Harris Crappie Fishing

The year has been a bit light for the amount of fishing that I have been able to accomplish, but Chris Hall and I managed to slip out this morning for some crappie.  We left at 0dark30 with plans to be on the water at first light, but the planned stop at the Bait & Tackle shop threw a wrench in the plans.  Since the shop wasn't open, we had to detour all the way to Moncure to pick up minnows , put us about an hour behind.

We found that the lake level was a little high, after last week's rains and certainly higher than it has been in previous years.  Water temps are cooling and were at 80.5 degrees today. The color was a bit stained, again due to the rain and there was evidence that the offshore vegetation is in the first stages of breaking up in transition to winter conditions.  which means the fall bass bite should be getting hot really soon.  It was a beautiful time to be outside with cool temps, bright skies, and a moderate breeze out of the northeast.

We started out fishing a creek channel in 30ft of water, after marking fish on the depth finder, but abandon the after a half hour of no takers.  Then we took a shot and began to slowly work our way into shallower water.  The move soon proved to be the right decision as we began to pick up fish in 18ft of water on the minnow rigs. At the same time, we began throwing some beetle spins toward the bank and rolled a few crappie.

The action did get extremely hectic at one point, when reeling in a crappie hooked on a beetlespin, one of my trolling rods bent over.  I set the hook and set the rod back in the rod holder, and attempted to remove the first fish.  Before I could turn my attention back to the trolling rod it began to slip drag and run toward the bank.  My first thought was that something big ate my crappie before I could get it off the hook.  I grabbed the rod and quickly realized that I now have a crappie and a sizable bowfin on the same rig.  Then, as I was about to gain control, another trolling rod bent down. The result one angler, three fish  at the same time which equates to a tangled mess.

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Nice report. Glade you were able to find some crappie. I fished at Harris yesterday also. Fishing with jigs and minnows was not able to find the crappie but did find some nice White Perch.  They were suspended at 12' in 19' of water. They really liked the red and yellow Roadrunner.

Good times, even if the fish were everywhere but where my lines were.  The bowfin was the first I'd ever actually seen in person, so that was an added bonus.

Thanks for the nice report tom! Sounds like you and chris had a good time out on the water!

Nice work Tom on the Bowfin... Them critters will get your blood to running when you hook into them.