Yesterday, Wendy and I got a chance to fish one of our favorite farm ponds in northwest Missouri. I have fished this pond for almost 20 years now and have seen it cycle. It used to have few fish, but big fish. A few years later, it changed to the exact opposite with lots of stunted bass. I have noticed that this pond is started to cycle back towards larger fish but fewer of them. I have also noticed that the underwater weeds (hydrilla, maybe?) isn't as thick as in years past.
Finally, I was told by the land owners that crappie had been introduced to the lake recently by a family member in the hopes of making it a good crappie pond. They also told me that a 2 pound crappie was caught in the lake earlier this summer. I have fished this lake a few times this year and hadn't seen any crappie but was a little anxious about how this introduction was going to effect the overall health of the lake. I have heard that having crappie on small lakes in Missouri can be tricky to manage. I have seen instances where crappie overpopulate if they are not harvested and then you end up with a lake full of 4-5 inch crappie. On the other hand, there are a lot of bass in this lake that just might feast on these fish which could be a good thing for the bass. One of the goals for the day was to see if we could find some crappie and figure out how many there are and how big they currently.
A second goal that I had was to fish a tandem wooly bugger rig. I have used this before and to be honest, I don't know why I don't fish two woolies more. And if truth be told, I was hoping to catch two fish at the same time. I knew it was going to be a stretch, but you can't do it if you don't try. I also used the same type of wooly as the front and the rear fly. They had olive tails with some flashabou, white pearl chenille bodies, and grizzly olive hackle. They also had small coneheads with 10 wraps of .020 lead wire behind the cone to ensure durability.
Within the first five casts, I caught two crappie with one being 11 inches and the other being 12 inches (not at the same time). Wendy also caught a couple of twelve inch crappie and a smaller one as well. We left this water to "rest" it with the goal of coming back later. We didn't catch another crappie anywhere else on the lake after leaving this spot. We did however catch some nice bluegill and bass that were up to 13 inches long. Another observation that I made was that most bass hit the front fly of my tandem rig with bluegill hitting the rear fly the majority of the time. We went back to "crappie town" a few times and caught a few more 12 inch crappie. Typically, I don't like to fish for crappie because they don't seem to fight very hard and they are just a little boring in my opinion. However, these fish really put a bend in my 6 weight and it was a blast catching these fish.
Overall, it was a great day on the water. The takes were aggressive and the fights were memorable. I also think the lake is in good health and while I need more data to substantiate that, I was glad to not see stunted crappie or bass on this particular day. It was a great experience fishing a tandem rig and I am proud to say that I didn't get one single knot. I do have some unfinished business in regards to catching two fish at the same time!
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