Went to Anderson and the Crappie bite was on! I was bass fishin' with a 1/4 oz. grub (3 1/2 in.) and accidentally started catching very good sized Crappie. While reeling in about my 15th fish a huge largemouth (maybe 15 pounds or more) attacked my Crappie with lightning quick speed and basically scaled my fish. Because this Crappie was pretty big the hook did not penetrate and the Bass had to let it go. Amazingly, it followed the fish all the way up to me and seemed to wait as I watched in awe! Out of curiousity I lowered the Crappie back in the water to see how he/she would react, but all it did was stare/smell my catch and non-challantly disappear into the deep. What an experience! A great predator, indeed!

Time to swap the mini jigs for some 9" trout plugs I'd say.

That's pretty nuts. The biggest fish I've ever heard of out of Anderson was like 8lbs, although the ranger at Coyote was trying to tell me and Nico that some dude caught a 10 from shore a few weeks ago. I fished it once in my boat and caught a 5-1 on a 10" power worm, but everyone told me it was all small ones, so I never went back. Cool story though. I've heard the same thing about bass hammering on crappie at Margarita, San Pablo, and other lakes. Time for a 10" crappie lure to come on the market LOL.

A guy I met at the B.A.S.S. University when they swung through Cupertino back in, like, '96 or '97, and he told me he caught a 16-plus out at Anderson, up the creek channel at the north end, when the water was up. He says he hitched his boat back up & drove it over to Coyote Bait & Tackle but for some reason couldn't get any kind of certification or acknowledgement of his catch (supposedly for 'lake record' status or some such thing).

I don't recall exactly what his issues were around that, but he told a pretty convincing story. I have no real grounds to deny him his tale. I believe he also said he rushed it back to the lake again to release it alive, although it was struggling some to stay vertical.

He also claimed the bass boat he owned (which I went out with him once on) was won at a Georgia or Alabama tournament, before he moved to California. It was pretty cool -- one of the first times I had seen that PinPoint trolling motor/depthfinder combo in action, where it tracks to the shoreline and/or depth contours, in 'auto-pilot' mode. Neat little package!


In any case, they're out there, boys, rest assured!

JCAB,
Where EXACTLY? I've been hitting the lake after work and want to try a Monsterbait I've been working on. It isn't a Crappie but that 1 might still eat it. Care to join me Thursday at 5ish?

Tight lines,
Wade