Post by freezerfiller on May 3, 2020 18:59:34 GMT -6
My son and I went to our hunt camp near West Point Lake to meet my brother and do a few things to get ready for the off season, and do a little fishing. If you remember, my son and my brother built a 12' boat together as a reward for my son getting his Eagle Scout rank. So I showed my brother where he could take my son out in the boat, and I hung out on the bank with the bucket fishermen about 6 ft above the waterline on a ledge between two trees. I had tied on a special rig I made for crappie on my ultralight spinning rod with 8# test. It is a copy of a Capps and Coleman rig, but with a much smaller weight so I could fish it under a cork, 4 lb flourocarbon leaders and two #4 perfect circle hooks to keep from getting hung on brush and such. Well I wasn't catching anything with my crappie minnows under a cork nor was anyone else on the bank, and it was getting about the right time, so I put a bass shiner on the bottom hook and kept a crappie minnow on the top hook just in case. The cork went under on the first cast and the drag went out almost all the way to where my brother and son were fishing in the boat (over all of that brush). I finally turned him and saw my cork again before the process went on again. I finally got it back and caught a glimpse of it's mouth. I knew there was no way I would land this fish being 6' above the waterline caught between two large trees and having 4# flouro from the hook to the swivel. So I phoned a friend. My brother and son came over and of course the fish took off one more time. I told my brother that the only way to catch this fish was to lip him, that he could not grab the line whatsoever. I finally got it to the surface and my brother lipped him like he had done it a hundred times (even though later he admitted it was his first). Anyway, it ended up being a 32# (on the scale) flat head and about an hour and a half of great fun and family time! My previous record was 22# on 20# test. I did catch 1 crappie on this rig and never snagged on anything so it does show some promise.
