"Your Bobber's Sinking...", Or "I Heard A Gobble..." Who's Ready For A Camping Trip To Do Some Spring Crappie Fishing & Turkey Hunting?:cool:

[Critterhunter]

We are gearing up for a camping trip in about a month to do some turkey hunting during the day and some crappie fishing at night.

We usually head to a remote area well away from the typical spoiled fishing or hunting types who prefer public restrooms and powered camping grounds with a fast food joint not too far away.

Not us. The more remote the more peaceful. Whole point of camping is to get away from society and all it's problems. Very relaxing knowing you don't have some nosy person looking over your shoulder or trying to spoil your relaxation.

Shouldn't be too long before crappies are schooled into the shallows around brush and such to warm up. Nothing like watching minnows dance in your lantern light, attracted by the glow of it being placed right at the water's edge, and then seeing crappies cruise by looking to feed on the schooling minnows.

There's something "magic" about seeing that bobber slowly take a dive and just knowing a big fat tasty crappie might be on the other end of the line. One of my favorite forms of fishing, besides night fishing for cats or wading a river for small mouth using surface lures.

Then there's that distant gobble of a turkey the breaks the peaceful silence of an early morning sunrise as you stalk down a long deserted old logging trail. Talk about something that will wake you up from your morning fog real quick and get your heart going all of a sudden.

The day gets capped off with us cooking wild game or fish around an inviting warm fire and washing it down with a healthy dose of cold ones, staring up at the stars and thinking of what happened that day and what the next day hunting and fishing might hold in store for us. Nothing like it this side of heaven.

 

[skookum]

Hi,
Never had any crappies.
Do they taste good ??
Do they have many fishbones ??
Do you grill or fry them ??
Lotta questions, I know
hh
skookum

 

[mudpuppy]

Skookum, The North American Crappie, crappaliscious crappoladaie, (speck) is a somewhat large schooling nomadic panfish that inhabits most fresh water lakes and rivers in the Eastern US. They are commonly pursued by old men in 16' Alumacrafts with 25 hp Johnsons, utilizing multiple lightweight rods spooled with 6lb test, relatively small Thill bobbers, a split shot, and a tru-turn #6 or 4 hook with a minnow attached right behind the dorsal fin, or through the lip. Crappies can be taken through the ice, but they are most rabidly sought right after ice out, in the spring, when they are in large pre-spawning groups, and the meat is firm, white, and succulent. Good locations are some deep water structure, such as bridges, sunken tree tops and the edges of weedbeds. Crappies are recognized by their delicate intake of the bait, a slow bobber sink, as Critter mentioned, and their transparent mandible. Their firm white boneless flesh is most graciously prepared with a light dusting of Zatarains fish powder right before a plunge in vegetable oil or lard heated to 350 degrees, they are also commonly canned in MN and WI, to be enjoyed later in the year during November televised football contests, along with crackers and cheese, and copious amounts of canned fermented grain based beverages....Some Crappie enthusiasts have been known to go to great lengths in their pursuit, most large Crappie empoundments have tournaments as well. Spring Turkey hunting now...thats a completely seperate addiction altogether!
Mud

 

[starvin]

We have some ponds with Crappie's in them out here in Oregon. Kind of a bonus when fishing for small mouth bass.I normally don't fish for either except that my wife loves to eat them. She is the fisher person of the family and has a heart attack when I hunt birds. If it flies, it dies!

 

[GeorgeinSC]

Our Wildlife Department in South Carolina has started a size limit and has decreased the bag limit also. Population of "Crap E". is way down. Love to fish for them with a fly rod and a jig when they are in the bushes on their spawning run. In the spring I do some fishing for blue catfish while they are feeding on fresh water muscles and on their spawning run. Most of my fishing is for Bream (southern term for sunfishes, bluegill, etc) in the spring and summer. On the rare occasion I do go to Wv or NC to a little trout fishing. Even though I am a novice turkey hunter I love hearing a gobbler respond to my calling. Most exciting turkey hunt I had worked one bird for over 30 minutes when I heard a second bird respond. Shortly there after I heard a third bird responding and every time he gobbled he was closer. The first two birds decided to beat him to our decoys and my brother in law and I each killed one of them. I also enjoy deer hunting. I have hunted them with bow, rifle, shotgun and muzzle loader. I am glad that I am retired so that I have time to do all the things that I enjoy like metal detecting. Would hate to be limited to only doing the things that I enjoy on weekends.