In which I do not catch a bass.

[galyonj]

I'm just about always gunning for bass, of course. But my enthusiasm far outstrips my ability as far as fishing goes, so I'm just happy to catch anything.

 

Anyway, I was throwing a squarebill along the bank the other morning, and I felt the familiar sponginess of a dink. It looked…funny as it came in.

 

"Huh," I thought to myself as I reeled in this fish that seemed very much resigned to its fate, "what are you?"

 

Long story short, apparently crappie will choke a 2.75" crankbait in shallow water if they're hungry enough. I'd never caught a crappie before – never even seen a crappie in person before, and forgot everything I know about taking a decent picture in my bewilderment

 

Came in at 1lb 7oz, and a hair over 15" long. I'm told that's a pretty good size, but I gotta take the dude's word for it. Only fish I caught that morning, but it more than made the trip worth it.

 

After pictures and a session with my cheap scale, it was released safely back to, hopefully, make a bunch more little slablets soon.

[The Bassman]

I've caught smaller ones on chatterbaits.

[galyonj]

12 hours ago, The Bassman said:

I've caught smaller ones on chatterbaits.

On reflection I don't know why I was surprised. Fish keep proving that they'll try to eat whatever's handy, whether it's something they'd normally like to eat or not.

[JustJames]

They do bite big lure especially bigger and more aggressive ones (spawning and Fall crappie). I will take 15” SLAB any day, that is a d**n good size.

[galyonj]

For sure. I can't get a good sense of when crappie spawn hereabouts, but I figure it's pretty soon if it hasn't already happened. Wasn't any kind of fight to bring it in, of course, but it sure did thump that squarebill.

[Bluebasser86]

They've been a menace for me lately. They'll eat anything but my jerkbaits, ned rigs, and paddletail swimbaits have especially been getting harassed. I've caught several pitching Menaces and baby brush hogs, 5" wacky rigs, 3/8oz jigs, 1/2oz spinnerbaits, they're annoying when they're spawning.

 

Had a day several years ago fishing with a buddy where we ran into a friend of his that was crappie fishing. We weren't fishing for them but told him we'd keep any we caught for him. I caught 14 keeper crappie that day, 13 of them were on a popper. I could see 10' down and I'd watch those jet black slabs stalk my popper and if I'd just barely twitch it, they'd pop it. His buddy came in with 1 crappie that he caught on a minnow.