05-18-2010, 09:00 AM
Camped out Fri. night at Grasshopper Creek Campground with 3 great friends. Russ wanted some bream, so we went after&#39;em about 5:30 pm. Went to a slough that usually produces for us, nada. The next slough had bream beds in it and we started catching bluegill, but a little smaller average size than we hoped for. Then the shellcracker started biting, but most of them were bluegill sized females with eggs, so we released them. Then Russ caught a near TARP shellcracker (10.5 in.) and we thought the bigger ones had moved in. About that time the wind changed and increased and blew into the slough and the bite stopped. Then the downpour started and lightning popped, so we quit for the evening. We got about 2 hours of fishing in. Russ kept 30 bream for his freezer.<br /><br />After cooking steaks, sitting by the campfire and shoot&#39;n the breeze til 1 am, a little bit of sleep, a great breakfast, more conversation by the campfire and breaking camp, I had to go fishing by myself at about 10:30 am. Two friends had to go to highschool graduations (one his grandson&#39;s and one his son&#39;s) and the third does not fish.<br /><br />I skipped the bream and just wanted to catch a limit of crappie, hopefully. I started out at a bluff and my first crappie was a 14.25 in. TARP black crappie. I released it to, hopefully, let it grow to a bigger trophy size for someone&#39;s enjoyment. I caught one more keeper size at the bluff and that was it. Then I started fishing docks. The shallower ones (6-8ft.) held no crappie, but I caught several bass on&#39;em including a 16 in. LM and two 12 in. SM. I caught the rest of my limit of crappie on docks about 15 ft. deep. I kept 12 crappie between 11 and 13.5 in. I was using BG&#39;s, color did not matter. The flow was about 11K cfs the whole time. Water temp was 73.<br /><br />A great time with great friends and a TARP crappie as a bonus!