What a Crappie Afternoon...

My cousin who is an addicted crappie fishermen agreed to take me along on the past Tuesday afternoon in hopes they would be bitin' just as well as he had seen past couple weeks. We also figured with the big front moving in it may help or hurt, you just never know. Lake fishing is like that, you take what you get and sudden changes in pressure can turn them on or off quick.

So, just as quick as I could drive I sped outta work Tuesday around 5'oclock and the both of us were in the boat and on the water by 6. With the extra daylight hours now this is great fun after a long day at work.

We put in at the waterworks ramp on Lake Rhodhiss. This is a home lake for us no doubt as we live less than 10 minutes from this body of water. It gets overlooked I think as a destination due to size and it's proximity to much larger lakes but it's a great fishery. My cousin had simply been wearin' them out past few weeks. Our main target were tree laps both in the coves and on the main channel edges. We worked mainly a plastic shad with a chartreuse tail. Actually we were dippin the solid white shad into a garlic dip that stained them permanently. My cousin is a dang lunatic when it comes to fishing. He shares the same need to feel a fish on the end of a line and probably fishes over 100 days per year. He however loves the crappie more than the trout so at this point I can't get him into fly fishing too much. I can't blame him really, he catches plenty and owns a boat. Fly fishing on a lake is a totally different challenge and even one I don't care much for unless the topwater action is hot.

Anyway, back to the fishing. Our first effort was around a tree lap that he had just discovered late last week. While we pulled into the cove he told me a story about how the homeowner in the monster mansion on the point was down by his dock the other day with shotgun in tow trying to take out some muskrats. Those ugly water rats can do some massive damage to boats and anything that floats. Well, it wasn't long and here came one of them nastly devils. And, shortly thereafter the homeowner slid out the backdoor with his breakdown shotgun by his side. We talked to him for a minute and surprisingly enough he was just as country as us and a very nice fellar. He informed us he took two of them out last week and how they had caused him $2500 in damage to the wiring on his pontoon boat. We then gave him a tip on the one we saw and headed to another tree lap. Most rich folks on our water are typically of the "city" kind who moved here to live on OUR water. Well, not really OURS, but you get the point. I can share with anyone who is kind.

By dark we landed about 10 or so along with the agressive bluegill here and there. I never did break out the fly rod and worked the same shad the whole time on an ultralight setup. We never did get into a gang of them but we gave it more than a big effort and had a great time as expected. My cousin is about as looney as me and we've hung around each other our whole lives. So, when we're together we're catching fish, chasin coon dogs, or deer hunting and always laughing.

And, I know, a good blog is USELESS without pictures...but I left the camera the truck by being in a big hurry. My bad.

Thanks for reading. Nothing but rain here for next few days and lots of it, probably won't hit some water for another week.

Blueline Wild 'Bows

After a week of having a blast in Disney it was back to reality and back to potentially hitting a new stream. Following a good bit of discussion my buddy and I decided on a blueline that is new to us. He had scouted it out a little by truck a week or so back and noted it held plenty of potential. And, we talked to other local friends who had fished the area before and claimed it was indeed worth a shot.

So, after a half day of much needed yard work we left out shortly after noon. The drive was nice as usual and the weather was tremendous. We knew that around 2pm the air temps would peak and we hoped that would also warm the water enough to spark some hatches. We couldn't have appeared to be anymore of a bug genious by around 2:30. The bugs were coming off by the hundreds and the fish got active QUICK.

Unfortunately the pic is out of focus but this is one of the many who made an appearance for about 45 minutes. It was great to see such activity on a wild stream on March 21st. I quickly grabbed a #16 BWO and went to work. We basically stream hopped each other as the widest point in the creek was maybe 10 feet with tons of blowdowns, laurel and anything else to prevent a man from casting. Roll cast and bow and arrow were the main tools of the day.

The hatch began to dwindle down about as quick as it began but the fish continued to cooperate and hit the dries over and over. As usual we missed many more than we landed, or at least I did. My buddy wore me out this time, I think he got upset when I worked him over a few weeks back on some native brookies. Plus, I was a little rusty and sore from the yard work...and this stream was not one to get fancy with. The blowdowns would eat you up if you thought you were gonna get fancy.

We basically finished up the day on the largest pool where a couple more made a fool of me. I had went to a dry/dropper combo due to the depth of the final pool. My indicator fly was a #12 yellow stimulator that I intended to only be an indicator. To my complete shock I missed a tremdous SMACK on the stimi. That's the novice coming back out in me I suppose. It always happens when you switch your footing or go to pick a mayfly out of your nose.

All in all it

was a great day on a great stream with a great hatch. We only fished about 1/4 of what this stream has to offer so it'll get a repeat fer sure. I suspect as we get higher we may get lucky with some brookies.