Launched at Cassle Creek boat ramp and on the water by 6:15am, Dorian and I were out to try out crappie fishing for the first time with Livescope. I got rid of the single chair up front and now have 2 chairs for both of us. Tried to keep the long poles out of the water initially so that we could focus on casting jigs into trees approach. Minnows bought through Liars Korner were lethargic and not sure why as I had bought them the day before and kept them cool with gallon jug of ice and bubbler all night. No line at pay station and not busy at all (2-3 cars in dirt lot by ramp and maybe 10 or so trucks with trailers in main parking lot).
We fished Castle Creek in trees in 20ft of water per some recommendations I got from Randy and Cameron. I'm not very familiar with the lake with regard to tree locations except one spot up and to the right so we headed there first.
We found trees with fish and baitfish but difficulty estimating distances and spot locking boat in a way that we could see really where our jigs were. We kept moving and put our long poles off back as a secondary measure to see if we could hook up with something while we searched for trees. Caught a couple small crappie at a spot with long poles so we spot locked on that tree and focused there. Got spot locked with tree basically 10ft out in front of us dropped our jigs down and that really helped us visualize where we thought we were but where we really were. Dorian outfished me but was nice to see our plan come to fruition. That tree had plenty of action but all small fish from crappie, white bass, and largemouth.
It was tough for us to leave that tree mainly because we were getting action and honestly I wasn't quite where where to try for trees next. We did try up river more but found ourselves in 8-12ft of water for awhile too shallow and I think we may have been near end of that arm.
Dorian and I both felt the Livescope really helped us not only find and see the tree, but verify for sure if it had fish in it and really decide to focus on the tree or not. It also helped us realize where we cast and drop time of the jig to understand where our lines were. I'm looking forward to trying out the Livescope more this fishing season. Only issue is it's a 2-person deal and I often fish with my entire family in the boat 4-5 people so that doesn't suit well for that many people unless I get a 2nd Livescope installed on back (uhhhh, no). So maybe on those scenarios we'll still use it to verify trees and activity within such trees.
I saw JT SlabDaddy was also out there he caught 20 or so, in Humbug if I heard him correctly. The lake is healthy and while it's still hot, it's worth a trip if you can tolerate the heat. We each got in the water twice to cool off and had the shade canopy up in the back of the boat for heat relief.
Attended the National Crappie League (NCL) meeting at Wild Horse West at 1pm yesterday saw a few AZCA members: Dave (sparkchaser), Cameron (Crappie whisperer), Randy (Slipbobber72), Matthew (AZLeadWorks), Mal (TreeHauler), JT (SlaBBDaddy), James (Rollo), Robert & Paula Swindle (The Minnow Bucket), Brian (Mudshark Marine), and others (sorry if I missed a few members).
Cameron announced AZCA donation/sponsor for this NCL season so I spoke a little on that but I heard those crazy trophies Dave and Larry took home were like $600 a piece???!! The AZCA donated $400 for this season hopefully an AZCA member can bring home the championship again.
