Slow but some keepers

Last few days, the crappie fishing has been slow - at least the 'keeper size' have been hard to 'come by'

Still catch some too many yellow bass and small bream while trying to find the keeper size crappie but even those have slowed down e.g. all fishing slowed down with the lake 1 ft low

Typical day - get about 12-15 fish but usually only 5-6 keeper crappie

Today my fish pen had 16 fish and about 4 were really nice and other dozen were 9-10" i.e. most were small keepers. My neighbors had that many or more but they had a few that were on the 'smaller size'

Bottom line: not much to brag about so not posting or making video - but on other hand slowly putting some crappie / fish fry's in the freezer of neighbors.

Dang Fat Crappie

Baited a few yoyo's on fishing pier and at 8PM - checked them and found a 13" Crappie that had swallowed the hook - so I had to clean it - which sucks cause it takes as long to gather knife - bring bucket / fish in the house - clean it - vacuum pack it and clean up - I spent 45 minutes on one fish - I could have cleaned 40 fish in this amount of time in the day time i.e. dang fish shouldn't swallow the hook after dark cause they are pain in butt to clean one at a time.

BTW: this one was fat for a 13" crappie - cause it's exact weight was 1 lb 6.5oz - I've had 15" crappie that were only 1.5 lbs but this 13" was thick n heavy for it's length.

Addendum: Crappie fishing has been 'spotty' - for example today was decent day - got over 2 dozen crappie but most were 8-9" and I only kept ones 10" and larger - which means I only kept half a dozen crappie :(

Yesterday was about same story but they were only biting for about an hour (4 keepers) - while today they were biting for about 2 hours.

Cleaned 54 Crappie

Neighbor cleaned 54 that we got - see write up on youtube

Got Limit (20) Crappie

Haven't felt like posting on my blog - despite fact I've been catching some nice crappie (but keeping only 10" or longer)
Today - decided to keep 9" and larger and had no trouble getting my limit (20 crappie)

Crappie fishing

Because of loss of dear friend been emotional e.g. I've been down in dumps and not really interested in fishing much. So I didn't even try fishing today until 4PM - and I picked up 4 really nice crappie in very short time. I also had one really big one that was 1.5 or 2 pounds that got off when I tried to lift it over the fishing pier rail (should have had net in my hand but didn't)

Anyway - the big ones may have been here all day but nobody was fishing

Previous day - only fished short time and only got small crappie

Crappie slow - catfish small

For past several days, Crappie fishing has been crappy i.e. slow - with only a few keepers a day

So I started fishing a couple hours a day for catfish - which is also slow but got 3 catfish yesterday on rod n reel and 2 on yoyo's over night (along with a 12" crappie on yoyo) - most around a pound - but one was 2 lbs - another 1.5 lbs

I gave away these fish to a neighbor who is slowing filling his freezer

Need to get some work done around place today / tomorrow but a very close friend passed away last night and I'm depressed - in a I don't care mood so maybe I'll go fish and try to clear my head

Crappie and Channel Cat

2.75 lb and 2 lb channel cats See previous blog post for more crappie results - example: 10 Crappie from previous day - all 10" or longer (throw about dozen smaller crappie back) - neighbor has more than a dozen i.e. couple dozen Crappie to clean.

I missed report one day in last week cause only got about 3 keepers.

Then this PM I only got 5 keepers (neighbor didn't fish today)

Dang skipped a day

Forgot - neighbors were fishing again Sunday morning (I'm lazy) and they got another dozen or so - most larger than 10"

But they shut down in afternoon when I 'finally started fishing for real' - that's what I get for being late :(

I forgot to mention they were biting Sunday AM - mainly cause it wasn't me catching them.

Then Monday - when I got off my lazy butt they were not biting - but see prevous post - cause Tuesday they were biting again (some overnight on yoyo's)

More Crappie to clean

Between neighbor / neighbors son / my pier yoyo's - had a couple dozen NICE size crappie that we cleaned today. After cleaning the 9" crappie over weekend - we not don't keep / clean 9" - we want bigger such as 10-11" minimum (which is what we cleaned today i.e. no more 9" - the fillets are not worth the 'work' - also we trying to pick out the 'thick' 10" i.e. 10" that are thick body make fillets worth the effort

Summary: Still catching crappie in shallow water - along bank in front of my house and despite fact the larger (keeper size) are hard to come by - we cleaned more than a couple dozen today

BTW: I still don't claim to be a 'serious crappie fisherman' - I'd rather catch catfish - and they are bigger easier to clean IMHO - but I do enjoy Crappie fishing when they come to my front door and I don't have to go looking (working) to get them