FINALLY got into the Crappies!!

A Little Back Ground on the lake....

We have a small Lake here in Central PA, Memorial Lake State Park, located on the Grounds of Fort Indiantown Gap and it has a few fish to choose from to target and catch....

In it is White and Black Crappies, Yellow Perch, Chain Pickeral, Bass, Pumpkinseed Sunfish, Bullhead Catfish, Carp and they say Muskies but seems no one has mentioned catching any of them and only seem to catch the Chain pickerals!

I been fishing this Lake for the past 5 years...I used to have another lake that was good for Crappies but they started drawing it down in the fall and it created the fish to be stuck in small loactions and the guys pretty much fished the panfish out when they ice fished and it isn't worth fishing anymore excet for trout when the state stocks it!

I was looking for another lake to fish for Crappies and about 5 years ago I had a guy I know who owns a Bait and Tackle Wholesale company suggest I try Memorial Lake..I have a Buddy who lived 2 miles away from the other lake that got fished out and he never caught a Crappy in his life...he was wanting to Experiance Crappy Fishing....So I suggested he tag along with me to this new lake, I had never fished before...

We went out and tried it 1 evening at the end of april that year...first night out we caught 48 crappies between the 2 of us, we would have caught more but we ran out of fathead minnows!

Beginners Luck struck that night, My Buddy caught a nice 15 inchs SLAB, he was HOOKED...We had found a spot where someone had taken a picnic table and we assume placed it on the ice to sit at while ice fishing and left it there, when the ice melted, the picnic table was left where it sat!  It is only a Good Jump from the shore onto the picnic table where they placed it, but they placed it at a GREAT Spot!  Of all the times we have fished there, there has been NO ONE At it, we always have it to ourselves and we catch a good amount of Crappies that are between 11-14 inchs long..

Well, this spring has been 1 of those springs that just isn't right, rain almost every day, not warm, not the right weather to seem to be able to warm the water to make the crappies move into the shallows and start to spawn..

I been out 3 times since the 3rd week of april and have not caught a single crappy, only thing I caught in those 3 times out was a 12 inch chain pickeral...

Saturday evening I was thinking of getting up early Sunday morning and heading out and try it 1 more time, when I got up yesturday morning I decided I was not going to bother, I had a headache and just didn't want to drive the 15 miles to the lake and sit and watch 2 boobers flaot around... All morning long it kept nagging at me, so around 2 pm I decided I was going to try it 1 last time!

I gathered up the gear and got the 2 dozen fathead minnows out of the tank and headed out..the sky was overcast and it looked like Rain AGAIN, the Weatherman had said Friday evening when I watched the weather report that Saturday and Sunday were to be in the 70s and no chance of rain till monday morning. well it didn't go that way!

I got to the lake and decided to try "Sight" Fishing for crappies on spawn beds nead the boat launch, I went to where the signs say you can fish (a small area around the boat launch is off limits) and started looking, NOTHING, I tried tossing out in the deep water, Nothing, Gave it 30 minutes, Nothing...It started to drizzle, so I decided i was going to head to the Picnic table on the other side of the lake and see what happened 1 more time...

Got there and hooked up 2 rods with a fathead minnow on each 1 and had the boober set about 2 feet above the minnow..tossed them out and sat to wait... sat for 45 minutes and it started to rain pretty good, lasted about 5 minutes, No Sooner did it stop raining and I was thinking of heading home, Both Boobers went under...I grabbed the closest rod and gave a yank, in comes a 12 inch crappy, off the hook and tossed into the minnow bucket, grabbed the other rod, same thing another 12 inch crappy.....I got them on a stringer and hooked up 2 more minnows and back in they went....Seemed liek they were going to start biting.. when I cast the 1 rod, the boober no sooner hit the water and I sat the rod down to cast the other 1 when the boober goes down and the line tightens and the rod starts bouncing..I grabbed it, gave a GOOD Yank and cound tell I had something BIG..Started reeling it in and as it got to the side of the picnic table I could see it was a Crappy about 16-17 inchs long, it looked like it would have hung over a dinner plate REAL GOOD and make 2 Nice BIG Fillets1 Well as I'm trying to get it to the back side of the table to get it to the bank and grab it, it tugs and I tug and the hook comes flying out of it's mouth and hooks onto the bill of my hat and AWAY that BIG Crappy went to fight another day!

I never caught a crappy that big, have seen them caught by others but never caught 1 myself... would have been nice but there is always another time...

I ended up with 6 crappies, all 12-13 inchs long and came home and filleted them out...

I'll be back at it again this weekend with hopes that I can get into them again and get maybe a PA Days limit of 50 crappuies this weekend and have a Nice Fish Fry for the Wife... she isn't much of a fish eater unless it comes from a box from the store in Stick form, but when I get into the Crappies and Perch, she LOVES it and looks forward to a fish fry out of them!