Long Time Coming

Darl's First Two Crappies of 2015

I finally got out fishing in open water for the first time in 2015. It was a long time coming. There was a storage building cave in that wipe out both my fishing boats in early March,. And there was late-ice out, and the same day it went out I came down with a nasty bout of the flu. Finally recovered, I was ready to fish on April 18 - but no boat ready. So I called my buddy Jim McClave who had just moved to the Pymatuning and was anxious to fish in his boat. So we motored to a nearby cove, and dropped anchor by a couple stumps barely visible in the water. Five minutes and no fish, so we moved to a deadfall on the other side of the bay, and dropped anchor up wind of the tree. Jim was a bit apprehensive about getting snagged in the branches. But I figured the crappies would be in the branches, not outside the tree. On my second cast to the tree, I let the wind carry my bobber and minnow right up to edge of the branches. Fish on! It was a 12-1/2 inch black crappie. From then on it was easy. Cast almost to the branches and then let the wind carry the bobber and bait to the honey pocket. One crappie right after another. And except for the first one, all the others ran between 13 and 14 inches. Jim kept the first dozen crappies for a fish fry, and we released all the others we caught after that. By the way, that first crappie I caught earned Ron Burger a huge lure pack in Darl's First Crappie of 2015 Contest. (Details in a previous post at Going Fishin' blog)

Jim McClave scores with bobber & minnow