4-5 crappies

[johnr]

Wx: 60s to 70s. Clear, sunny, almost no wind
Water: 56-57. 2-3ft viz

Fished the mid Roanoke again 1030 - 2pm with my wife and daughter. The water was considerably clearer today. We started off with minnows, just watched fish stare at them on the livescope though. Switched to jigs and the bite was better. The fish were scattered, in smaller groups than the last trip. Still mostly on brush. Found one school of spawners way under a very shallow dock.

Ended with near 50 in the boat. Kept a few that were hooked deep, most got another day to swim. 9-10” average with a few 12-14”. We got them from 3’ deep to 25’ deep. The school at 25’ was the biggest we found today.

It was a rare treat that the fish let us camp right on top of them at nearly every spot we fished. It was a lot of fun watching all 3 of our jigs on the livescope and calling the bites.

[johnr]

One other interesting note. On Friday about 1/3 of the fish caught were white crappies. Today, not a single white crappie was caught.

As we fished, we’d periodically see groups of 3-6 suspended fish swimming around well off the brush pile. These were much larger fish than baitfish. Sometimes they’d only be a couple feet deep. I know that white crappies have a propensity to suspend more-so than blacks, so maybe that’s what we were seeing.

[31Airborne]

thanks for the details on the water, john. heading out that way tomorrow - this helps a lot. nothing like having a catching kind of day. well done!