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...
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