by Wayne Wooten
On my last outing on Lake Deerfield, Larry Barnes and I started fishing around 8 AM with clear skies, 74 degrees and little to no wind. This was a little later than we planned, but we were having too much fun at breakfast shooting the bull with the guys at the “Table of Knowledge”.
We were trying the Whopper Plopper and Larry did catch a few on the 3-1/2” WPL90/14 ” Bone” color, but the 4-3/8” WPL110/18 “I Know It” color I was using didn’t get their attention. Was the size too big or the wrong color; who knows?
After spending an hour or so with the Whopper Plopper, we decided to pitch some jigs at the docks for some crappie action. We did catch a few, but the bite was slower than normal. After we hit the docks for about an hour, we decided to troll over to a big dock around the corner about 300 yards from our location.
We hadn’t trolled 50 feet and both rods loaded up with doubles right off the bat! We continued to troll in a figure 8 and continued to catch 9 to 10 inchers. I knew the main channel made a fork making two 16 feet deep trenches with 10 to 12 feet deep flats between them and along the outer edges.
We were picking up fish on these flats pulling 1/16 ounce jigs with blue/black/chartreuse 1-1/2 curly tails about 30 feet behind the boat at 1 mph. This method and speed allowed the jigs to run about 8 feet deep.
We continued to catch fish until 11:30 AM when the bite began to slow. It was now about 90 degrees with no breeze and lunch was calling, so we packed it in. This wasn’t the bass on topwater day we planned, partly because we got distracted by the crappie bite, late start or just the way it was! After all, it turned out to be a great morning catching 30 or so eaters in a short amount of time.
This is why I carry a crappie rig every time I go fishing. Sure, I love wrestling a big ole toad to the boat, but it’s about catching fish to me! If I can’t trick a bass into biting, or they are just being stubborn that day, maybe the crappie might be in the mood.