This Bowhunter's Journal
January 18, 2000
Welcome,
I finally got to go on my long awaited crappie fishing at Lake 'O the Pines. The weather was great and the fish were biting. I met a new friend and thoroughly enjoyed the day.
The alarm went off at 5:15 prompt and I rolled out of bed looking forward to meeting Eric Nykamp. I met Eric through a national message board discussing the topic of what else, BOWHUNTING !!! It seems sort of odd that you would meet someone local on a national message board, but such it is ( you can see a picture of Eric's last buck in the photos section of North East Texas outdoors.
We arrived at the minnow store shortly before 7 a.m. and bought our minnows and headed up to Overlook boat ramp. When we arrived we found several acquaintances including Roger Choice and his son, Dale Baker, and Gary and Hunter (what a great name) Arthur.
After paying the $2 ramp access fee and lauching the boat we headed to the channel. I decided that the crappie most likely would be somewhat scattered due to the unusual warm weather. With this in mind, I chose to drift instead of anchor in one spot. With the early morning wind blowing directly over the dam, I lined up the boat to drift parallel to the channel and finally towards the end of each drift, pass over an old slough bed. Well, I got lucky. I caught 20 crappie on the first 1/4 mile drift. Before we were able to duplicate the drift a second time, the wind changed directions and started from the due south. Eric had 18 crappie at this time.
We continued to fish with lesser results as our pattern was now useless. We drifted just the slough where I quickly caught my last 5 and started "guiding" Eric. I must not be much of a guide because the fish seemed to have lockjaw from that point on. Eric caught a couple more larger crappie to finish with 20. I will estimate that his 20 crappie outweighed my 25 crappie.
Eric told me that this was the best crappie fishing trip that he had taken. I was glad he enjoyed himself as we sat and talked and cleaned fish. What could be better than enjoying the company of a new found friend while crappie fishing in perfect weather and catching fish to boot? I doesn't get much better than this! By the way, Dale if you are still looking for your orange marker buoy, I am holding it hostage until I get pictures of Lindsey and her two deer!
Godspeed,
Darren
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