What a Crappie Day
There’s nothing worse than the anticipation of a day on the water, planned months in advance, only to receive a dreaded cancellation text from the guide the day before from the outfitter. Pete and I were scheduled to go redfishing on Lake Calcasieu before our two days at Grosse Savanne, but Mother Nature blew the water out, made it muddy and very difficult to find fish. We were told we could try but if we wanted to cancel they would understand.
Although it was crushing news it was a stand up move from the outfitter.
Bags packed, but we were left with a day to “kill.”
But wait -- There’s no crying on vacation
Who does HPFC know between Houston and Lake Charles. How about our great friends Keith and Jennifer Combs?
It just so happened Pete and Keith spoke the evening before to work some articles and Keith mentioned crappie fishing. They always invite us to visit and go fishing so we quickly got on the horn, told them about our cancellation and asked if we could take them up on the invite offer. They were all for it and said our loss was their gain.
Combs family and Lake Sam Rayburn detour, here we come.
We arrived at the Combs compound, did a little bluegill fishing in their pond, had a nice relaxing dinner out and crawled into bed soon thereafter (separate beds, get your minds out of the gutter).
Told to set the alarm for 7 am, to me this meant, wake up, potty, brush teeth, contacts in, get dressed and be ready to go. In the back of my head I always remember what Kevin Short tells Kerry Short: When he says “last cast,” reel it in and sit your butt in the seat, be ready to go. I was ready to go!!!
Keith went out to the shop to get us rigged up, Pete was still in bed. Jennifer was making breakfast and coffee and I’m freaking out. #LFG!!
We still needed to buy our licenses, get ice, drinks and get to the lake but when we got there we had a Crappie Day.
I had previously fished for crappie with Chad Morgenthaler on Table Rock Lake, mostly shooting docks. Keith was taking us out to find standing timber and brush piles.
I’ve chased big fish all over the world, but chasing these simple panfish taught me a lot:
First, fish don’t have to be big to be fun. Indeed, not everything is bigger in Texas. We were planning on fishing for bull reds but we had a blast fishing for crappie two pounds or less, ten inches for a keeper. Little fish in big numbers are just as fun.
Second, simple tackle saves time. Both times I went crappie fishing we used Bobby Garland hooks and baits, We used the Original Baby Shad in money milk and blue ice. These baits have a minnow-like body with a longer tail and should be hooked to sit horizontally. We used light spinning equipment. Sometimes we held the lures in place, while other times we cast them out, counted to 10 and reeled them back slowly.
Third, timing matters. Early in the trip, we caught a fish or two on each tree or brush pile, but they weren’t firing. We spent no more that 10 minutes on a spot if it didn’t produce. Towards the afternoon, early evening, the golden hour we came back to the same spots and crushed ‘em.
Fourth, having more bait in the water seemed to rev up the fish, we went from a single fish on a spot to having double and triples, no quads. ☹
Fifth, it’s not all about catch and release. Crappie are popular for their taste and their abundance. In some circumstances keeping a 25 fish limit, each over 10 inches, actually helps to control the population.
And finally believe it or not I have something to say about Forward Facing Sonar (FFS). At least on this trip, it stood for “Fun Fishing Scanner.”
It was fun to see our baits on the screen and see which fish was going to bite which line. Keith was really good at seeing the bigger fish in the trees instead of just catching a lot of the little ones in the brush. Reacting in real time kept us from catching smaller fish and made it so we didn’t waste our precious time on the water.
Upon our return Jennifer put all the fish we had in the livewell into a cooler full of ice. Pete thought we only caught 25-30 fish, but 65-70 fish later Keith had a lot of filleting in his future.
I wonder if he is rethinking that fishing invitation.
