Crappie Season
Crappie Season
Happy New Year!
As many of you know, I started writing this weekly fishing column back in early June, and my last column was in October of 2012.
Since then, I've received phone calls and emails from many of you, urging me to continue writing.
So here I am, starting off the New Year with my first fishing column for 2013.
I consider myself a bass fisherman - first and foremost.
Like many of you, I love fishing for largemouth bass and there's no better place to do it than right here in Highlands County.
But truth be known, I love to fish for anything that swims, and a close runner-up to bass are those magnificent, paper-mouthed black crappies - better known here in Florida as speckled perch or specks.
Since October, I've been going after specks whenever I get a chance, day and night, fishing Lake Istokpoga, Lake Glenada and Lake Lotela.
As you might expect, I've had some good trips and some not-so-good trips.
In late October while the weather was still pretty hot, I was catching a fair number of specks at Lake Istokpoga.
Drift-fishing on the northwest corner of the lake and around Grassy Island in 4- to 6-feet of water, I caught some of the biggest specks I've ever seen.
Many of them were in the 12-13 inch range with a few approaching 14 inches and one monster going just a tad bit over 15 inches in length.
I was surprised to be catching them in such warm, shallow water, and moved out to deeper water a number of times hoping to find some bigger schools. But I never did.
My best trip on Lake Istokpoga was 16 specks in early November, and they were some nice ones.
My brother and I tried staying out later on one trip, after dark, thinking that might be the answer to finding the fish schooled up.
But I've got to tell you, it takes a brave soul to be on Lake Istokpoga after dark.
I'm sure those of you who have fished inside the reeds on Lake Istokpoga have noticed the non-biting, midge flies, known as "blind mosquito's" that thickly attach themselves to everything - well fishing at night is a thousand times worse.
As the sun was setting, we lit a lantern and put our floating fish light out in front of the boat and suddenly, bugs were everywhere.
Even with head masks, the bugs were so thick they'd just land on the netting and buzz.
Within 20 minutes of darkness, the bugs were two inches thick on anything and everything in my boat.
So thick all you could see was a blanket of bugs.
Thank God they don't bite.
Needless to say, our night fishing trip ended pretty abruptly.
By mid-November I started fishing Lake Glenada and although I found fish a great deal deeper, they didn't cooperate all that well, providing me with less than a half-dozen on two or three trips.
And even those that I did catch were pretty average, ranging in the 9-10 inch range.
But for every "keeper" I caught, I probably released two under-sized fish.
Around Thanksgiving, Bob Scranton, one of my fishing buddies in Avon Park suggested that we give Lake Lotela a try.
We've put in many nights on Lake Lotela, as have others and we've been rewarded well.
Not every trip has produced, in fact a couple of nights the blind mosquitoes were equally as bad there as they were on Lake Lotela, but I guess I'm getting used to them.
Most of the specks we've caught have been in some of the deepest areas of the lake.
Depths approaching 25 feet or more, but I love the deep water fishing.
I've only limited out once, but Bob's caught his limit a number of times.
Many of the specks are in the 10-12 inch size range, with a few larger ones going 14 and 15 inches.
Not too many small ones, but when the bites slow, even the small ones get your attention.
I did catch a few small bass and one pretty good sized catfish.
Fishing with a standard "crappie rig", two snelled hooks with minnows and a weight at the bottom, catching a double-header of 12" slabs is like catching a 5 lb bass.
Like most fishermen, whether fishing for bass or specks, I'm always trying to figure out how to catch a trophy sized fish.
Just out of curiosity, I went on the internet to see what the IGFA World Record and the Florida State Record was for black crappies.
And by the way, according to the IGFA website, there are no white crappies in Florida.
Here's what their web page had to say; "crappies can be distinguished from each other by the number of spines in the dorsal fin; 6 in the white crappie and 7-8 in the black crappie. The white crappie is the only sunfish with the same number of spines in both the dorsal and anal fins. Also, the spots on the white crappie are neatly arranged into 7-9 vertical bars on the sides, whereas in the black crappie the spots are scattered in an irregular fashion. In the white crappie the spots are sometimes vaguer, which may explain the names "white" and "black" crappie since in fact both fish are essentially the same color. The dorsal, anal, and tail fins are also spotted or mottled in both species, but the paired fins (pectorals and ventrals) are never spotted. As in all the sunfishes, the dorsal spines run together with the dorsal rays, but in the crappies, the spines and rays look distinctly like a single fin rather than like two connected fins."
The current IGFA World Record black crappie is 5 lb, 0 oz, while the white crappie world record is 5 lb, 3 oz.
The record for Florida was set back in 1992 with a 3 lb, 13 oz fish.
Stories abound on the internet of much larger crappies, most I suspect are untrue.
But one photograph, claiming to be of a 7-pound black crappie was too appealing not to include with this column.
It turned out to be some tricky photography, but can you imagine a 7-pound crappie?
Well it's good to be back writing for the News-Sun.
I look forward to going over the "fish-tale cliff" in 2013 and sharing my fishing adventures with all my fishing friends.
Don Norton is a professional tournament bass fisherman, bass fishing guide, and custom rod builder. He has also taught a few fishing classes at the South Florida Community College. He lives in the Golf Hammock area of Sebring with his wife Lexie, mother-in-law Ruth Charvat, Ranger, a huge black lab and Riley, a large golden retriever and is the owner of a custom rod building company appropriately named "The American Fisherman". He can be reached at 216-339-6571, 330-635-6682 or by email at donorton13@gmail.com. His website address is theamericanfisherman.com.
Friday, January 04, 2013 - www.newssun.com/FRI-1-4-13-FishColumn