Originally Posted by
Champlain Islander
Wow what a beauty. I have yet to land a 2 pounder but one of my fishing partners got one 2 lb 10 oz. The big ones are indeed hard to swing and when I am on a bite with big fish running 12 to 15" I use a net. I can't tell you how many ripped out when I tried to lift them. Even worse on the ice. I drill a 6" hole so if they do come unbuttoned sometimes they can't quickly flip around and go down the hole. Hard for an old guy like me to come off the bucket and grab one that is about to get away. Crappie is Gods way of making a warm water fish as beautiful as a trout.
Ive got a rubber trout net rigged on the end of a pole. Unfortunately I still couldn't reach them before they came off. I didn't even count how many nice ones got off Tuesday with the wind blowing trying to run the trolling motor and land fish with just me and my daughter in the boat. The two huge crappie got off but I also lost quite a few nice 12ish inchers.
Yesterday was tougher fishing. I don't know if all the wind pushed them off the shallow beds or what but for whatever reason the water is still warming and they decided to back off the beds. It went from waiting for the water to hit the right warmth to almost 90 degrees outside in a couple days.
Were gonna get back after them again Friday and Saturday so hopefully they move back in. So far they have only been in the coves on the west/north west side of the lake.