What's up yall.. My name is Ian McGonigal and I've been a member on here for a while, I just don't post much. I recently started a guide service on Lake O' the Pines. I'll do some bass trips in the spring but other than that I mostly fish for crappie. I was hoping to fill up my schedule some for the next few months so I decided to have a cyber Monday sale. The sale is $25 off either a half or full day trip.. for any trip booked by Dec 6. It can be for December or anytime in 2022. (The regular price is $275 for a half day(5 hours) and $350 for a full day(8 hours).. so with the sale it's $250 for a half day and $325 for a full day) Trips are for 1 or 2 people.. I believe in conservation and I was really happy to see a lot of the guides go to a 20 fish limit so I will be doing the same thing. (Keep in mind on Pines from Dec. 1 through the end of February by law all crappie caught must be kept. So during that time once you catch your 20 or 40 you can't catch any more) We will be fishing out of a 2021 Crestliner XFC 189 with livescope, 360, and spotlock.

The fishing has been great lately and I expect it to only get better as it gets colder. December and January has always been my favorite time to fish for crappie. I've been catching fish all over the lake using a variety of techniques just depending on the situation. In the last week I've caught 2 pound crappie in 6 ft and in 30 ft. It depends on what part of the lake you're fishing but the best bite for me has been anywhere from 15-30 ft. The water temp has been around 55-62. I've been fishing mostly stumps, standing timber, laydowns, and brush piles lately. A lot of fish are on or near bottom, a lot are suspended. I've been mostly catching them on my 1/8oz hand tied jigs and plastic jigs.. tipped with a minnow sometimes. The color they want most seems to change by the day but you can't go wrong with white/chart, black/chart, and shad patterns.. Jigs have been great, but some of the bigger fish in particular seem to only want a minnow rig.

I had Rick and Jennifer with me the other day for a half day trip. Rick hadn't been crappie fishing in years so I was excited to put them on some fish. I told them the plan was to get to the honey hole first and catch a bunch of fish, then try to target some big fish on the way back. We got to the spot first and it didn't take long and Rick was pulling them in left and right. It was pretty cold so Jennifer decided to just watch. I can't blame her, even my hands were going numb. We stayed in the same area for a while and by about 10:30 Rick had 20 keepers in the cooler and was ready to call it a day. He probably threw back about 20 shorts too. A lot of 9 - 9 3/4" fish that day. He caught some on 1/8oz Hand tied jigs but most of them were caught on a minnow rig with a split shot. That day we caught them in 13-21 ft and most fish were 1-3 ft off bottom. It was a great day of fishing and I can't wait to do it again sometime. (The tailgate picture is from that day)

Sorry for the long post! If anyone wants to go catch some crappie just let me know!
The best way to contact me is call or text 903 431 6545
Here's some fish pictures and a video from the last couple weeks.
The big fish were released. The livescope pictures are old but I figured I'd post a couple anyway.

THE PINES GUIDE

Awesome post and solid fish. Best of luck on your guide service.

Man, that's a good price too!

Thanks I appreciate it!

Thanks Brian!

Well done , how do you like your fishing specialties livescope set up ??

Congrats and good luck on your new endeavor! Looks like somone dropped their cannon or wagon in the lake from that LS pic!

Thanks! It's alright.. It works. I haven't used any other pole mounts to compare it to but it gets stuck a lot and takes some force to turn it especially if your trolling fast. It works good at first.. then once it starts to wear it's gets harder to turn for a while but after a few months or so it wears down and gets easier to turn again. They recommend using dry silicon.. I tried it and didn't like it. If I was buying another mount I would explore other options or just make one.


Thanks I appreciate it! Yeah I figured it was an old wagon or something.