Tues PM Trip

[SKMO]

Took off Tues afternoon to fish the wind & the the approaching front thinking they would bite the spinnerbait like trained dogs. It was OK, had 6 fish and 3 keepers, a LM and a Spot that "would measure" but barely and a 19" SM so that was some fun.

What was "unusual" was that I stopped to spoon on a couple hardwood trees I just discovered last trip. Middle of the lake on the channel edge, 95' of water (drops to 115 in the channel) and they top out 40 foot down. Found them a couple trips ago and marked them on GPS so thought it was worth a drop as I caught a keeper LM on them my discovery trip.

Anyhow it was pretty windy but I got down there and got bit and reeled in my fish to find a really healthy specimen of a crappie attached to the 3/4 oz jigging spoon. It was a 14+ crappie, hooked 50 foot deep in 90' of water. A first for me so I had to take a pic which is attached.

Once I landed it and tossed it back overboard (as I was not in a consumptive or fish cleaning mood) I discovered crappie do not like this ride up the water column as it was already belly up. Retrieved it and tossed it in the livewell to deal with later. Long story short I caught 2 more identical crappie off this tree on a spoon in the next 15 min and all were stiff kitties once I got them to the surface.

I was fighting a pretty stiff wind and had killed 3 fish so I thought I had had enough and would return in calmer conditions.

I went to a wind blown bluff point and this is where it got "exciting".

I have bragged that I have fished for almost 50 years without getting the barb of a hook underneath my skin. As I cut the motor and glided toward the bluff, I reached for my trusty baitcasting staff laying against my left leg. I am not sure what happened except that the War Eagle 6/0 spinnerbait hook ended up in my finger. Actually both in and out of my left index finger as it went completely through missing my bone and fingernail entirely.

I remember thinking "this is actually a good thing" (that it went on through), and just grabbed my pliers and cut the exposed point and barb off and slid the whole thing off my finger.

A normal person would probably have headed toward the ramp but I had a nice clean piece of brown paper bag I got from Table Rock Tackle that was soaking up the blood pretty well with a rubber band to hold it on and it didn't hurt too bad to keep fishing and I was sure they were going to turn around on the spinnerbait. Self-medication was an appealing option had I had something handy.

Anyway I ended up the day with 3 keeper bass and 3 trophy crappie. I met a guy at the ramp who had 2 crappie from up the Kings and he appreciated the 3 I gave him, plus he helped me get my rig out of the water and helped me wipe the blood from everything.

All in all.... a Great Trip!

[Phil Lilley]

Could have made it more exciting for us and attached a pics of your bloody finger... you know- like a CSI episode.

Crappie 50 feet deep- everyone's always wondered where those fish go in the winter!!

Thanks!

[CMAC]

Now that's Rambo style. Great picture of a slab crappie. I have caught some deep crappie, but that takes the cake.

[MTM]

Nice fish. I have caught Bass ar 60 foot deep some years ago. They can get deep att times. I sure wish I had some Crappies in my freezer. They are such great eating. Ron

[LostMyWife]

I thought all the crappie went to Florida for the winter.

Nice fish. BTW, had a Tetanus shot lately????

[jjtroutbum]

Buddy just got back from a trip to Marktwain with his dad they arrarently did well on Crappie also as the two large zip bags in my freezer will prove ...aint he nice ....JJ

[SKMO]

Could have made it more exciting for us and attached a pics of your bloody finger... you know- like a CSI episode.

Crappie 50 feet deep- everyone's always wondered where those fish go in the winter!!

Thanks!

Sorry but the farthest thing from my mind at the time was a photo-op to document my clumsiness and amuse you all. I had a tetanus shot about 18 mo ago when I dropped a reciprocating saw into my leg... how long are they good for ?

It was interesting catching crappie at that depth, too bad it seems to kill them. I have read about crappie fishing at Lake Fork in the winter and they catch them real deep along some bridge pilings. If I remember right after a cetain date all fish boated had to be kept and counted toward a limit as the trip up from the depths was more or less fatal and C&R pretty much impossible.

[Phil Lilley]

I thought they wanted all the crappie caught kept on Fork? I thought that's what Buster Loving told me, regardless of size you had to keep all crappie. May be there was a limit. He talked like there were so many in Fork that they were considered a nuisance- by the bass fishermen I bet! I wish they were a nuisance in a lake alittle closer to Branson!!!

[Ham]

I wouldn't worry about getting a Tetanus shot anymore often than every 5 years, but I remember hearing about a study where they found it very rare that anyone got tetanus after having been immunized at any point in their life. I need to google that.

The crappie from deep water thing is interesting. They can get back down when yanked from 25 foor down or so, but deeper than that and they are going to have issues. In Texas, they waive the 10 inch minimum on Lake Fork, Lake of the Pines, Toledo Bend and maybe Sam Rayburn. You MUST keep the first 25 crappie you catch. No C & R fishing.

I have put some smaller crappie in the livewell and they have recovered over the course of the day. If you put them back and they don't get back down pretty quickly, the gulls, loons, peilcans, or cormorants will eat them.

I'm sure you could "fizz" the crappie, but oddly enough I've never seen an article that stresses catch and release for crappie.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Come on SKMO, where's your priorities man? Do you have any pics of the saw incident?

SIO3.