01-06-2019, 09:24 PM
I've lost the crappie, it seems, couldn't find any last year, but only tried a couple of times, because of that sudden abundance of nicer perch. But, before that, it was normal for me to show up around 3 pm and fish until 10pm, or even midnight. Even without a tent, most nights were fine, and I never had sonar, so I had to move to find fish.
I'd often catch a few perch until the sun went down, but I could better spend some time before dark finding the crappie, hiking around to where people were catching them, or away from where there were too many folks. Groups might leave about dark or just after, and you could take over productive holes.
Anyway, once I got a bite or two, I would camp on the area, drill a bunch of holes and mess around until I found the best ones. Hunching over my big Coleman lantern MOSTLY kept me warm, and bigger, fast-sinking glow jigs with perch meat/eyes, or waxies would usually get me a slow limit of the 10-1/2" fish.
I once saw a guy with two big glow-sticks on a string, sunk with a weight near his fishing holes., who swore it made all the difference. I've tried that 3 or 4 times since and couldn't see that it helped much. Like, it wouldn't turn them on if it was already slow, nor did it seem to improve my numbers in any specific hole if they were biting well.
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I'd often catch a few perch until the sun went down, but I could better spend some time before dark finding the crappie, hiking around to where people were catching them, or away from where there were too many folks. Groups might leave about dark or just after, and you could take over productive holes.
Anyway, once I got a bite or two, I would camp on the area, drill a bunch of holes and mess around until I found the best ones. Hunching over my big Coleman lantern MOSTLY kept me warm, and bigger, fast-sinking glow jigs with perch meat/eyes, or waxies would usually get me a slow limit of the 10-1/2" fish.
I once saw a guy with two big glow-sticks on a string, sunk with a weight near his fishing holes., who swore it made all the difference. I've tried that 3 or 4 times since and couldn't see that it helped much. Like, it wouldn't turn them on if it was already slow, nor did it seem to improve my numbers in any specific hole if they were biting well.
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