Late March Madness

After a previous week of crappie craziness over at the East Fork Lake, I decided to try it again after work since the ODNR reduced the lake water levels by at least 5 feet.  The water was a light brown like the color of a Yoohoo chocolate drink, and the weather was a sunny, breezy evening.  The lower water level really exposed the rocks and other snags within the water, and the loss of four to five nice flies were lost to the murky depths.  I really need to get a fly tying kit, the cost of losing a fly is painful at 3-5 dollars a pop.

Needless to say I did not get any crappies.  The only one catching crappies was the man that was trying to race past me at the start of my evening angling endeavor to get to some apparently sweet spot.  The embankment of large and small rocks prevented him from getting there before me, and I knew where he was trying to go.  I simply let him have the spot.  Actually, I felt bad for him with all of his buckets, over sized tackle box and rods sticking out like antennae from everywhere like a model from Bass Pro Shop or something.  A darkened silhouette would make one think a Battle Mech had come to engage the watery denizens of the East Fork outpost.

Aside from watching Mr BPS catch a few Pomoxis nigromaculatus, I did end up with two nice large mouth bass at the final leg of my evening and a couple of small blue gill on the fiberglass Steffen 4/5 weight rod.  The clouser minnow is still one of the best flies that I use that has consistently caught not only crappie but other assortment of aqua finned critters.  All and all, a nice time out on the water waving the fly rod and making others wonder what is up with the asian cowboy doing aerobic exercises with a stick.