Way out of area report - Denton creek, TX, US

[SgtCrabby]

Ok Oarin, here's one:
I'm 'recycling' report that was sent to clan members.  Most of the pictures were dropped out due to file size (dang it!).
As a reminder; Flagg is Dogs dad.

Saints Patrick's Day:

Flagg and I sortied today.  We loaded up, hooked up and rolled out at 1000 hrs.
Weather: cloudy, windy, a little coolish at about 64F.

We went to Denton Creek again; as Dog has said on several occasions "Don't leave fun to find fun".  We had some luck there a couple of days ago, so we're proceeding straight back to the same place.  It was a decision that was smiled on.
We also did not take on any minnows, we're going with tied jigs alone.

We are keel wet at 1100 hrs.   Head upstream, and proceed through several debris fields and under the bridges up to our lucky hole. 
We tie off, and get jigs wet asap. 

What do ya know?  Flagg gets on the board first within minutes

It may have been undersized, but what a way to start the day!

Then Crab gets on the board

Ahh, the air is sweet smelling, not a hint of skunk.

We start getting good action, a few keeper sized and plenty of fun dinks.

We have a rod rigged up for our missing local one (aka Dog) that is buried with other job type of things and can't come out and play.

We're getting close to time to leave, when Dog catches a crappie.

Todays totals: 26 fish: 23 crappie, 2 sandbass and 1 largemouth bass onto the decks.
Largest crappie is 13 inches, smallest is, well; very little.
Sandies about 11 inches, Largemouth was only about 13.

Livewell held 5 crappie:

We expended many jigs to the snags below, including an entire batch of homemade ones that didn't make 1 day old.

All in all, a very successful day

Crab

[Oarin]

Nice crappie! Thanks for the report.

[SgtCrabby]

Glad you liked it. 
Him and I were on the water up that creek several times in March.

Here's a pict from a few days later :


And have caught less desirable fish:

We call it a drum, our version of a chub 

[RHYBAK]

Very nice report.
Thank You

You say you lost a lot of jigs?
Do you fish with a bobber for Crappie?

[NortonJoe]

Great report! Love seeing the fish on here again...ah...I cant wait to get a line wet again.  I'm gonna try to do more fishing locally this year as well.  BTW hope all the nasty tornado stuff stayed well away from you over the last few days!

[SgtCrabby]

@RHYBAK ;  I don't use bobber (floats) in this area. I'm above a tree pile, in a current, with our typical murky water, and the crappie are 12 feet down near the bottom - current loses more jigs with floats than not.  Check the trees in water in background for a poor visual:

As we say here:  'if you're not losing terminal tackle, you're not near fish'.  But I do use floats in other areas.

@NortonJoe ; the tornado  stuff was all around me last week (Wednesday morning). Winds clocked over 80mph (I think that's about 130 kph). Lots of trees busted or downed, some roof damage, small sheds thrown around, power lines pulled down (see trees above). 
I escaped any significant stuff.  But sirens and that wind at 2:30 in the morning isn't fun.
Thank you for your concern.

[puckster_guy]

How cool. Can't wait for ice out here and go for a troll. With the weather warming up here it shouldn't be long. Sounds like a great trip guys. WTG

[johnny walleye]

Great trip .

[SgtCrabby]

I got out again today. Different lake.


Here's my wife with a couple of hers:


We kept 5 crappie; largest was 15 inches, smallet 12 inches.
We only lost 1 jig when the line broke off.  All caught on ultralight rods - what a rush!

Anyone up there in the land of ice & snow starting to see open water yet? (Early spring for any of y'all yet?)

[Jay Thomas]

SgtCrabby,

Sheesh! Wished my fishing partners looked this good

What's your favourite way to prepare your crappie for the table?

Jay

[RickOnt]

Some beauty Crappie there!!

Tasty treats for sure

Simcoe is pretty much ice free,  Nippissing and Kipawa are still iced in.  Thing should start changing in the next couple weeks

[SgtCrabby]

Jay:  I usually just do fried filets,  easy, and then if you want, they can make a great fish sandwich. 
Sometimes I bake em lightly seasoned with lemon.   I think (IMHO), crappie is one of the best eating fish; walleyes the other.

Anyway I've had walleye, you can substitute crappie and not be disappointed.

RickOnt: sounds like spring (ice out) is just north of Barrie near Gravenhurst. 
I'm hoping all of y'all north of there will see an early spring with liquid water.   

[Fort Wisers]

Awesome report, great pics!