This lake is on Fire!

[John M]

Was suppose to fish Thursday - Saturday, wake up Sunday morning check out and make the three hour trip home. Well the fishing got progressively better we had to fish a couple hours Sunday morning. Well that couple hours turned into five. I hesitate to tell of our experience(3 people in boat) all four days because I find them unbelievable. And I've spent about 15-20 hours a week fishing from May-September,( for many years). And this lake provided some great experiences. First the pure number of fish caught. Second having a pike and musky chasing your hooked crappie to the boat. Had about a 6# Largemouth inhale and keep a hooked crappie in his mouth for about 20-30 seconds Thursday caught 75 to 90, Friday- Sunday 200. That is not the total of a three days but a conservative number daily. First two days had to measure so many fish it consumed time and hurt the hands. Kept 15 Thursday, 42 Friday, 27 Saturday and 43 Sunday. Put the measuring board away Friday night. If it appeared to need to be measured, catch and release was employed. Low percentage of keepers on all three days. The number of 81/4 to 8 3/4 inches crappier unbelievable. Don't know the growth rate but that was a stellar spawning/ recruitment rate.
Keys
Best color red/white
Type. Grub- CURLYTAIL

Second best- swimming minnow curly tail. Grey with silver flecks, 3 inches.

When you got on them they would hit different colors and bait styles but red/white curytailed were very productive. First two days had to let lure free fall to bottom slowly reel in. Fish were on the initial drop or after a foot or two of slowly retrieving.(water depth 1-4 feet). Saturday we found the fish extended off of points of islands in weedbeds 8-10 feet. Cast slow retrieve immediately, bigger fish turned on. probably had 30 (9.5 to 10.5 with a few 11 & 12 inchers).
Sunday, ran back to areas where the larger Fisher were caught Saturday, but all in the 81/2- 91/2 category. So we came out of the confer section of the lake to the mid section. Just jumped around from island to island and shoal to shoal until.we were able to find a a that held a school of keeper crappie.
Just about every stop we would catch fish. But if we didn't catch multiple keepers in 20 minutes we moved on. But it was funny watching other fisherman that were using minnows and bombers witness the amount of fish we were catching in a short time, switch to casting and retrieving a jig or tube.