by Rusty Parker
Wow! Lake Blackshear has shown its true self lately. What I mean by that is this lake is a very hard lake to figure out, and even if you have fished it like I have all of your life, it will throw you a curve overnight.
Back a few weeks ago, the crappie were doing pretty good. A friend of mine invited me out for a crappie fishing trip, and I accepted right away. We were actually testing the waters to see what pattern the crappie may have been in. We ended up catching around 15 nice crappie, but what an older gentleman gave us is the story. This man is well known crappie fisherman, and a lot of times he gives what he catches away to friends. He noticed me in the area fishing and came over and asked if we wanted the few he had. Of course I did and told him so. As we put all of his fish in the live well, I noticed a huge crappie. I asked my friend to please measure or weigh this slab when he got home. I called my friend later, and he said that slab measured a little over 16 1/4 inches long. We estimated it to be well over 2 ½ pounds.
Where we caught most of our fish was under Smoaks Bridge located on the southern end of the lake on Swift creek. We were pitching 1/24th ounce Sore Lip crappie jigs in the colors of chartreuse/pink/chartreuse and chartreuse/watermelon/chartreuse. We pitched them past the pylons and let it sink around 5 feet and retrieved it with one steady retrieve. I have received a few reports of some good stringers coming from the main lake channel ledges tight lining minnows and shooting a few deep water docks. It has slowed down recently, but a few good ones are still being caught.
May your catch be large and plentiful and God bless you all. Also remember that Jesus loves you.