Definitely nothing wrong with the stringer. . Just like feeling a white bass on the other end of the line

I had a few keeper crappie, but myself, I think the size limit should be raised to 11 inches. There really is not much of a fillet on 10 inch crappie. You almost need to clean and scale one, then fry it whole. But they don't start getting some gurth on them till they reach about 11 inches.

Sometimes if I'm only keeping a few fish, I'll keep the big ones exclusively. I don't think keeping 10 inch fish will hurt the fishery by any means though. I know there are some states that don't even have size restrictions on Crappie.

Hurting the fishery isn't the issue, it's the amount of fish fillet you receive from the 10 fish is what bothers me. Not that much really. All head and most of the time somewhat skinny at that length. But they taste great. Not to many people I know eat perch, but man are they ever good. Even the smaller guys fry up nice.

We goto Caddo every year just for the brim.

Couple thousand crickets and fill the coolers up

Good info about other states, I didn't know that. There are some strange rules up north, like no fishing with live bait, or no fishing for black bass in certain months, weird. I'm pretty happy with our rules.

Re: "Oh you are going to like this one. The never of some people, I�m telling you. Three guys walk up and..."

Yup and will only get worse as the weather and fishing gets better.

I was fishing the Irwin horseshoe bend on Sat. a few weeks back when someone walked up to me and asked if I caught anything, to which I replied I did. They angrily looked at me and said, "WHERE DEY AT?!". This guy actually wanted me to stop fishing and pull up my stringer just to prove it. I just ignored him. He was also hollering to several buddies whom I am guessing were stuck in the loop as well. There was also a gentlemen, who stated after he made 3 circles by me, "I've been walking around these woods for 20 years and never experienced this". Well, I guess he never "experienced" the bend at Irwin in his 20 years.

An encounter at "The Steps" on the San Gabriel outside of Taylor tops the list though. I was fishing a hole for a while when a family (grandfather, son, and grandson) walk right up next to me and after a brief conversation hand me a White Rooster Tail. I guess it was a gift, bribe, etc. b/c these jokers proceeded to wade chest deep, right, smack in front of me, in the very hole I was fishing just so they could cast a little further out.

Best way to spend a sunny warm Sunday

That carelessness, lack of manners & rudeness is mostly why I have very little interest in fishing the Yegua up at Irwin bridge.. I know of other places where there are fish to be caught that haven't seen 10,000 jigs already!

As the creeks drop and clear up the crappie will move back downstream to the deeper holes where a slip cork & jig set up works best. We are quickly approaching this time .

Doug, I thought you only use 1/32 oz white jig.

Every fish I caught was on a white jig. What I play with to increase a strike is in the tail hair. I have several hand tied white jigs that I make myself. When the water is this clear, just a few little things on these jigs can make a huge difference. But they are white. A bran new jig out of the package needs a little help as well, there are several things that I do to these that I feel like increases the strike rate. Little adjustments make a huge difference. If I could have gotten my 1/64 oz. jigs in the strike zone, I would have used them, but I couldn't reach the spot. I do several crazy things to these jigs that I think that works, or maybe I would like to think it works since they trigger a strike. These little things I do allow me to catch more fish and that's all the proof I need. When I refer to color, normally it's in the tail hair.

Doug, thanks for the detailed explanation. Now I remember what you showed me with that pair of scissors to trim the tails when I met you at the creek a few years.

I probably showed you how I can change the tail color of my jig on the creek too? But I can't remember who all I've showed the little quirky things that I do to these jigs in order to entice fish and increase my strike rate.

I'll be on the creek sometime here soon; I have a few things to tally up first, then go get my fishing on. I sure hope these fish show up for the party and we can do a dance together. I'm ready to do the ole one two, rod bend, drag sing dance myself. Or a few to do the good old fashion boot scoot and boogie dance, oh yeah. I know, I know, --- I�m a half a bubble off some times with my quirky little post, but hey, it�s all in fun and games my friend. Seems like every day is a new day on this creek, always trying to figure out how to overcome these challenges and conquer it with success. When I get a bite dialed in and start catching fish, I feel like I have accomplished something. Catching fish on artificial baits is nothing more than tricking these guys into thinking it looks like prey to forage on. So, next time you are out, think about trying to match the hatch as they put it, I bet you will see a difference in the amount of fish you catch.