Crappie Fishing Report 12-15-12

Sat. Dec. 15,2012
Weather: 69 to 80 deg.
Mostly cloudy
wind: light easterly
water temp.: approx upper 60's

Total catch: (30+) Bream, Bass, Specks,   (18) fish kept

I fished a lake near Deland, Florida this morning for Speckled Perch. I have always called them Specks myself.

The weather was mostly overcast with very light easterly winds. The temperature was about 69 at 7:00 AM and ended up near 80 degrees. It was actually a pretty nice day weather wise.

I fished from my Tarpon 120 Kayak and my wife Tammie and daughter Morgan fished with my Dad from his Griffcraft. They fished about 10 poles and I was able to handle 4, though I was really scrambling once when I had (3) fish on all at the same time!

The fishing was pretty slow for the most part. Morgan started off really strong and landed (4) fishing with one rod/reel before any body else even had a bite. (14) poles in the water and she was getting every bite to be had, pretty incredible how that can happen.

We fished live bait again today, live Missouri Minnows hooked thru the eyes and fished deep, in the 6-10' range.

I fished a pre assembled Crappie rig with (3) hooks on a 30 series spinning reel. That accounted for most of my fish.

We ended up bringing home (18) fish total, (6) of those were mine. My sense is that we did as well or better than most of the other people on the lake this morning. I spoke to one couple that only had 3 or 4 total. We probably had (30) fish total counting the bream, (3) bass and smaller specks that we turned back.

The wind conditions we really good, light and for the most part, perfect for drift fishing. All of our fishing as done by Drift fishing and slow trolling. I believe that most all of my fish were caught while moving but very slowly.

Tammie had not fished freshwater in a while and her license was expired. Luckily, I thought about it and had to stop by the office and order one online and print it out. Good thing I did! We were met at the ramp by a Game and Fish officer that wanted to see our catch and license.

I tink my next trip will be a sheepshead trip.

Best of Luck,
Larry Stephens

Fishing Report - Crappie 12-8-12

Dec. 8, 2012
Weather: Overcast with Fog
Wind : 0-4 mph
Target Species: Crappie (Specks)
Method: Drifting with Live Minnows
Location: Area Lake, Deland, Fl.

Catch: (8) Specks (Dad/Mom boated 37 Specks along with one 3 lb channel cat and a few bream)

My Dad has really been working on the Crappie over the last couple of weeks. They are known by many names but we call them Specks. He has been doing some drifting and trolling for them on a local lake and has been catching 25-30 every trip.

I made a plan to meet Dad at the lake at daylight to see what we could do, except I would fish from my Tarpon 120 kayak. I figured I could handle at least (2) fiberglass cane poles and one spinning rod and still be able to paddle. I prefer to fish for Specks in tree tops that are blown over in the river but you've got to fish where the fish are biting!

We fished with live Missouri minnows and ended up having a pretty good haul but we had to fish most of the day for them. The bad part was that I landed a disproportional amount of them. I struggled to land (8) while my Dar hauled in (37) with another 10 or so that they through back. He also caught one channel cat that was about 3 lbs and a few bream.

I believe that my short stringer was a result of  fishing to deep. Once I shallowed up my cork a little it seemed to make a big difference. I ended up catching more in an hour than I had the whole morning.

It was a really foggy morning and stayed overcast even after the fog burned off. The wind was perfect all morning being 0-4 mph and blowing right down the lake so drifting was easy.

Though we ended up with a pretty impressive string of fish, it was actually a little slow going. we would catch 2 or three and then nothing for 10-15 minutes.

I think I ended up with about 8 nice bags of fillets ready for some hot oil.

Tight Lines,
Larry S.