Better Make a Minnow Run!

Senko-Dey-Mayo 2010

With the Ohio Game Fishing Crappie Tournament coming up over the weekend, I figured that I should actually fish for Crappie. I grabbed 2 dozen minnows in my Soccer waterjug and headed to Otters to hit Crappie at the Honeyhole in Orient.

It was slow at first, but Otter found the honeyhole AT the honeyhole. The only word to describe the next hour...FRANTIC. One after another after another after another. We'd cast out, the bobber hit the water and it'd DUNK. HIIIIIIIII-YAAAAAA. set that hook like karate kid! In the first hour we caught roughly 40 fish...Crappie, tiny bass and blue gill.

Dude, we better make a minnow run...

In 1 hour we went through 2 dozen minnows like it was nuthin. 40+ crappie easily. I LOVE the Crappie bite. You cast out, jig it back an inch or 2 and they hit it like a bass...but you barely have to set the hook. It's a simple flick of the wrist. That's why they call em "papermouths." Unlike Bass, where you're conditioned to HIT EM SO HARD YOU MAKE 'EM CROSS EYED!

I made a Minnow Run and picked up another couple dozen. In the meantime, Otter tossed out a Mini-Carp type minnow that was in the bucket and waited for me to return with the goods. He caught a couple good sized Channel Catfish, which were the first cat's we've caught at the honeyhole. A sign of things to come?

Minnow Run!!!!

I came back with some more minnows and we proceeded to slay crappie, gills and Bass. Otter caught a nice 2lb+ Bass on a minnow right by the shoreline as we were about to make our last few casts. I developed a "Crappie Call" which was a sure fire way to draw in the Crappie. Hopefully it'll come in handy for the Ohio Game Fishing Crappie Tourney on Saturday...

All in all, we probably caught close to 80 fish in the 4 hours we were out. If Crappie bite like this all the time, I'd be an exclusive Crappie fisherman. 48 weeks out of the year Crappie are out off the shore suspended in water and hard to catch unless you drift cast or troll the water column. Yet another reason why I need a boat...

Killin Em With Kughna

May 3rd 2010-

There's got to be some law against waiting until May 3rd for my first trip out with Kughn. We hit the honey hole in Orient looking for big numbers of large mouths. The weightless Senko had been on fire for me, so I decided to stick with it. The action was fast and furious. In the first 1.5 hrs I had 12 bass to Kughn's 4 and thought I was running away with the title. When you go fishing with another person who knows what the hell they're doing, it isn't just about going out and catching fish. It's about First Fish, Most Fish and Biggest Fish. You want the Tri-Fecta.

I was lucky enough to catch the first fish, and the weightless Senko was the ticket for the first few hours. I'm Texas Rigging these Strike King watermelon and chartreuse Senko Worms and cast them about 10 feet off the shore and rolling em down the shoreline. You let it sink til it hits the bottom and then jig it up to the surface and let it fall again. They're KILLING it on the fall. It either starts swimming, or you feel the boompbommp and you set the hook so hard you MAKE EM CROSS EYED!











Wife beaters and waders. That's how I roll...






The spawn is days away...I caught a big fat female Bass and she started spewing eggs all over my boots. I really felt bad about it, but what can ya do. It ain't my fault she can't resist the Senko...er wait. strike that. reverse it. thank you.

In an effort to close the deal on the trifecta, I was eager to close out the day and take my victory against a veteran angler like the Kughna.
Alas, the wiley ol veteran (aka old fart) that the Kughna is...was not about to be shut down by the 2009 rookie angler of the year.

The following events are currently under investigation by the B.A.S.S. Federation.

Kughn puts on a white and chartreuse 1/8oz spinner bait, and proceeds to do what we call "slay bass." Keep in mind I'm ahead like 12 bass to 6 bass. Kughn goes unconscious and just nails fish after fish on the spinnerbait. I had lost both of mine earlier in the day and Kughn had a sale on his extras...15 bucks a spinnerbait. Supply and Demand at it's finest my friends.

We took turns leapfrogging each other and worked our way around the entire lake which surprisingly I've never done. The Master had a lesson for his apprentice on this day. Just when i was confident I was finally going to outfish Kughn, he does what an angler does best...catch fish.

Boom, boom, boom. One after another. The spinnerbait was EN FUEGO. Cast after Cast, Kughn was catching fish. (small fish btw). But fish none the less. I was up 8 bass which went to 5, which went to 3, which went to 1 which went to -2. So on and so forth.

By the time the dust settled, Kughn caught 21 Bass and I only manged 16. All in all, you can't be upset by the sheer number of fish we caught, but at the end of the day Kughn mounted a Michael Jordan-esque come back and kicked the crap out of me. Guess I still have a long way to go....