Fished the first RAFL event this morning and found a good number of agreeable fish. I started out fishing some submerged timber in deep water and for the first hour managed a little over a half dozen nice crappies in the 9-11″ range with the exception of one smaller one. At about 9:00 the crappies turned off as the sunnies started showing up a bit. I picked up a couple small ones and then decided to try something new. Did some vertical jigging with a ice fishing spoon tipped with waxies from HOF. Pulled one nice sunnie up from the deep with that. I probably could have doubled my crappie catch if I hadn’t missed so many.
About 9:30 I made a change in location and found a spot on the main river channel that held a very good number bluegills in the 7 1/2-8 inch range. Action stayed very consistent until about 11:00 when things pretty much died off. The bluegills were coming off the first break and once again submerged wood was the ticket. I missed one nice crappie at this location as well. As I was trying to free the net from a seat bolt snag and the crappie shook itself off.
All fish with the exception of the one caught on the jigging spoon came on a 1/32oz. purple collarless jig and a paddletail plastic. Junebug was the most productive, but chartruese sparkle and Black/Chart put a few ‘gills in the boat as well.
Water temps were running at about 55 degrees. The winds made boat control a bit tough at times, but I mananged ok. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out again soon as the weather looks pretty cooperative this week.
