Since the winter pattern bass bite has slowed down and the weather has begun to feel like spring it was time to switch gears. Eager to start catching some spring crappie we decided to target them instead of bass. One of the best local crappie areas the Potomac river has been running high from rain and melting snow so we were still going to stay in the ponds. Our previous attempts at catching crappie this year have failed but we were encouraged by the signs I had the previous trip. We decided we needed to give ourselves a little boost by using live minnows which are always a good bait for tempting the sometimes tricky crappie. The first challenge was finding minnows there aren't any bait shops nearby and most bodies of water are cold and the minnows are still wherever they hide in the winter. We did have one idea where to catch some and luckily it was ice free it just took a little of a hike to get to and 15 minutes to scoop up a couple dozen. We headed to the pond to see if we could entice some crappie to bite on live bait. I thought the minnows would result in instant success and the crappie would be jumping on the hook. It didn't quite happen like I planned and after 30 minutes of nothing Collin got on the board with a Largemouth that had some really red lips. After another lull in the action I was snapped out of my daydream as my cork began to swim off to the right and then slowly sink beneath the surface. I reeled my slack and did a light hookset to not pull the hook on the fragile mouthed fish. Luckily the fish stayed on and I was able to land my first crappie of 2016. This upcoming week is looking even warmer and the crappie should become more accessible from the banks of the ponds and Potomac.
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