10-24-2010, 09:00 AM
Rick was so gracious to take Pat and me on a guided crappie fishing trip on the Tims this AM. It was 37 degrees just before daylight as we pulled into the Devil Step campground, but heck, I wore 3 shirts. No coat, just shirts. emoBang <br /><br />We started off in the Tims Ford nursery where we caught a lot of small crappie. It is the first time that I have experienced small crappie on the Tims. I thought that they were all huge fish, but those huge fish were little at one time, weren&#39;t they? But we had a blast today. I got the opportunity to gig Pat all morning and even got Rick into the act too. But, I did let up once I realized that Pat was the one who drove me over here, so I didn&#39;t want to hitch hike back home and eased up on the barbs. emoBig
<br /><br />We all caught plenty of fish (76 total, all released) and Rick caught the only TARP sized crappie (14.25&quot
, but we had many thick bodied slabs to go along with the baby crappie that we caught initially. I caught a bluegill and a tiny smallmouth bass and Rick had the only spotted bass that we caught. Most of our fish came from brush, but we did catch a few under docks.<br /><br />We fished bg shads, slab slayers, panfish assassins, and ringer stingers and caught fish on just about everything and color. Ghost was the best color for us though. Bites were very subtle and I caught a few that were just on the line and didn&#39;t know when they took the lure. No tick of the line, no tightening, no slackening, no moving off to the side, no nothing, but the fish were just on. You are lucky when you catch a fish like that. On one particular fish that I caught, both Rick and I had cast to nearly the same spot and our lines were about 18&quot; apart and as we were watching our lines and barely moving the jigs, I saw my line move ever so slightly, set the hook into a nice crappie and asked Rick if he saw my line move and he said &quot;no and I was looking at your line&quot;. That is how subtle the bites were a lot of the time today.<br /><br />We had a great day and the best hot dogs that we ever ate on the way home in Winchester from a street vendor. Yummy. emoHungry <br /><br />Thank you again, Rick for the guided trip. I hope that Bill can get off and go with us next time. Hopefully will see you near the new moon phase, weather and wind permitting. emoBig emoGeezer
<br /><br />We all caught plenty of fish (76 total, all released) and Rick caught the only TARP sized crappie (14.25&quot, but we had many thick bodied slabs to go along with the baby crappie that we caught initially. I caught a bluegill and a tiny smallmouth bass and Rick had the only spotted bass that we caught. Most of our fish came from brush, but we did catch a few under docks.<br /><br />We fished bg shads, slab slayers, panfish assassins, and ringer stingers and caught fish on just about everything and color. Ghost was the best color for us though. Bites were very subtle and I caught a few that were just on the line and didn&#39;t know when they took the lure. No tick of the line, no tightening, no slackening, no moving off to the side, no nothing, but the fish were just on. You are lucky when you catch a fish like that. On one particular fish that I caught, both Rick and I had cast to nearly the same spot and our lines were about 18&quot; apart and as we were watching our lines and barely moving the jigs, I saw my line move ever so slightly, set the hook into a nice crappie and asked Rick if he saw my line move and he said &quot;no and I was looking at your line&quot;. That is how subtle the bites were a lot of the time today.<br /><br />We had a great day and the best hot dogs that we ever ate on the way home in Winchester from a street vendor. Yummy. emoHungry <br /><br />Thank you again, Rick for the guided trip. I hope that Bill can get off and go with us next time. Hopefully will see you near the new moon phase, weather and wind permitting. emoBig emoGeezer