Partial Passenger

Dan had been looking forward to today for almost two weeks now. It was either stay home with his wife’s gang and Karaoke, or go fishing. There’s a no brainer! I knew the best bite would be in the afternoon due to the cold night so we launched right around 9:00 this morning. To make matters even better, we were using his boat to fish! Due to the shallow waters we had to navigate, a lighter boat was our best choice. Unfortunately, the big winds and waves had me soon second guessing our decision. We were faced with 2 & 3 footers and a giant howl from the SW. A little splashy but we got the job done! Once we arrived at our destination, he was put to the test. Now he had to operate the electric motor and try to fish in these hateful winds. I was definitely enjoying being a passenger caching fish from the back of the boat. Dan on the other hand was struggling a bit, using the foot pedal on his new electric for the first time. Although it was  difficult in the beginning, he eventually managed and now we were both hooking up. We were targeting crappie and working hard to get them. Bluegills and sunfish were more active under our floats, but some crappie were cooperating. We moved around a few times but found ourselves back where we began, by the afternoon. With the air temps much warmer now and sunshine blazing down on the water, it was only a matter of time. Unfortunately the winds had also picked up and I eventually gave in and took over on the electric motor. With the boat so light, we were being blown all over too quickly and I didn’t want to spook the fish. Although I’m use to cables for foot control, I soon realized that his pedal wasn’t much different. For the last couple of hours in our day, we both boated our share of these tasty morsels. It was also their lucky day as every last one was released! Dan managed to get the biggest one and on his last cast too! I decided to call it a day and end on a high note. I’m pretty sure if we stayed there, we would have caught many more. Unfortunately I had dinner plans and needed to get home. What started slow, eventually changed with the weather and ended with a bang! There’s still plenty of days ahead for more crappie action but I’ll be splitting it between panfish and salmon now that the season has arrived. Either way, I’ll be on the water as often as I can in the coming weeks. Hopefully the weather as well as the fish will cooperate once again!