An Epic March



  Every fisher dreams of that day or time when everything aligns and you catch a fish or fishes of a lifetime. Well that happened to the Doc and me one week in March 2015 at my favorite small lake in north Louisiana,  Poverty Point Reservoir. 


The weather that March day was cold and when we arrived at the lake there was no one there, not a truck in the parking lot or boat on the water.  We launched my 17ft G3 and hadn't been on the water long when Doc hung a monster crappie. It was a 3 lber and his second one he could brag about. I was thinking, where's my trophy.? Some things are just not fair. Day one on the lake had started great, at least for Doc.

The next day a few other seekers of the giants had arrived and one was a bass guy looking for that trophy. We were fishing a cove that had a log pile we had come to love over the years and had produced big fish. The only problem was the bass guy knew about the log pile also.  We were anxious to fish it, but he stayed what seemed like hours patiently fishing it. After a long while without that big bite he was looking for, he moved off. We had stayed close , fishing other parts of the cove catching some nice crappie. After he moved off, we took our turn. We hadn't been there long when Doc hooked into what we thought was a giant gaspergou or catfish. We had no idea until it came to the surface that it was that giant bass the bass guy was looking for. After a heart pounding fight, I netted the fish. It was a 9lb 6oz bass. The bass guy was witness to all our chaos and motored over to see Doc's catch on a crappie pole. We had put the fish in the livewell and were going to the marina to have it weighed officially. The bass guy was emphatic about releasing that fish and asked if we would come back and put in the same spot we caught it in.  Of course we told him it's an eater, gonna grill it up tonight. This wasn't the truth but we found some humor in it.

Needless to say Doc was hard to live with that day. Not only had he caught his second trophy crappie, but now had landed a nearly 10lb bass. 

The tables are turned:

Doc had an epic 2 days of fishing and I was kinda happy for him lol. After all, fishing can be a competitive sport. The next day after some restless sleep, the fishing Gods smiled on me. 

We had been spider rigging in one cove and decided to change spots. As we were trolling through a small channel between the coves, one of my poles dipped. When I pulled, it felt like dead weight. I had no idea what it was. Certainly did't fight like a crappie. The fish ripped off a bunch of line and I was worried it would hang me up in the structure I had hooked it around. When it surface, I panicked. I told Doc he better not miss it with the net. It was by far the biggest bass I had ever hooked. We landed the fish and it was a 9lb 13oz family record beauty. 

Needless to say I now had bragging rights on the big fish. However Doc still had landed the one fish that was on my bucket list, that elusive 3lb crappie. 

Doc had to leave the Point early that week, so I stayed a couple of extra days. It paid off because I finally landed that elusive 3lb crappie. The weight had been lifted and I had family bragging rights on the biggest bass and crappie.

That March week will be etched in my memories forever. 

Good luck fishing. Hope to see ya on the water. 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shallow Water Live Scoping

Image
Shallow water livescoping is not as easy or simple as one might think. The sheer amount of noise can make it difficult to spot the targeted fish you are trying to catch. When talking shallow, I mean 6 ft or less. So you have bought the coveted holy grail Garmin livescope or the new Lowrance Active Target. These innovations have changed the way fishers fish for certain. Deeper lakes/reservoirs are easier to navigate and spot brushpiles and fish. Shallow water seems to be more difficult. The settings are basically the same, usually noise rejection on low or medium. Then you adjust the gain and depths accordingly. Some scopers like to keep the bottom at the lower part of the screen which works fine in deep water. But sometimes in real shallow water, the view gets distorted and it's harder to see the fish. I like to put the depth at half or three quarter screen. These are only personal preferences that work for me. The key to catching more fish in real shallow water, is knowing what t
Read more

Catching That Crappie Wave

Image
Every year, starting late winter, well-into late spring and even early summer, crappie begin their spawn. The wave starts here in the deep south and will continue as far north into Canada. It is perhaps the favorite time of year for crappie anglers. It's that time of year when even the novice of novice fishers can catch numbers of spawning fish. Just like clockwork, the spawn occurs here in the southern regions of the United States and progressively moves like a giant wave of crappie fishing heaven. Typically starting late January to mid February, the flurry begins and spreads north through the middle states from middle March through April. The wave continues north through April and May. So if you are a crappie enthusiust, and have time to travel, you can ride this crappie wave all the way to Canada. This may be a little far fetched for most of us, but it is possible to catch part of the ride by traveling a few hours north of where you are fishing. Perhaps the best example here in
Read more

The One Question

Image
 Fellow fishers are always curious about how other fishers are catching fish. They ask what kind of bait or color you are using, but the  one question that everyone ask, that is probably the most irrelevant, is "how deep are you fishing"? The one thing modern technology has proven is that under most circumstances, there is no right answer to this question. Unless there is extreme weather like really hot or cold, fish will be all over the water column. This is especially true for crappie.  Livescope technology has totally changed the perception that fish all school together at a certain depth. As a matter of fact I have seen fish swimming a few inches under water, even in 30 feet of water. One would think that if a fish in that depth of water, it surely would be suspended deeper than a few inches.  Even in cover like standing timber, some fish may be at the top, some in the middle, and some may be on the very bottom and all on the same tree.  So next time you are fishing and a
Read more