shrapnel

I got a Lowrance Hook7, need a warm day to pull the boat out and get it rigged.

Nothing new learned here, Kim and Ellen smell like fish, I thought that was always assumed.

Crappie has ZERO taste period. It tastes like whatever you season it with. Not a bad thing, it is a clean, white meat. I'm just not crazy about how soft, borderline mushy the texture can be if not cooked perfect. White Bass on the other hand are a much firmer meat, hold together a lot better and have some actual flavor but I would NOT consider it fishy at all. Crappie you can just mush around with your tongue and swallow, White's you actually need to chew a bit. Shave the red meat off, cut out the blood line or whatever it is and it's great piece of meat. Bluegill has a flavor, I much prefer it to crappie and it's also not as mushy. I think Crappie's popularity as a game fish and table fare is because it's the dumbest, easiest fish to catch that swims in any body of water. Mitch where are you catching your white's? I have had some out of the Mississippi River that I did think were a bit fishy tasting.

My boat filled with water this year and to this day I do not know why. Dropped it in the water and headed out of the cove, gave it throttle and the posterior end about went under, it took the bilge a good 5 minutes to pump it out. The plug never comes out as it lives on a lift. I suspected livewell overflow or loose fitting somewhere but have not been able to reproduce...thankfully.

The crappie fishing has been as good I have ever seen it the past month, and the black bass are doing what they should be now. I kinda tossed in the towel on the white's, but I would sure rather catch a mess of them than crappie.

The average size is great. I just can't seem to find them.

I've not even watched an NFL game this year, much less spend money attending one.

Great advice! I'll make sure to show this to the wife, since mine lives on a lift with no running water option, might as well grab some rods while I'm out running it...last thing she wants is a big repair bill.

I really hope many got out last night to see the Geminids, it was an absolutely stellar performance! About a dozen times in my life I have went out at night to see a scheduled meteor shower to be mainly disappointed at only seeing a few. We stepped out on the deck last night and saw 20 in the first 5 minutes!

I have to head to Slum Louis for the weekend to attend xmas functions, bummed I won't be able to get out. I have one dock that has just been insane for a couple weeks. I would only keep 8-10 per visit off of it as to try and not fish it out but they just keep moving in. As of Tuesday with surface temps in the 40's they were still hitting in less than 5 fow. I'm gonna try to get out for an hour or so today.

Went out for an hour tonight in the Glaize. Green fished for 30 min and didn't get bit so grabbed the crappie rod, went to a deep bank with docks and started side scanning...oh look fish...pitch jig....reel in fish, repeat. Wish they were all that easy. Didn't need to get under the docks, just pitching along them and in the stalls worked. Kept 10 nice ones for some tacos.

Thanks. I've never targeted them from the boat...always chasing bass. My "off the dock" crappie rod is a 5'6" light action with 6# line, sounds like I need a longer, heavier rod and lighter line to shoot well. At least crappie gear doesn't break the bank! Caught a nice 13.5" black this morning just messin around off the dock.

Seth what is your dock shooting rod, reel, line set-up?

Thanks for the articles John!

Water like glass??? Wind was howling here all day! nice Gills, like seeing the 9" min also. Hard to find big gills anymore.

The Meremec between Arnold and Fenton can be a fantastic fishery! I had days in the spring where I would catch 20-30 whites right off the Flamm Ramp. The mouth at the Mississippi can be great as well. Also had a day where we caught over 40 LMB up to 5lbs between I-55 and Flamm when the river was very low. Get up around Winter Park and there is some pretty good Crappie fishing as well in the back waters.

Guys have been doing pretty good on laydowns over deep water as well. There's been a boat tied to a popular laydown on a bluff cut almost every day the past week, that tree has coughed up some serious fish. How deep were they hitting the jig, 6-10'?

I'm using cinder blocks and a pretty heavy gauge galvanized bailing wire, it will have to break, no way it's coming untwisted.

We got on a bluff end the spots were stacked up and smashing jerkbaits...I tried yo yoing a lipless and didn't get touched. It wasn't a real aggresive bite either, many of the fish we caught on jerks were back hook only. Seemed like they wanted a longer pause then I expected fro 54* water.

I fished the AIA Tourney Sat 200+ boats. Not a single keeper largemouth...tons of Kentuckies. 3 bags over 20 brought in and big fish was 7.02lbs. I suck.

Have caught crappie here year round, so yes they are already here just hoping to increase the numbers. Have water from 6' to 25' to work with. I'll keep hanging pallets til this dock's floating a foot lower than it should if I have to In the deeper stalls I will use 2 of the 6-7' long pallets with the top at 6' and a 2' gap between them so they are hanging from 6' down to around 18-20' Also plan to make tee pees out of a few and set them on bottom in shallower stalls.

I hung 6 pallets under a dock last week, I really like the 6' and longer ones. I figure no use to have anything within 4' of the bottom of the floats so I hung the tops 4' down which means they have vertical slats to hang out in from 4' to about 11' I'll hang some out deeper when I find some more of the bigger pallets, or chain 2-3 together.

Congrats, nice buck.

What was your best bait? Picked up some 1/4 oz Rattle Traps, Rooster Tails and some 2" paddle tails in shad colors o 1/8oz heads. Not a bite this morning in the 90 minutes we fished except a drum and short largemouth.

Just got off the water. Tapped out is more like it. Slow bite, 40 mph winds, temps starting in the 70's and dropping into the 40's in 2 hours, white caps, and driving rain...nah. I'll be chiseling tile off the bathroom floor if anyone needs me