Getting up before 5 AM to go fishing has been tough lately.  It hasn’t been like a month ago when I popped from bed with pleasure.  I’ve really been dragging.  The only thing I want to do is flip over and keep sleeping.  So when Bob called me last night and asked me to be at his house at 5:30 AM to fish his lake with a buddy he has in town, I had to adjust my arrival closer to 7.  But I guess I love fishing, somehow I was French pressing my coffee at 4:50 AM and didn’t need an alarm to wake up.

The morning was amazing – that’s probably the reason for the perky start.  When I hear the first robin sing I’m energized.  While most years the birds are done singing by August, we still have some robins singing like its spring.  There a few other birds milking it as well including a cardinal which is a fan favorite in this house.  I made it to Bob’s at 6 AM.  He and his friend Tim were already out and they motored over and fetched me.

It was calm and cool to start.  There was hardly a cloud once the sunrise burnt through.  I rowed the guys down one of Bob’s smallmouth bass banks but with little action.  I was dethroned as guide and Bob took us to another spot.  There wasn’t much difference in guiding performance other than we found a pocket of nice bluegill.

But our third spot – this was a good one.  In our third spot we not only found numerous small bass, bluegill and perch, but we slew the black crappies for the first time since the move to WI.  “Slew” maybe isn’t the word, because despite all being great eating size, we released every one for next time!

The black crappie is sharp looking fish and great fun to catch.  They fall into the panfish category but they can be challenging to find.  Often in the heat of summer they school suspended in deeper water.  Today we were lucky to find them in the weeds in about 7 ft. of water.  We wrapped it before noon.  I’m glad I got up early!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing