Well, yesterday was a complete "wash out" as far as making any efforts to go fishing for crappie. Cold, misty, drizzly, rainy, windy, cloudy, hazy and foggy...all day long with no reprieves! Stayed home and started to re-read an old sea kayaking book.

Today...a different story...almost the complete opposite except for no sunshine. Took the pedal kayak over to a pleasant small lake close to home and had an absolute blast catching small bluegill by the boatload. Did manage one crappie and a single LM bass as well. The fish were "speed swimming" in large schools all over the place in the 40 acre sector of the lake I chose to stay within. It's close to the launch site access and I only wanted to stick around for a few hours. I had to keep moving at a rapid pace in zig-zagging patterns to keep up with a particular school...or break away and find another group. They were scattered all over the place and never stayed in one hover for very long! Water depths ranged between 15' and 35', so that kept things interesting as well. It took a little while to figure out the best jig color today...which ended up being one of my favorite combinations of a black head and orange grub tail.

The gills averaged 8 inches, but I was doing catch and release on those because I was really targeting the crappie. Only managed to get one single crappie so I decided to also keep one bluegill to compliment my lunch serving. I have a feeling that the bluegill were so numerous that it made it hard for the crappie to compete today!

The most enjoyment I had was in trying out a new set up with a double bait scenario. A "San Juan worm" fly above a small jig. It worked like a charm, and just about every other fish came up on either choice.

Enjoy your Wednesday and keep on fishing, whether in your mind, reading a good book/magazine or out on the water in person!

Well, yesterday was a complete "wash out" as far as making any efforts to go fishing for crappie. Cold, misty, drizzly, rainy, windy, cloudy, hazy and foggy...all day long with no reprieves! Stayed home and started to re-read an old sea kayaking book.

Today...a different story...almost the complete opposite except for no sunshine. Took the pedal kayak over to a pleasant small lake close to home and had an absolute blast catching small bluegill by the boatload. Did manage one crappie and a single LM bass as well. The fish were "speed swimming" in large schools all over the place in the 40 acre sector of the lake I chose to stay within. It's close to the launch site access and I only wanted to stick around for a few hours. I had to keep moving at a rapid pace in zig-zagging patterns to keep up with a particular school...or break away and find another group. They were scattered all over the place and never stayed in one hover for very long! Water depths ranged between 15' and 35', so that kept things interesting as well. It took a little while to figure out the best jig color today...which ended up being one of my favorite combinations of a black head and orange grub tail.

The gills averaged 8 inches, but I was doing catch and release on those because I was really targeting the crappie. Only managed to get one single crappie so I decided to also keep one bluegill to compliment my lunch serving. I have a feeling that the bluegill were so numerous that it made it hard for the crappie to compete today!

The most enjoyment I had was in trying out a new set up with a double bait scenario. A "San Juan worm" fly above a small jig. It worked like a charm, and just about every other fish came up on either choice.

Enjoy your Wednesday and keep on fishing, whether in your mind, reading a good book/magazine or out on the water in person!