We fished yesterday evening from 7:30 until 9:30 and again this evening from 6 to 9:30. Caught a total of 30 fish. We were mainly after crappie again. We got 10 ranging up to 11 1/2 inches and only 2 under the 9 inch minimum. They have been biting hard for the past 3 weeks and still are. I would rate the crappie fishing as very good to excellent right now. The perch were biting good this evening too. We kept 7 and tossed back 3. Sammi caught two 15 inch Tench and two 12 inch catfish too. The rest were all small bass. The catfish and little bass all went back in, but we kept the 2 Tench. Some people say they are good eating so we thought we would give them a try. Sammi filleted them out and after removing all the bones, there isn't a lot of meat left. We haven't cooked them yet but so far we aren't real impressed with them as possible table fare. But they are fun to catch.
Oh, and I also caught a large turtle. It was a bit of a challenge getting the hook out of its mouth. This wasn't a very happy turtle at that moment. But I did get it unhooked in the end with little harm done, and we took a couple photos and released him / her? We see turtles every time we go out. They are swimming all over the lake and pop their heads up to have a look at you.
We caught everything, including the turtle, on 1/8 oz mini jigs with brown and orange skirts tipped with a worm and fished below a bobber about 3-5 feet down. We go out to about 1/3 across the lake and a little to the north from the public launch to where the weeds start to thin out and look for small open pockets of water to fish.
There were only 2-3 other boats on the lake the last 2 evenings. Its a very quiet and peaceful place to fish. There are several ospreys nesting near by and they fish the lake regularly each evening. They are really fun to watch. Lots of waterfowl too. And we saw a moose and a flock of turkeys with a dozen young ones a couple weeks ago. We will be back again soon.

Paul & Sammi

7/27/2007 12:01:00 PM

1. The 1/8 oz jigs i said we use are actually 1/16 oz. I need to wear my glasses more often and read the package labels. doh'
2. We deep fried the Tench last night and it is actually quite tasty. The meat is a light pink / orange color and has a mild flavor. I would eat it again if someone else fillets out all the bones. Does anyone know if its necessary to remove the meat along the lateral line on a Tench? We could of salvaged 25% more meat if we had kept it. I have cooked fish unknown to me before, and learned the hard way that this area needs to me removed on some fish.

ruthven78

7/27/2007 7:30:00 PM

The only time I caught a turtle was on a private lake with my grandpa using a fly, he just leaned over and cut the line and said it would eventually fall out ok...since its so hard to get it out of their mouth

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