Crappie spawn begins; Spring has sprung
After getting put off by a windy, wet spring that Floridians are entirely unused to, we finally had a respite with the weather, and hit the spawning crappie in shallow lake water, at this late date of February 20. Josh Dickinson and I prowled the same shoreline where we’d found a few fish way back on Superbowl Sunday, but this time the crappie were there. And elsewhere on this lake; there were many reports of limits the day before.
Josh caught a few with the jig and cork rig, but then unwrapped a 4-weight flyrod made of split bamboo, a delicate rig he hasn’t tried yet on trout in Montana. It’s more of a panfish rod. To my shock, he began catching the biggest crappie I’ve seen landed. We landed 27 fine crappie, a mean pickerel and Josh nailed a jumping 2-pound bass on his light rig. His last fish was a mongo crappie of 1 pound, 14 ounces, heavy with eggs. He said he hated to take that one out of the gene pool, but it was by far his biggest ever. This lake (Lochloosa) is said to have 3-pound crappie, which would be fascinating to see.
Anyway, we eased the boat up and down the shoreline with great satisfaction, catching fish without being pressured by the weekend crowd. No one saw us landing these fish. We released 17, with about 80 percent of them holding eggs. We kept five each for dinner. Since these are bigger fish, we didn’t need many. And we’d rather see these fish pull off a successful spawn. February 28, the full moon, is said to be the date these fish are waiting for. So, next weekend’s action (and harvest) will probably be huge.
Back at the dock, we noticed a small group of gawkers and hangers-on at the marina, watching a lady weighing an impressive crappie. We stopped unloading the boat for a moment, and sidled over. Her fish weighed 1 pound, 14 ounces, and there was jubilation. Josh didn’t care, but I pulled his crappie out of the bucket and decided to weigh it, if for no other reason, to report it’s weight here. The woman with the fish looked startled at our fish, then visibly worried, when we walked up with the fish. Turns out there is a tournament going on, with respectable money and prizes for February’s biggest crappie on this lake. When Josh’s fish hit the scales, and weighed the exact same weight, the woman seemed crestfallen. A tie? She then asked if we were in the tourney. When I professed ignorance of said tournament she was jubilant, throwing her arms around me in a tight hug. And with others nearby…She said, “If you only knew how hard I fished for this crappie, with a broken canepole!” I told her our big crappie was caught with a flyrod, but it did little good. She was in the money, and we were mere bystanders.
However, February has another solid week of action, and her lead is tenuous on this fine fishing lake. Stay tuned.
