Spring Gave Us a Glimpse

After a marathon of pond hopping looking for an active crappie bite last week, we needed too succeed in some tight lines this weekend. Darkstar came by just as early yesterday and I loaded my stuff in his car. The seat warmers again showed me some love!(From here forth all cars I own must have them) It was much colder than I expected for a day that would end in the upper fifties! It was only about 27 degrees as we got set up in our spot, the sun not quite up yet. We picked the pond we had the best luck at the last time out, the pond only yielded two fish. Zip, zip, zip  our slip bobbers sailed in the air. We set our lines at separate depths to try to find the suspended crappies at 4,5,6, and 7 feet down in about 9-11 feet of water. We used waxies spikes and minnows on tungsten ice jigs with just the right amount of shot to balance our floats just right. Many fishermen have no idea how to properly balance a float, just as many do not realize the huge difference the right float can make. It can mean a great day or little to no fish. Just as the sunrise started to hit our faces one of the floats did the sneaky very slow drop into the darkness. CRAPPIE woohoo! It took us just a little more time to dial them in, casting in the right area at the right depth. 6.5 feet down was the magic number today. The bite was on! The only bad side of a fast bite on a cold morning is the frozen effects it has on fingertips hooking small minnows on jigs. Holy crap our fingertips were freaking cold even with hand warmers in our pockets. The crappies moved off and we had a hard time dialing them in again, however a large school of nice gills moved in with some bonus largemouth mixed in. The gills kept grabbing the minnows off the ice jigs so we switched to micro nuggie plastics and stuck them good! We were able to tighten our presentation in the high winds using Thill-Gold-Medal-Series-TG-Waggler floats. The thin profile of this float when balanced with the right amount of shot makes float fishing crappie in white caps possible.  The float just does not have the mass for the wind and waves to push quickly. After 20-30 fish between us we felt blessed that spring had given us a glimpse of the action that is before us among a variety species this season.