pounds and 32 1/2 inches long.   The wind and waves were rocking my boat.  The scale wouldn't lock in.  It was bouncing between 15 and 16 pounds.   I realized after I released it that I hadn't taken a picture.   A couple casts later I tail hooked a 11 pound Blue.  Scale was bouncing between 11 and 12.  It was 30 inches long but felt like a WHALE since it was tail hooked.