This is a multi-visit report. It was a long 3 day weekend of fishing in 5 different lakes so I'll remember as best I can.
After my encounter with missafish, I can catch tons of crappie out of Larsen. The important lessons are that they bite jigs, not worms, and they only bite before sunrise and after sunset. And that if you're using a jig in dim light and they're not biting, move locations, because they move.
If I recall, Friday morning I landed about 5, Friday evening about 10, 8 of them between 9 and 9:30 pm, Saturday morning another half dozen, Saturday evening another half dozen. Saturday evening they were much less cooperative than Friday evening. The problem is, they're all small. ALL of them. 25+ fish, zero over 6 inches, and probably only 2-3 of them even made 6 inches.
I think Saturday morning it was, I also caught my first bass out of Larsen. About 4 inches. Apparently I am the king of catching minnows, as whatever lake I visit I get .... almost entirely fish in the 4 to 7 inch range.
I've put in far more effort at Larsen than can be justified with zero keepers in approaching 10 visits. It is fun to go catching rather than fishing, now that I know what to do - a lot more fun than when I was catching nothing - but I'm not willing to eat 5 inch fish, and if I catch 10 fish I expect at least 1 to be a keeper. I've given my rubber raft 2 trial runs now. I think I'll be spending a lot more time at Lake Ballinger in the near future as that is a 5 minute drive and Larsen is a 30 minute drive.
On a side note, on Saturday evening I bumped into a guy and his 2 kids on the dock at Larsen. They were fishing with bobbers, worms, and about a 6 food leader. Apparently down 6 feet everything changes. He said they had caught 2 small trout. While I was there they caught another 3 or so bullheads, and while the boy got distracted reeling in and left his bobber right next to the dock, he caught a bass about 6-7 inches. So clearly there are other options in this lake, but they require more depth.
On a side note, the crappie seem to become less active when it's really dark. They seem to like dusk best.


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