Being different

[CrappieJohn]

Finding yourself at a standstill with the heat and iffy fishing? Wishing the ice would hurry up and arrive? Are your usual stratagies falling apart on your favorite fish? Try doing something different.

As many of you know, I am a crappie fanatic tried and true. Plastics for these machines are my choice of bait. And for as much as I'd like to think that I have them figured out, there are times when such just is not the case.

As a rule, this is the time of year when I begin a serious search in the Mississippi River backwaters for crappies coming into the shallows to feed on young of the year forage. Sunfish will usually be a compadre to the crappies too. This year's unusual heat has done a number on this fishing, so I finally relented and have been casting for Bass instead.

The buckets are far from my mind most of the year and I seldom target them. My bass fishing is usually a coincidental thing.....catching them while I am looking for my crappie buddies. It is not that I don't enjoy catching them, but rather that the crappies have posed far more challenge. Or so I thought.

A few weekends ago a couple other FM'ers and I went to fish the backwaters hoping to find a decent crappie bite, but such was not to be. One of the party, though, tripped over a bass bite that turned out to be simply incredible. That member was 13 years old! (talk about learning from the younger crowd!) At any rate, this was a day of serious education for this old buck, but one of pure enjoyment as well.

Since that weekend day, I have returned to that spot on many occasions and have had a blast. Now the joke might be sliding around that Crappie Tom is jumping ship ( that avitar is a short term thing, trust me!), but rest assured that such is not the case at all. I really don't have to catch crappies or other pannies to have a successful day. Bass will do nicely and the northerns are a bonus of riot proportions.

Since this fishing is being done in the same general area that my crappie fishing would be taking place, these outtings give me the opportunity to keep in check with the goings on in the waters. In another forum, the mention of pin minnows making their first appearance in the backwaters is a real encouragement, as these are the primary forage of the crappies right now. With the fuel prices what they are, it helps to justify the trip to the river if I can wet a line while I snoop out what the crappies may be doing.

Today while BASS fishing, I noticed for the first time that the crappies were beginning to "herd" the pin minnows along a section of currented water. I could actually see the crappies, 10-perhaps 15 at a time, bumping into the rock at the water's edge and see the water boil from frantic minnows.

Being a bit different sometimes is a good thing. In this case it has allowed me to fish some incredible fish that I normally would not persue and at the same time it has kept me in tune with those fish which I favor. Now, instead of going shorefishing the boat will go along so I can get into the crappie huants I prefer to fish. BUT....I have evry intention of fishing from shore fow at least a while each trip just to take part in a new style of fishing that I can blame the heat for as far as introducing me more directly to it.

Being different is a good thing when it involves fishing. In a large part, that is how fishing has become such a lucretive sport. It doesn't really mean that you have to go far away from your regular routine to be different....for me it was simply changing some tackle. While my plastics assortment is primarily a crappie/pannie type of array it also includes a lot used for walleyes/sauger too. I got my mitts on some bass plastics earlier this summer and this has given me a chance to try my hand at it. I got fish the first time it was tried. But really the topwater bite is what has garnered my attention. The first couple boils while using a skitterpop were heartstopping. If anything, I am hooked on the boil!

Indeed, I have found another kind of fishing to help ease the wait for more favorable crappie conditions...and the need to make room in the closet now for another tackle box. I stepped out of the crappie arena and actually went bass fishing....just to do something different. But like I mentioned, I have kept my crappie eye on the water and it has paid the dividend.

Being different....it has it's merits if you look for them.

[Matt Johnson]

lol. We all know you're not jumping ship... because you can't swim

Great read Tom!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[delmuts]

ya! but he WAS dangling his toes in the water!!

[CrappieJohn]

Wrongo Del....I have seen what is swimming in these waters.

And Del....send me your address again. I seem to have lost it already.

[delmuts]

what's a matter tom? worried about some of those things with TEETH ???

[CrappieJohn]

yup.

[CrappieJohn]

Hey Del....you sent me an email regarding the 7th of Sept. I replied but got it back as undeliverable. Throw me a note using your personal e-mail and I can respond to you.