Surprise Surprise

[Old plug]

I went down on the dock to run my motor. 10 try's 7 fish 6 real nice keepers all black crappie. This is unusual for my dock. Mostly they leave after the first real cold and move down the bank about 300 ft and go suspend off the point. This is just another thing that shows me how much the length of day influences fish habit. The real cold hit hit early and that was a bit before the shortest days period. By the same token I have seen them go down there when the water temperature was higher than normal because of the shortest days.

[Mitch f]

That's one reason I'd love to live on the water!

[Old plug]

Well mitch if the health continues to slide you can buy this house

[laker67]

Old plug, you may be on to something with that daylight thing. Saturday I caught about 7 fish and only one keeper. Sunday I caught maybe 6 with one keeper. The total for tues and wed was about 20 with 17 keepers. Most of those were blacks. Add cornbread and fried tators, I think I got a fish fry in the works.

[fishinwrench]

Do you think there's any relation to visible animal activity? Birds, squirrels, ect. I have some crows raising hell out here as I type, maybe I should go fishin!

Some guys swear by the "road kill" theory. If they see more than one dead skunk or possum on the way to the lake/river they expect to have a good day.

[laker67]

Some guys swear by the "road kill" theory. If they see more than one dead skunk or possum on the way to the lake/river they expect to have a good day.

Out west of prairie hollow, they call that dinner. Any fish caught is an added bonus.

[fishinwrench]

Good point. So it's the ol'bait&switch. The possums are there to try and keep you from fishing !

Clever!

[Old plug]

I do not know about those crows they are on to something also. Most of nature us way ahead of us. These crappie though usually move down bank and hang around under my dock in late november and stay thru the first cold snap in december. Then you will see these big balls of fish suspended off the last dock in my cove out in 30 to 40 ft of water. I figured with the cold we have been having they may have done that already. That is why i was surprised. Now I got a notion they willbe gone by the end of this week warm weather or not. I am going to give it a try tomorrow. The point dock sets in real deep water and they can be found rising down there all winter at times. I have seen a guy here about one or two times snagging them. All I seen him get was a catfish. I had the down troller on a couple yrs back and tried to catch some trolling crappie stuff through that mess. They were so thick the ball and cable would bump off them. That is the reason maybe I did not catch anything. Its nit just crappie down there it is all kinds of fish.

[fishinwrench]

Old Johnny Ray used to wear them slick on that point back when we lived across the creek from you. I'd hit it from time to time and could barely even get bit.

I'm probably the lousiest deep water fisherman of all time. I don't even attempt to fish deeper than 12-15' anymore (and that's stretchin'it).

[Wayne SW/MO]

Old timers used to say if the cows were laying down it wasn't worth going hunting or fishing.

Anyone besides me believe the fish always bite around noon?