Well, after 10 days vacation… I was FINALLY able to get out and do a little fishing. I headed out and set up at about 2pm on New Years day for a little panfish action. Though the action was not fast and furious, I was not to be disappointed. For the first 3 hours, I pulled in a couple dozen sunnies and gills. Weeding through, I was able to find 5 keepers with a couple being bulls. The action slowed down towards nightfall and I prepared for the crappie night bite. This little hole I was fishing is known for slab crappies. I started out with one deadstick holding down a crappie minnow, and my St Croix legend was tipped with a genz bug and waxie. Action was dead until about 6:30 when I was able to bring in my first Crappie. That measured out at about 12 inches. I had quite a few more marks that would come up and sniff the bait, but none would take it. At about 7:30, I switched over to a Frostee spoon tipped with 2 waxies and immediatley had a taker. This one came in at about 11 inches.
Tonight was definately a learning experience. I ended the day with 5 bulls and 4 slab crappies all over 10 inches. Throughout the night, you could definately find the jigging pattern required to take these. Some patterns would bring them in and they would just not bite, others would scare them away. The spring bobber definately played a role in the success as I found that just a very slight twitching of the wrist to give the bait just a hint of “life” was the key to getting the crappies to commit. Not only did the spring bobber help in finessing the jig… but these crappies were biting so lite that I know I would not ever feel it on a non-spring rod. Watching the spring, setting the hook on the slightest drop made each hookset successful. My night, however, ended in disappointment when I saw a mark towards the bottom and I ever so slightly dropped the frostee down. What ensued was a slam of the spoon. I took my time fighting the fish to the hole. And as I positioned a MONSTER crappie nose up to fit, I was estatic as there in the water was a crappie that had to go 2 pounds. I held my rod high to keep the fish up… all the while the rod shaking in my trembling hands… I leaned over to pull her. The crappie shook a little, jig popped out, and as fast as it hit my jig, it did a 180 and shot down the hole before I could even get my hands wet. 
Talk about a heart break. I have seen crappies come out of these waters that rival URL… but this one was on MY line. 
Well, I guess that fish lives to fight another day. And beleive me, I will be there hunting for her.
All in all it was a good day. Again, the action was not fast and furious, but the quality and size of the fish made the wait, the jigging, and the ever so slight drop in the spring bobber all worth it. I will try and take some pics tonight to post.