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I went out to the lake over my lunch
hour on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of
last week. I knew the crappie would be
nearing the end of the spawn but I
still had hopes. If the crappie were
gone then the gills would be around
more. In any case it is more fun than
setting inside and doing nothing.
I went to a jetty as nobody else was
around. No other vehicles at all in
the parking lot. I went out on the
jetty and started casting. No luck with
any of the flies I tried. I had decided
to move to another spot along the road.
On my last cast before moving, I get the
line out and then reel it in with a little
pressure from my hand on the line. This
makes it a little tighter on the reel and
it unwinds easier.
I had reeled in about 8 feet on line when
a crappie shot out of the deeper water and
hit the fly. I may not always be the brightest
bulb in the house, but if it works once, I will
repeat it. I could not strip the line fast
enough, but if I reeled it in then a crappie
would hit it most of the time. It did not
seem to matter which fly I used as the crappie
hit them all.
I don't know why the fly had to move that
fast and on the surface, but it had to. It
was great fun to be catching fish as the
cars drove by and people rubber necked.
I went back Thursday and tried the same
thing. No luck at all. It was time to change
so I let the fly drop deeper and then started
to retrieve it. A steady retrieve did not do
anything. I keep on experimenting and found
that a slow strip with a long pause was the
ticket. I was getting a hit on almost every
cast. I did not always hook the fish, but I
was at least getting their interest.
One of the old geezers drove by and saw that
I caught a fish. He was down with his bucket
in a minute or so and wanted to know if he
could have them. I ended up giving him 21
crappie. The old geezer told me that most folks
had given up on catching crappie in the lake.
He was going to take these around to a few
of them and show them that the crappie could
still be caught.
Friday was one of those days when you knew
the storms were coming. We were under a sever
thunderstorm watch and the wind was gusting
up to 40 mph. Not the best of conditions, but
it was time to go out to the lake.
The only other person out at the lake when I
got there was another one of the old geezers.
He had been trying for about an hour and was
getting ready to headhome. He wanted to know
if he could have the fish I caught. I told him
that he could have any if I got them.
I cast a fly out over about 8 feet of water
and was letting it drop. It had dropped about
a foot when a crappie hit it like a freight
train. This fish was in a hurry to take the
fly to the other end of the lake. No need to
set the hook, just land the fish. I cast out
into the same area and had a repeat of the
same thing. The fly would droop about a foot
and then a fish would try to run away with it.
I tired several flies and it worked the same
way on all of them. They had to drop slowly
for about a foot and then we were in business.
I caught enough fish to make the old geezer happy.
I had not been paying attention to the clouds,
but I had been listening for thunder. I glanced
to the southwest and decided that it was time
to leave. I could see the rain coming. We both
had just got in our vehicles when the cloudburst
hit. I could not drive over about 10 mph and see
where I was going. But I did get back to the
office to go to work.
It was interesting to me to note that it
was three different retrieves, not flies
that worked on the three days. On each day
I could use any fly, but it had to be
retrieved the same way.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick ziegeria@grm.net
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