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Picou
Crappie
Username: Picou

Post Number: 444
Registered: 8-2004


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Posted on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - 11:30 am:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

I wrote this shortly after Wes and I had been crappie fishing and it was one of those unbelievable nights. Suprisingly, neither one of us has fished this spot since that night.

Enjoy:

One Night of Crappie Fishing – A Lifetime of Memories


You just never can tell what the night has in store for you when you set out on a late spring night time crappie fishing trip. Some crappie trips are very bountiful; where as, others just leave you wondering what happened. My fishing partner and I headed out to a lake that we had never crappie fished together. The previous weekend I did a night trip and brought home 9 crappie that were barely ten and a half inches – ten inches is the length limit in Texas. When we hit the road to head to this small lake, we had no idea what we were about to experience – a few nice bass, red hot crappie action, and one very long night of fishing.

First off, we arrived at the lake with about 2 hours to kill before dark. We decided to do a little bass fishing before tucking up under the bridge, and began casting primary points with watermelon/chart lizards. The first fish landed came on the third cast; a healthy little two and a half pound largemouth. It didn’t take long for the next fish to fall prey to the Texas-rigged lizard – another healthy little bass about the same size. We had only been fishing for about 20 minutes before we had released 2 chunky little bass. The next fish to inhale one of our lizards was a solid 5.03 pound bass from the back of a cove. We worked the shoreline back out to the main part of the lake and ended the bass fishing excursion with a good slab crappie from the reeds. She came on the same bait and measured over 14 inches. We stuck her in the live-well and headed for the bridge; after all, we had only been on the lake for barely over an hour and already released 3 bass while managing to put one crappie towards our limit.

Little did we know that the single crappie caught while bass fishing was only a mere drop in the bucket compared to what was about to happen to us. The bridges on this lake are very low and small, and this specific bridge we fished only had two rows of pilings. We tied up to the bridge over the creek channel and started getting our crappie gear out. Tied on a few minnows and let them swim around while we situated all the other things – lantern, tape measure, minnow bucket, etc… As the sun began to set, the crappie turned on slowly. In the first half hour of dark, we probably landed 5 crappie, but when they turned on, they really turned on. Before we knew what happened, we were down to one pole each with nothing more than a jig with a plastic minnow body tied on. The crappie were feeding so aggressively, it would take no longer than a count of 5 before we were setting the hook again. The action was so fast that while measuring a fish just caught, you could have another one hooked by simply tossing the jig back into the water and laying the pole down in the boat. By midnight we had 50 crappie in the live well and released at least 3 times that many. I stopped counting fish after I had personally caught 75 – around 10:30pm. My buddy was catching and releasing at about the same rate. We would switch jig colors, change jig weight, use a cork, and even tried a small spoon. It did not matter what we put in the water, if it resembled a minnow it would catch fish.

Finally, it reached a point where it was loosing the enjoyment and amazement. Somewhere into the night, the lantern ran out of gas. Up until that point, we were steadily catching fish, so I took the Q-Beam, turned it on, and laid it on the front deck pointing towards the concrete of the bridge. This gave us almost the same amount of light as the lantern had, and the fish continued to bite. The pace was steady and there were more crappie under this bridge than we could catch in a night. About 3:30am, we decided it was time to quit. We had a full limit of good crappie, sore arms, sore thumbs, cut up hands, we were tired of catching fish, and we still had over half a dozen minnows left over from the measly three dozen we bought. I never thought I would live to see the day that we would leave a fishing hole while the fish were still biting, but I lived it that night. We put in 7 solid hours of crappie fishing with at least 6 of those hours a consistent, instantaneous red-hot crappie bite. We can only estimate the number of fish we caught since there were just too many to keep up with, but we simply assume that for a minimum of 4 of the 6 hours of continuous fish we landed at least 1 crappie each per minute. That is 240 minutes at 1 fish each per minute – 480 crappie. We really believe that this is an understatement since it took more time to measure a fish than it did to catch another, and most of the time catching and measuring were done simultaneously. Besides, after the live well was full, we didn’t even measure them; instead, we just simply returned them to the water.

That trip will live forever in my mind, and I cannot wait till May gets here this year. You can bet that we will be out there again this year; tied under the bridge trying to repeat the incredible action we encountered on that night. There is no secret to the success we had, for we were just in the right place at the right time. If I never see this type of action again, I can honestly say that that night will live strong and vivid in my memory forever. The night that we were outright tired of catching fish.

Thank you Lord for my family and the waters I get to fish
Marion
Minnow
Username: Marion

Post Number: 11
Registered: 8-2004


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Posted on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - 7:39 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

Enjoyed the story Mike.

I'd like to be with you the next time you're in the right place at the right time.:-)
Barnaclebill
Bluegill
Username: Barnaclebill

Post Number: 192
Registered: 8-2004


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Posted on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - 10:57 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

Dayum, sounds like a night I had at Copano Bay a few weeks ago,, The reds were tearing up the surface,,,
Great write up Mike,,, cant wait to have the chance to get up there with you guys and wet a "fresh" hook.
Born to fish-Forced to work
Charles
Moderator
Username: Charles

Post Number: 143
Registered: 7-2004

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Posted on Thursday, December 2, 2004 - 7:35 am:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

Nice write up Mike. However, you left out GPS coordinates:-)
Dang'it Rudey,Greg and mike look like ooompa loompas from Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory up against Charles !!!!
Picou
Crappie
Username: Picou

Post Number: 445
Registered: 8-2004


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Posted on Thursday, December 2, 2004 - 10:17 am:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

Lake Bonham, first bridge. Let me know when they turn back on. :-)

For some reason, I don't go to that lake much anymore. I took the kids once this year to perch jerk but other than that I just don't go there like I use to. One morning Wes and I caught 52 bass between sun up and 1:00pm. Mostly on buzzbaits (90% or so). Biggest was just under 6 pounds.

It is a fun lake and I have never been skunked there, not really sure why I don't go anymore.
Thank you Lord for my family and the waters I get to fish
Dean
Minnow
Username: Dean

Post Number: 60
Registered: 4-2004


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Posted on Thursday, December 2, 2004 - 2:49 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

Mike, This reminds me of a trip I had last fall in Galveston (amond a few others). I have a friend who is from China and he also has a Chineese food resturaunt locally. We have become friends and I finally took him fishing. I knew that we would be keeping smaller fish so I went prepared (mentally) to do that. We fished into the afternoon without much success - a few flounder. I knew that the sand trout would turn on under the light at night. I just didn't realize how active it could get. My mind was on flounder though.

Once the night fell and I turned on the light you could see the sandies schooling. After about 1/2hr the sandies were so plentiful that you could almost reach into the water with your hand and grab one! There was no way that you were going to get the bait to the bottom to catch flounder. We started out using live shrimp and finger mullet. Every cast - within seconds - we had a fish on. I decided that I would put a spec rig on his rod. Bingo! Two at a time almost every cast. I tried large kely minnows, bass assasins, and flounder pounders but the sandies hit them all. So much for flounder! I put a spec rig on also and added to the catch.

I was sitting in the front of the boat and he was sitting on the back deck of my Sea Pro - the cooler was next to him. Every time I cought a fish I would get up and bring it to the back of the boat and put it in the cooler. Well that got old - quick! I decided to just drop them in the boat and kick them back to him and let him put them in the cooler. We were still catching them 2 at a time! I looked over and realized that my friend had a problem. The fish were stacking up and I was unable to kick them back any more because the back of the boat was full of fish. Every time he put his rod down to put fish in the box he would let his lure hang over the side. Bingo again - he had 2 fish on without any effort and had to take them off. Apparently this had been an issue for him for a while because he was over his ankles in fish. He was laughing so hard that he was tearing!~ He nor I had ever seen anything of the sort. We ended up filling a 104qt cooler from top to bottom - no ice - by 10:30pm (about 4hrs). When we left the action was just as strong as it could be. I hated to leave such a fun event but we had work to be done cleaning up after all of this! I used my troll motor to get away in an effort not to needlesly kill fish. On the way home he called his friends and family and I let them have the whole catch.

This was probably my most volume filled trip.

Afterwards I took Susie (my wife) for a repeat. The fishing was not as strong this trip but we did keep some of the bigger ones. In an effort to estimate how many we kept the other night I counted what we had and then estimated the percentage of the cooler Susie and I filled. With this, I estimate that my friend and I had kept over 600 fish and no telling what we threw back.
All In A Days Fun!!!
Rudey
Moderator
Username: Rudey

Post Number: 111
Registered: 8-2004


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Posted on Thursday, December 2, 2004 - 6:52 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

Man, I've had nights like that on Tawakoni catching sandies. You try to break the monotony by having a contest to see if anyone can hit bottom without catching a fish. Some nights, nobody would win. Pretty amazing!

Good story, Mike!
Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught.
Picou
Crappie
Username: Picou

Post Number: 453
Registered: 8-2004


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Posted on Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - 12:07 am:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

Man I hope that I get to spend more time on the water this year than I did last year. I am too wrapped up in the quest for that 13 pound largemouth and it has really taken a toll on my freezer filler trips. We need to do more group trips like we did on Tawakoni so that I can feed my family.
Thank you Lord for my family and the waters I get to fish
Fishinaggie88
Bluegill
Username: Fishinaggie88

Post Number: 144
Registered: 8-2004


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Posted on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 9:52 am:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

wow,

I hope to have to "endure" a trip like that at some point in my life!!
Love to fish and hunt.

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