White crappie caught on rainy day teaches one to fish under hardship. Thunder and lightning punctuate the night time skies. But, we are anxious to get out on the water and catch some crappie. Rain or no rain the goal is to learn how to catch crappie in unfavorable conditions. Getting up in the morning it is immediately apparent that the day’s fishing excursion is going to be a wet one. Overcast skies and the rain were just a prologue.
The guide is a full time guide and tournament bass and crappie competitor. He is accustomed to fishing in bad weather. We load up the boat, put on our rain suits and head out. Almost immediately it begins to lightly rain. It continues virtually all day. Weather reports say we are fishing in the edge of a spent hurricane coming up out of the gulf.
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We are basically fishing in frontal conditions weather wise. There is a cold front coming in from the northwest during the day. It is a tough day for fishing.
After a short boat ride we pull into a cove with standing tree trunks and stumps readily visible. The water is about 10 feet deep and we fish with jigs about a foot off the bottom. We cast to the stumps and trunks and then jig the lures back to the boat with a slow retrieve.
The guide catches two good size crappies almost immediately. They are placed in the live well for photos once the rain lets up. The pressure to find a picture fish is off and now we can relax and get into serious fishing. Read on….