A couple times a year I take my niece out fishing when she comes to visit, this time I took her son Cole and husband Daryl instead. Adrienne and Judy went school shopping so we had as much time to fish as we wanted.
Cole is 13, and he fishes from a dock or shore as they do not have a boat….he also had never caught a Crappie before. Given that nearby Morrison Lake is on fire with crappie right now, that is the place I decided to go.
We left my house at 6:00 and was at the launch by 6:45 and on the water with lines in by 7:00. When I say lines in, I barely got them in and set my trolling speed when the first pole bent….I told Cole to get on that pole and start reeling it in slow. In a matter of moments Cole landed his first ever Crappie! The young lad was grinning from ear to ear.
And so the day went, catching close to 100, but only wanting to keep enough for a fish fry.
Now the paying it forward…..
As we passed by a boat I asked the guys how they were doing and their reply was they only had a couple, they asked how we were doing…..my reply was that we had enough for a fish fry but was fishing for fun. They asked what we were using? My reply was Case plastics in JT’s jewel color and Slabsauce. They hadn’t heard of either, so I pulled up along side their boat and gave them some plastics, a bottle of slabsauce and information on where to order and a invite to join crappie.com and pulled away, wished them luck and snapped a quick picture of my new acquaintances.
We continued our trolling and continued to catch fish, I’m happy to say Cole caught his fair share of fish….he just doesn’t say a lot ( he must be related to Jeff) but he shows the excitement in his eyes and smile. As we came back around we met our new found fishing friends happily catching fish, as they got close one fella said “ Hey thanks a lot for the lures and sauce, we are catching fish….it works”. I told them they were very welcome and I was happy to help.
We were done and off the water by noon….. the boat launch antics were something to watch, not us but the other 4-5 people launching their watercraft, pure stupidity and lack of caring for anyone but themselves.
We ended up with 33 crappie and one nice 9 1/2” bluegill I was convinced was a bass with the tug of war we played. All the fish were caught trolling 1.0-1.2 mph, using plastics and sauce.
We had plenty for a fish fry to feed 5 with all the sides to go with it, this smile made it all worth it, teaching Cole how to catch, clean and cook was a experience he will have forever and I have another fishing partner.
There was even enough to send back home to the UP, so they can enjoy them later, complete with my fancy artwork!
