Crappie Fishing 3/26/26

[Ham]

 I’ve had a series of frustrating fishing trips lately. I always have a lot of irons in the fire and trying to work out where and when to fish is a constant struggle for me.

I decided to stay local and if I sucked at least it wouldn’t cost me as much for gasoline. I saw the wind forecast and picked Norfork because I have some spots where wind wouldn’t eat me alive. 
I have three of four general areas that I have positive history on in the spring for crappie. I picked Fouts boat ramp. 
I wish I could say that I still fished  as hard as 10 years ago, but these days I walk the dogs and screw around before I get going good. I probably fished from 10 am until 3:30 pm. I wanted to catch 25 fish and keep 10 Crappie if I could. 
I ran to a cove that I had never fished before. I started scoping. I found a brush pile that was loaded with crappie. I got bites on my first 6 casts. Sadly, It took five casts to get a hookup and the first fish I hooked took my jig. I had a nice keeper on my 6 th cast. I worked the pile with different lures and colors and angles and got 6 keepers before they shut down on me. The pile still had fish on it, but they would not play.

I had a couple of 13 inchers on the day which is as big as I want to keep. I know other people will eat a two pounder, but if I try to release em over 13.5 inches.

I even got a Magnolia Crappie. 
I ran to another cove and searched for brush. I found the one pile I knew about. Sadly that there were no new brushpiles for to find. That brushpile only seemed to have bluegill on it, but I scoped out some crappie suspended under a boat dock and I was able to shoot a jig down beside the pontoon boats and finish my 10 fish limit. I threw back a bunch of 10 1/2 ‘s looking for 11’s. I got  another 13 incher. I ran around a bunch looking and finding other brush, but I didn’t catch much on any of them yesterday. I did mark them for later.

I finally got tired of eating white caps in Waldo. I retraced my steps on the two spots that worked well before and finished catching my 25 fish I wanted and went home 

I’ll get out there and clean the crappie here in a little bit. Should be plenary for a Good meal for 4 or 5 people. 
I needed a get right day. I’ll figure out a spot for early next week and try for crappie again. 

[Ham]

I really appreciate Les helping me get set up with LiveScope.