Fishing Report – Crappie 12-8-12

Dec. 9, 2012
Weather: Overcast with Fog until late morning
Wind : light winds 0-4 mph
Temp: 66 -80 deg

Target Species: Crappie (Specks)
Method: Drifting with Live Minnows
Location: Area Lake, Deland, Fl.
Catch: (8) Specks (Dad/Mom boated 37 Specks along with one 3 lb channel cat and a few bream)

I have been getting some good Speck reports from my Dad over the last week. He has been doing some drifting and trolling for them on a local lake in Deland. He has been putting 25-30 really quality Specks in the boat every trip.

I decided I could use a few fillets for the freezer so I made a plan meet dad at the lake at day light Saturday morning. Like most fresh water fish, Specks are best fried. In fact, I would rate them as one of the best eating fresh water fish.

I fished from my Tarpon 120 kayak. I figured I could handle at least (2) cane poles and one spinning rod and still be able to paddle. This is not my favorite way to fish as there is just not that much action involved and can be slow going at times.

Dad has been catching these fish in deep water well away from the bank, even right out in the middle in 12-13 feet of water and fishing real deep. It can be difficult to determine what depth in the water column the fish are holding so one way you can do that is to vary your speed which will raise and lower the depth of your bait. The faster you go the shallower you are fishing. You can also very the depth of your poles and see which depth produces the most fish.

Another good tactic is to start and stop periodically, this will raise and lower your bait and often trigger a strike.

Another tip you should know about is that if you miss a strike, if you just hold your bait there, more often than not the fish will hit it again. I watched my Dad catch a number of fish that way.

Besides that, Specks can be pretty picky eaters at times. It seems like there is always a preferred color if you are fishing artificial jigs. However, a live Missouri minnow is hard to beat.

We ended up having a pretty good haul but we fished until about 1:30 PM to get them. The bad part was that I landed a disproportional amount of them. Actually, Dad and Mom really put it on me this time. I struggled to land (8) while they hauled in (37) with another 10 or so that they through back. He also caught one channel cat that was about 3 lbs and a few bream.

I think my problem was that I was fishing to deep. I moved my corks down a foot and it seemed to make a big difference. I caught more in an hour than I had the whole morning.

As soon as I can edit the video from the trip I will get it posted.

Our Combined Stringer of Speckled Perch, Pretty Impressive!

A nice double on the cane poles!

See you on the water,
Larry S.