Oct 13 - successful fishing

We mostly fished yesterday, although that was not the original plan. We had originally planned on cruising around to the back bays since many/most people left for home on Sunday and there would be fewer boats on the lake. In the afternoon we were going to take the ATC's out and check out the trails ... but it was not meant to be.

We went out for ducks early, setting up in Pondsford Bay as usual. We saw a few ducks but only 1 or 2 were close enough to shoot at. We actually got one but he flew a hundred yards or so and then crashed into the bush. It's impossible to find them in the bush so we didn't even try. We definitely have to do something about camouflaging the Boston Whaler. There were a number of instances where we could see the ducks coming into the decoys and then veer off. We have to break up the outline or pull a tarp over it and setup on the shore. Next year ... but we say that every year !

When we got back we saw Donnie out on his dock and went over to talk to him. Bob Simms was out as well and was telling about his prior day's Crappie fishing.

From Wikipedia -- Pomoxis is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (family Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. The type species is P. annularis, the white crappie. The common name crappie (pronounced /ˈkrɑpiː/), [1] [2] refers to either of the Pomoxis species, both of which are extremely popular game fish.

Anyway, apparently he had caught 37 Crappie -- there is no catch / possession limit -- and they'd had a good meal. He must have thrown some back ! He volunteered to show us where they "hang out" and we accepted, getting into our boat and motoring down to a "sea mount" type rise in the lake floor past Grumblenot island out from a rock on the left hand side with Grumblenot behind you. He also had a pile of minnows and since he was planning on leaving shortly, left the minnows for us.

We went in for a while and then headed out, guns and rods etc. all piled in the boat. I fully expected that we'd fish for a while, catch nothing, and then cruise around for ducks. It didn't happen that way. We caught four small bass -- three on worms that I was using and one on a spinner that Alex was casting with. Oh -- Alex also caught two small pike that were throw backs -- one from our dock before we left and one from a secondary site where we went fishing. I had tried with a minnow for a while and after getting no action I switched to worms since I'd brought a few with us.

The bass were small -- three smallmouth and one largemouth -- when cleaned they added up to 10-12 ounces of meat. We cooked them along with a piece of pike from the other day and the ducks and had the whole mess for dinner. Stef wasn't feeling well and had veggies only; Lauren had veggies and bass. The bass were good although the pike was better / different. Everything was so fresh that it was excellent. The duck was tough because I had not turned the slow cooker on high enough, but it was good.

We were out for about 4 hours but had not seen any crappie. Bob had warned us that they only feed at dawn and dusk and sure enough, that's what Wikipedia says too. I went out at dusk and did catch three of them along with a catfish. All cleaned they too added up to 10-12 ounces of fish. Yes, it may be a lot of effort for a few fish ... and the crappie were taking my bait as soon as I dropped it in the water but I was out late and as soon as the light died they stopped biting.

Alex left around 5:30 -- we had dinner at 5:00 (wow, early for us, usually closer to 8:00) -- so Sandy and I sat in the gazebo. It was warm -- 69F -- but not as warm as during the day -- 75F -- truly unusual for this time of year. When fishing I was wearing a t-shirt in the boat.

Scott from the Lodge stopped by while we were having our dinner and paid me for the old Mercury 65hp motor. It was running on his pontoon boat. He paid me $400 which was good for both of us but it did cost him $600 to have it installed on the boat, the bottom end gears loosened up after sitting for 5 years and the seals at the impeller for the water cooling replaced. Still, it was less than 1/3 of what it was going to cost him to fix his broken motor so he did well. He is up for another couple of days and then will be closed up for the winter.

That's it -- I may get out for crappie again today although it is supposed to rain. The clouds are moving in now. Perhaps I should go anyway ... I also want to get out for a bike ride. It's warm now but the temperature is supposed to drop all day although it will be sunny this afternoon. Tonight's dinner will be the other pike fillet as well as the catfish and crappie. According to Wikipedia and Donnie, the fish are excellent eating ... we'll see.

It just started raining so the crappie will have to wait !