Got out mid morning (11:00) looking for crappie. Started out hitting brushpiles in 15-20 FOW outside of Long Hunter launch area.
Caught three keepers in about 30 minutes, they didn't want jigs, just minnows on a bare hook under a bobber.
The wind picked up after I had tried two more brush piles in deeper water with no takers so I decided it was time to see if they were ready for crankbaits......and they were.
Started out trolling bandits, 200/300's in bone white, chartreuse, mad cow, and sexy shad. I was following the contours, trying to stay in16-19 FOW. They were showing a preference to the mad cow crank. I only had one so I took a black permanent marker and painted spots on the bone white and the chartreuse cranks. They liked them too! So I painted up the sexy shad and the chartreuse and was having fun until a 7 lb channel cat grabbed the one rod that wasn't in a rod holder (brand new, first time fishing with it),a Skeet Reese 7' crankbait rod with a fairly expensive baitcasting reel attached. Pulled it over the back of the boat. I was marking a spot on my forward graph and just heard the commotion and turned around in time to see the rod go under.
I immediately turned the trolling motor around to try to find the rod, when to my amazement, the rod floats! I trolled back to get it, tangling all my other lines in doing so. So, retrieve the rod, pull in this ugly catfish that now has all my lines snarled so bad that every plug (6 lines in the water) has to be cut off and retied.
To shorten the story, came home with 20 crappie, anywhere from 10 1/2 to 14 inches, and one fugly 7 lb catfish. I took a photo of the cat in the water with the mad cow crank in his jaws, but apparently just as I took the picture, he dove his head under the water and the plug wasn't visible.
Most folks know that I don't post a lot of my catches, so here's another post with no photos, but with some information that the boating community might find useful.
I mostly pulled at 1.6-1.8 MPH. One twelve ft. rod off each side. One 6'-6" rod off each side, and usually 2 7' rods straight out the back, over the seat backs.Works great.....til a big cat grabs your s**t. Any crankbait that will dig to 12-17 ft should work. But the MAD COW by bandit was the hot bait today.
http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/agelesssone/library/?sort=3&page=1
Jpp 5/29/13
