Micro Changes

Three and one half hours in today, using a rule of fives strategy along a large area that's been close to gold for several years now, then moving to what was a hot spot spawning area, and finally moving to my 1k hole of three years ago, and I was with only five fish on the tally board. At 3 1/2 hours I expect myself to be at 17-18 fish caught.

The 1k hole-while I didn't expect it to be a gold mine in the drastically different conditions (flooded) than three years ago, I thought would surely get my numbers up. Pictured-today my 1k hole was my "1 hole".

Just west of the 1k hole 50 feet or so is a fairly non-descript area I've caught a few crappie-usually during early spring and mid-fall. The charm of this area is that it's a flat that rolls into deep water. But this late in the year I wasn't confident that it would hold much. Well, nowhere I'd stopped, held much. So I moved my 50 feet. The few weeds I thought at best, may hold one or two crappie, each. Of course I'm well aware that structure-wise there's always more going on under the water than meets the eye...or lure. AND...structure as something my size sees it versus something the size of a panfish, is relative to size.

I'd tossed the micro-jig at every stop, today. Fun fact: There's a lot of talk about how fishing has changed the last few years. I try to downplay the notion as click bait for YouTube videos. But in fact, I'm casting trout jigs for every species of panfish 90% of the time, anymore. So I began casting the micro-jig through what even myself-after seeing or at least knowing of all the "fishy structure" on this lake, would describe as "a waste of time".

Three and one half hours of two bass, two bluegill, and one crappie until I made the micro-move adjustment. Committed exclusively to the micro-jig. And made micro-moves simply to change the angle that fish were seeing the micro-jig roll through town, and I caught another 40 crappie and one bluegill in 1 1/2 hours. I thought that all of the crappie were "bitty". But summer crappie look about half the size of spring and late fall crappie. I started slinging them up against the rod ruler decal on my rod and found most of them were in the 7 to 8 inch range. Those are respectable. For smaller bank fishing lakes.

I get it. Most anglers give up before that first 3+ hour segment is ended. I was dreaming of a smooth ride home, KBDZ playing old rock tunes on the air, some kind of junk food stop before I reached the apartment, and a heat pad on this old arthritic hip. And knee. Routine now. But one Tylenol, determination, and micro-changes turned a "Meh" day into a "Yeh" day!