Specks at the pond

Second day after the cold front and this evening I caught five Specks at the pond on the 5wt. with the floating line. The water has cooled. They (a school) were chasing minnows near some brush along the edge. I didn't know what they were at first. After a cast with a #10 Improved McGinty I got a bite and I brought the first Speck in. The IM wasn't getting deep fast enough for the Specks who were holding in deeper water off of a ledge from the bank edge so I switched to a #8 yellow chartreuse Crappie Candy and pulled in four more Specks. I lost two Crappie Candy flies snapped off on underwater weeds. All I had with me at the time was a stringer as my bucket was in the pick-up. They were pretty good size ones from about 10 inches to 12 inches and they are now in the freezer. The school moved away from the bank eventually and that was all I got.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...eck(Small).JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...eck(Small).JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...ck2(Small).JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...cks(Small).JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...ks2(Small).JPG

Good Job!!! Good looking Specks.

Only one thing better than having Specks in the freezer is having them in a hot iron skillet rolled in corn meal. :wink:

Nice looking string of good sized Speck's. They sure look good.

Good looking black crappie. What size was the pond? Reason I ask is because a lot of people have trouble growing crappie to a reasonable size in ponds, myself included.

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Originally Posted by meadowlark2

What size was the pond?

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I have no idea. It is a good size one. Look under the Pond Bluegill thread in this forum to see photos of the pond. It is a public pond (and a clean one) for now until the houses start going in around it. I will say that there seems to be a good number of Specks in this pond. Not as many bream but there are different kinds of Bluegill and some Shellcrackers. I may venture to say that the Specks might be why there are not as many bream in the pond (available food competition). The bream could be bigger as I have caught them up to only eight inches so food availability has got to be a major factor. I have not seen or caught any LMB there yet.

If I'm not mistaken, the last two crappie records in MO have been from farm ponds. I've caught some dandies out of them. JGW