09-12-2009, 09:00 AM
Russ has been my fishing buddy for 40 plus years. We haven&#39;t fished together much in recent years because, you know, &quot;retirees don&#39;t have time to do anything&quot;. Our mission this morning was to catch some crappies for Russ&#39;s freezer. Mission acccomplished.<br /><br />At first Russ had trouble with the finesse fishing method, but when he started using one of my rods with yellow 4# test crappie line on the reel, he started to get the hang of it. He did so to the tune of catching a beautiful 14 1/8 in. TARP black crappie with a golden hue. Made me very happy and excited that my friend caught such a good fish out of my boat ! My biggest today was 13 in. Just a matter of casting and then watching the line.<br /><br />He took home a limit and I kept the other 8 keepers for my sister-in-law&#39;s family. We had about one throwback for each 2 keepers.<br /><br />We fished near vertical rocky structure with 1/16 oz. leadheads armed with panfish assassins and BG shads. The colors we used were smoke/glitter, blue/gray and pearl with tails dipped in the &quot;juice&quot;, some of which Russ managed to spill in my boat. I wouldn&#39;t be able to say which color worked best. The fish were 15-25 ft. deep. The water temp was 76-77. The current was very slow (13,000 cfs). Skies were overcast with very little wind.<br /><br />Also caught were a 17.5 in. smallie, a 15 in. largemouth, a 1.5 lb. channel cat and a warmouth.<br /><br />A great morning with a long-time great friend.