20180423-Cold Water Period is on Fire!

this trip was to find my most recent pattern of “fish on the bank” on a public lake. Reason?... Master Angler trophy-sized fish are not eligible for Master Angler recognition when caught on a private lake. The first main goal is to tag the fish but we want them to count as well for the record.

With sun, above normal temps, and light winds we selected a public lake I’ve had very good luck on last year.

The solunar game plan was to be on the lake at 12:00 for the Minor.The period starting at 12:47 and leave sometime during the following Lull.Period

Once launched I noticed 54° temps at the bank, not a bad jump from skim ice and snow on the ground just a little more than a few days ago. Another thing noticed was an empty public launch parking lot. It is truly amazing the percentage of fishermen hang up their rods this time of year.

We headed out straight away to a waypoint we historically tag good sized B.Crappie early in the season on this lake. The spot did not disappoint. In a short period, we tagged several quality B.Crappie with 5 of them being lunker status. Earl leads the pace with 13” class bruiser sat a 93% Master Angler Rating.

Having a good feeling about this particular little stump field we decided to temporarily move on and let the spot rest for a bit. Earl mentions out loud he feels a Master Angler or two are definitely in the area. As we move away from the spot I side-scan the area and notice multiple fish in between the stumps.

We moved on casting tight to the bank and got a mix of Lepomis and B.Crappie in1 to 2-0’ of water. We were tagging combination of swim jigs or jigs and bait. Then Earl tags a Master Angler Monster B.Crappie stretching the tape to 15.5” on jig nite crawler combination. WOW!! I haven’t seen a B.Crappie that sized since I was 16 years old!

We tried slip floating but with little or no results.

The bite cooled down tight to shore so we moved back to the stump field and noticed schools of neutral fish just below the surface near the boat. I could literally touch the B.Crappie with the tip of the rod before they would move. Now that is a neutral fish!

We called it a trip in the middle of the Lull.Period.

The lunkers, as well as the Master Angler fish, caught measured this trip as an obvious success.