3-19-07. what's hot.

Stopped at one of the hot crappie lakes to check temps and crappie action. Temp 44. No crappies in shallows yet. One more week and they'll be in.
Ran over to a small roadside pond by the house (kinda like Lago casa but reed lined. Only fisheable for the next month). Threw a red rattletrap. Rip/drop retrieve. 3 bass 13-15" in 5 minutes. Changed to a minus 1. Nothing. Tried a new Storm Kickn' Minnow. Looked great..but no hits. Tried a Husky Jerk in shad pattern. Did the Kauchak retrieve, which is fast snaps followed by a pause. Got one 14" bass. Saw him hit in the gin clear water...interesting thing, he missed it 3 times and I never felt a thing. Saw it...but didnt feel it. makes ya wonder how many times that happens down there!
Next lake. Hit a water inflow at a local lake. 51 degree incoming. Missed one fish on 3rd cast. gave it 5 minutes. Left that spot and kept hiking.
Went to a channel known for a crappie run. STACKED with shad. Found crappies. 8-12". 1/16 oz white jig with a 1" white powergrub set 12" under a Thill. Got a dozen quick plus 3 more small largemouth. Use that set-up around incoming flows of warmer water and you'll find them at some point.
Started throwing the red rattle trap. Snagged some trophy shad. probably 8 or 10. Quit that and went to the main lake. Blanked out there ( happens alot on this tough-to-fish-trophy-lake). Water temp 46. Got a couple misses on rattletrap. I felt them breeze the bait or over run it. Missed em all. Ring rust, I call it.
Mike showed up for the last hour. We tossed Husky Jerks and Rattletraps. Traps were the ticket. We missed some BIG hits. Again,rust
BUT..check this out..we get into one channel and get on some HUGE hits. Drag ripping hits. Missed a couple. THEN, Mikie ties into one that had his pole doubled over. Great fight. Well, turns out we hit a pod of spawning Quillbacks. But not the Fox River kind that hit a pound or 2. These were 5-10 lbs and chasing down Rattletraps! Holy %#@* what a riot! Mike landed one and I landed one. Biggest quillbacks I've ever seen and they were pissed!
So... 7 bass, a dozen or so crappies, 2 hands worth of shad, and our biggest quillbacks to date. Not a bad day at all.

Give it til the wekend and every lake around here is gonna be a crappie honey hole.

Big fish? Not really. But here's the baits that are working right now. The Husky Jerk and the Rattletrap.



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