Weather: high 75 deg, Mostly sunny, Barometer has been trending up – 30.24 

Winds: 10-12 mph NE

 Water temp.: ?

Target Species: Crappie (Specks) Method: Drifting with jigs

Location: local canal, Palm Coast, Fl.

Catch: (21) Specks (kept),      (10) Bass,    -Kept (16) Specks

Today was not one of those days you wake up looking forward to. One of my long time and valued friends, Charlie McCraney past away unexpectedly early Wednesday morning and today was the day he was to be returned to the earth. It was a difficult morning.

I have known Charlie for over a quarter of a century and his company will missed.

I decided the best way for me to shake off the depressing gloom was to go put the kayak in the water and try to get lost in catching a few fish.

I made a plan with a friend to meet at a new location that we had been wanting to fish and by 3:00 we were launched and fishing.

We were targeting speckled perch again and fishing with artificial jigs of various colors and types. No one particular color seemed to out produce  today.

The specks were averaging pretty small today also. Most were just big enough to be worthwhile keeping. We ended up keeping (16) and turning back about (5) for a total of about (21). The bass bite was doing a little better today and we ended up catching about (10) of those guys. They were running small also but then, we were fishing with very small baits, 1/8″ to 1/4″ jigs.

We employed our standard trolling technique of paddling backwards with (2) spinning rods trolling back about 25′ With this method you can watch your rods and fight the fish from in front of you. Also, the kayak don’t spin around and tangle your lines. We probably paddled about 3 miles and most of that was backwards! It sounds weird but actually works great. I will get some video posted as soon as I can.

The pressure has been trending up since the front that passed by a day or so ago. The bite was not great but we did o.k. and the trip got my mind off Charlie’s passing , if only for a while.

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See ya on the water!

Larry S. 

Wednesday, Jan. 9, ,2013
Weather: high 80 deg, Mostly cloudy to overcast later, Barometer has been trending down
Winds: light
Water temp.: ?

Target Species: Crappie (Specks) Method: Drifting with jigs Location: local canal, Palm Coast, Fl.
Catch: (6) Specks (kept),      (3) Bass,   (1) Mud Fish,       lost (2) Bass & (2) Specks

My wife Tammie was off work today so I planned an afternoon Speck fishing trip in Palm Coast.

I had to look at a job in Port Orange first thing but on the way back to the office I stopped by Walmart to pick up a variety of Jigs to diversify my supply.

We lunched about 2:30 pm with a light ESE wind. The plan was to suspend a our jigs under a float and slow troll them on a spinning reel well back behind the boat. I like to troll in reverse so I can see the floats and be able to fight the fish from the front and more importantly, be able to video the fight.

I also rigged a small zebco with 6lb mono with a 1/16 oz. jig in chartreuse with a small spinner blade. I caught all the bass on this little rig though they were small. I had (2) others on that broke off.

I also added another species to my “caught by kayak” list…… Mud Fish.

The spec bite did not start until about 4:30 and it was a little slow but we managed to hook-up with 8 and land (6) of those. They were all pretty solid specks and a notch above the ones we caught on Sunday. These were all females but one and all had roe that was 1/2-3/4 in maturity.

I can’t say any one color out fished the other but the tow jigs that I remember catching fish on were white with a pink head and a green/white swim tail. We tried several different depths and speeds but could not establish any pattern today.

The pressure has been trending down and I expect that was the reason for the slow bite today.

Here’s some more pictures from the trip today:

See ya on the water,

Larry Stephens

Sunday, Jan. 6, ,2013
Weather: high 80 deg but started falling about 1 1/2 hours before dark and became overcast
Partly cloudy to overcast later
Winds: light
water temp.: ?

Target Species: Crappie (Specks)
Method: Drifting with jigs
Location: local canal, Palm Coast, Fl.
Catch: (38) Specks (kept),      (1) Bream,      around 50 total fish

The weather forecast for this weekend had called for some pretty poor conditions for being on the water. I had put off fishing Saturday for this reason though the weather was just fine until later in the afternoon. Sunday morning was beautiful also, plenty of sun, no wind and mild temp’s. I decided I couldn’t take it any longer so I called a buddy and we made a plan to fish some local waterways here in Palm Coast for some Specks.  

We launched right about 2:00 pm and started fishing right at the launch. The plan was to drift fish down the waterway with some jigs suspended under a float. I was using two fiberglass poles and also casting a jig with a ultra light spinning reel. My fishing partner Rick was slow trolling a couple jigs suspended about 3 feet below a clip on bobber with spinning reels. He fished his baits well back behind the boat, probably 30 feet or so.

I caught a good portion of my fish with the spinning reel with a 1/8 oz pink jig head with a white curly tail grub. The rest were caught on a white headed jig with a dbl. curly tail body in white. For some reason, my other pole hardly caught a fish all afternoon though it had a yellow/white jig on it. That pole was shorter in length which put the bait closer to the boat than the other pole and I felt that was probably the reason for its poor performance more than the jig color. 

Rick was fishing green tube bodies on a red headed jig. He caught quite a few more fish than I did but again, he was fishing way back behind the boat. 

The water was really clear. You wouldn’t know it until you drug that white jig up to the boat and you could see it 30″ down. The bottom is black so it appears stained but it’s actually really clear.

We fished about 3 1/2 hours and caught about 50 fish total. We ended up with a pretty nice string of fish though they were not overly large. I expect the waterway is a little over populated as they all seemed to be about the same size.

A guy could probably have some real fun with a beatle spin on an ultra light and just prowl along casting to the bank and working it back to the boat.

I have another idea of  a place where I can get the kayak in where we have caught some larger specks some years back. If the canal don’t have to much floating debris we might be able to load the boat! We’ll see how it goes.

See ya on the water,

Larry Stephens 

Saturday, Dec. 15,2012
Weather: 69 to 80 deg
Partly cloudy
Winds: light easterly
water temp.: upper 60’s +/-

Target Species: Crappie (Specks)
Method: Drifting with Live Minnows
Location: Area Lake, Deland, Fl.
Catch: (18) Specks (kept),      (30+) Bream, Bass, Specks total

We fished another lake near Deland, Florida this morning and the conditions were pretty good except that we just had a front pass through yesterday. The bite was pretty slow actually and I attribute it to the unsettled weather. There were still a lot of clouds this morning but the sun became more and more visible as the morning wore on.

Of course I fished from my Tarpon 120 Kayak this morning. My wife Tammie and daughter Morgan fished with my Dad from his Griffcraft. They fished about 10 poles and I was able to handle 4, though I was really scrambling once when I had (3) fish on, all at the same time!

We fished live bait again today, live Missouri Minnows hooked thru the eyes and fished deep, in the 6-10′ range.

I decided to rig up a pre-assembled Crappie rig with (3) hooks on my 30 series Okuma Epixor spinning reel on a 6’6″ Uglystik rod. Early on that accounted for most of my fish but by late morning the cane poles were seeing more action.

We ended up bringing home (18) fish total. My sense is that we did as well or better than most of the other people that fished this morning. I spoke to one couple that was heading in that reported they had only caught 3 or 4 Specks total. We probably had (30) fish total counting the bream, (3) bass and the smaller specks that we turned back.

The wind conditions we really good, light and for the most part, perfect for drift fishing. Occasionally it would kick up for just a bit and I would have to paddle to adjust my speed down.  I believe that the majority of my fish were caught while moving but very slowly and I only picked up one or two while stationary.

On the way home at 1:30 PM, I dang near ran over a big doe on hwy 11 at Cody’s Corner! It was a close one. The doe had just crossed a huge pasture to be able to get out to the Hwy. I expect she had been pushed out there by dog hunters given the time of day and where she was. Almost had to lock up the brakes.

I heard a report today that people have been doing really good on Specks at Dead Lake in Flagler County as of late. I should have a first hand report on that tomorrow.

Oh yeah, a friendly Game & Fish Officer was at the ramp checking catches and licenses so be warned!

If you have never tried the Crappie Row I would recommend you give it a try, it is pretty darn good. Be careful not to split the egg sack open if possible, then just fry them golden brown just like it was a fillet. They have a tendency to pop and even explode in the frying pan once in a while so a flat mesh cover is handy to keep the hot grease off you.

Removing the Skin from a Crappie Fillet

Removing the Row from a Crappie to be Fried!

See you on the Water,
Larry Stephens