 We had ourselves a nice little campfire last night, rigged up some tackle, went to bed, and had a beautiful sunset, and went to bed in a beautiful Texas hill country, and we pretty much woke up in the Arctic tundra. I'm having to eat inside the truck, because it's just so windy outside. Cold merc start, give it to me. Oh yeah, there is a derby going out of the spot. I want to fish in for crappie, so I'm sort of taking my time and let all those boats run out of there. I'm hoping that their off-limits is by that launch, so I'm not gonna be bombarded by bass anglers, but they've got some sort of three-day tournament out here. I don't know, rat boats, pros, you know, you know the deal. And when I get on a bass lake that has a lot of pressure, that makes me want to get out the crappie rods, because everyone's fishing for bass and you start to feel that pressure and the bass fishing starts to slow down. It's like you unlock a whole other part of the lake, it's amazing. These fish are beautiful guys, they really are. I think a lot of these are hybrid crappies. Let me know in the comments what the name of the crappie is that has the line down its back. I think we'll catch one of those today. It's a sort of a mixture between the white crappies and the black crappies. Ooh, my hand almost blew away. And when they start to spawn, they get really colored up. So really beautiful fish. And hopefully someday soon, I'm gonna be getting a crappie tattoo of one of these beautiful black crappies. Let's go find out if they're gonna bite today on this blustery weather. Everyone is just staring at me. Like, why are you going in? We're all going out. I'm here to catch some fish, you can't catch, son. Here. Oh, this might get a little bass on bed too while I'm at it. There you go. Okay guys, so a couple techniques. I'm gonna be using jigs mostly. I've got a little bug rigged up to vertically jig. If I can see one, site fish with it on my 10-foot pole. And then I've got a little, kind of a search bait. Throw that around, that's a little snacky swimmer on the 16th ounce little underspin head. And then I've also got a cork rig right here. So I've got a cork rigged up. I'm actually gonna start out with this. Cork rig rigged up, 16th ounce, little head, got a dangle dart on there with this cork. And I've got a bobber stop up there, a couple feet. And just from what I have been able to see around some of these docks and the docks and also just brush around this area, there's crappie that are just tucked up, just a couple feet below the surface. Just got bit, there we go. We are on folks, and that is a large mouth. Yep, that is a large mouth. If you think they won't eat this too. Oh, you'd be wrong. These little green ones love these things. Hey, fun way to start the day. Watching a cork go under a bit of a while. Right as I was going under a walkway. Pesky little bass, just keep jumping on my line. Oh man, he's been caught before. He has a hook in his throat. I'm gonna help this guy out right now. Poor guy. Aggressive little male. Show you a trick this person didn't know. So you can go through the gill plates here, just be very careful not to damage their gill rakers. You wanna insert the pliers closed so you don't hurt them. And then you can rotate up that way, just pop the hook out. That is an owner for hot worm hook. Out of your mouth buddy, see ya. Thank me later. That's like fresh, you know, last couple days. All right, did my good deed today. Now I should be able to crush crappie. There is a lot of boulders and junk under the water you can't really see. And the crappie, I haven't seen them in swarms, but they'll be like one or a couple around something. And the ones that really stick there, I've been able to put a bait right on, like saying sight fish them, and not all of them bite. So I was hoping to get some of this cork rig, but I might have to wait till the sun comes up and just visually look at them and drop right on them. Have our polar eyes, I don't wanna pick up a snacky. We're going with clear water colors today too, guys. This is Pro Blue Red, say that three times fast. Pro Blues, a really good color for clear water. It's a translucent color, which means you can see through it a little bit. And this water's just so clear, that seems to be the deal. Gotta use translucent colors on your swimmies. So even if I'm not looking at a fish, like sight fishing at an individual fish, the polarized sunglasses, it's kind of a must, just so you can see the little changes in the water. You can see the bulger, you can see the tree. You can see those color changes to cast at. And that's a lot of times where the fish are gonna be. Starting to think it kind of sucks. There's one, that's a bass. Yeah, I got some green ones. Yeah, I was gonna get one on this bait. Y'all just wanna have some fun, like no intentions of catching one particular species. You need to get you some snacky swimmers and you can put it on like one of our heads here, put it on a regular little crappie jig head and swim it, or you can put it on a underspin style, like the old road runner style. Gosh, he's hooked a couple of times. You do all that jumping, buddy, you can hook yourself a bunch of times. That right there is just a fish catching machine. Literally, bluegill, white bass, crappie, largemouth, smallmouth, just throw it around the bank. Like this time here, just throw it around the bank and see what happens. You're gonna get bit. It's a great little pun slapper too. Okay guys, I see one, it's on top of a rock. Right there on top of a rock. We're gonna take our pro blue bumping bug. We're gonna try to put it right on top of its log. I think I just saw another one too. Bass sitting on a bed right next to me too. Probably the first time I've ever passed it up a bass on a bed or a crappie on a bed. There's a good one. Oh my gosh, what a beautiful fish. That's a good one there, guys. Holy cow, look at that. Look at the clarity, look at the colors on that fish. That is beautiful. Wow, that is just so cool. So, so cool. I'm only gonna keep a couple of these. Really pretty fish right there, going in the well. There's actually a couple of fish right there. They were kind of surrounded this boulder and they're like right in the shadows. So the sun's just popping out where I can see down there and see those little round looking shadows that are skirting around and I'm just trying to keep that jig above them. I've never done this before where I'm dropping on sight fishing crappie. I encountered it yesterday for the first time ever but this is my first time like targeting it now. So just got bit on the bug. It's not an easy like immediate thing either. It's very similar to bass where they're just sitting there and you gotta kind of work them a little bit. So I'm using an eight pound test line. I'm using that 10 foot pole so I can stay away from them a little bit. And if I can get that bobber set up a little deeper that would be good but there's just not that many. There's not a high concentration. So we'll keep plugging away and see what we can figure out but it's one in the box. We'll try to get five. Fish sees it, got him. Oh, we come off. That one like came out for it. I'm not gonna believe what I just caught. That is a carp. That is a carp that just ate my crappie jig like ate it in the face. This is a first. They do fight good. You can boat flip carp. That is a common carp caught in the mouth with a bumping bug. You just swam right by, I said I'll just take that. Take that little nugget. Thank you. Kept swimming, didn't even know what happened. Get a soft little mouth here. There's so many carp in here. I feel like I just need to bonk this thing in the head. Move on. But you're cute little fish. Fat little fish, I'll let you go. Wow, bass is gonna eat it. He's got it. That just happened. Bass on a cork. Hmm, just got it bent over. Oh wow. Pretty nice little fish. Pretty nice little fish for ultralight on a cork. My goodness. Look what we have here. Just corking up. Just corking up big bass. That's what we do out here on the term, man. Get them corks out and get to working on them. Oh, that was crazy, y'all. I watched that fish slowly swim over. Suck that little dangle dart in. Just a little nugget in the cork. The cork just went under. It slowly started. Let this one go. It's a pretty good one there. See ya. That's fun. All right, update thus far. One crappie in the box. I think we have three largemouth and one common carp. Just never know what you're gonna catch when you're throwing that little stuff. I saw three in one spot back there that was like the most I've seen. It's kind of been one or two here and there. So, see if we can pluck them out using the real live scope. Good crappie right there on the edge of the rocks. Oh my gosh, how pretty. Gorgeous, y'all. They're barely tapping it. Just missed another one under a dockin' but I got this one. Dobbin' them. Dobbin' them. Oh guys, funny enough. There was a crappie right out in front of this big bass. I'm just gonna try to fish for it. Little guy. Look at that. Look at that stripe down his back. Isn't that cool? Check that out. It's one of those hybrids I was talking about. He's not very big. Oh no, he's not a keeper. But, I got special recipes for those little ones. Come here, little buddy. Oh, you can't resist it. Now why can't the crappie come out and do that? Okay, sir. Best way I've found to get these things is to just go on these rocky ledges. They are spawning right outside on the rocks. Literally just drop down and they're so finicky. They'll come out and look at the swim bait but it's really gotta be just hovered over on. The first time they come out is the best chance you're gonna get to catch them. Got some big boulders in front of me. Just drops off where I can't see the bottom. One right there. Barely chased it. Two more and we are good. This is tough though. Never fished for them like this. This is kind of unique, fishing around the rocks. Boulders, just dabbing them. There's one on them. Got them. There we go. First chance they come out. It's the best chance you got. Sir. Good spot right here. A lot of ledges. These crappie are just on the other side. There's one on it. Got him. Oh yeah, ladies and gentlemen. We're doing a little something. Absolutely gorgeous crappie. When I see one coming, it's real important to just slowly start lifting it up. Wanna keep it above their nose. There's one on it. Barely feeling bitey. Very subtle. Gorgeous fish. Gorgeous fish. Even feeling bite that. It just disappears in the mouth. I set that up. Try this swimmer rope and I got a bass. Got him on the swimmer. There we go. Throw him back. He's a little small. All right guys, we are going to end the day with some beautiful crappies. I got more than I wanted. These could be black crappie that are just doing their black crappie thing or they could be white crappie that are very colored up. I almost think that they color up like this to blend in to the edge that they were hanging on. They were on those dark edges of boulders and rocks, just those drop offs, just a little bit deeper than the bass and they just blend in. So as soon as I would drop my jig down there, I would see him come up out of the mist and then just kinda lead it up, pull it up and let them chase it. If I sat there a long time with it, just hovered it over them, it's like they lost interest. It had to move a little bit, but you could not move fast. You couldn't get away with going with like a quarter ounce or an eighth ounce, even the 16th ounce was really the program and you could probably go even lighter in this wind, go with the 132nd, but that's too hard. I'm not gonna do that. And of course, we caught a lot of bass along the way and I had a chance to catch a eight plus pounder. It could have been even bigger. I didn't really get that close to it because I didn't wanna spook it, but there's some big bass up there too. It's just so fun. I love this time of year when I get the opportunity to catch both species. Both species that I really love. That bump and bug is killer guys. I've used that a bunch this year and it really seems to, it's like our bandito bug. It's got those split tails that actually, they come apart when you move it and it flaps and just, it's a subtle but really good action that the crappie like. It's just the perfect size too. So if you want a really good crappie bait for now through summer, definitely recommend getting that bump and bug. And I gotta say, this is some of the clearest water that I've ever fished for crappie. It makes it pretty tough. They're very specific. I had to go with the clear water colors, downsize on the line and everything, but it was fun. We got to get some into box. So I've got a special recipe that I'm gonna do with these and I'm still perfecting. And the next time I go out and catch some, maybe a little bit smaller than this, I'm gonna show you guys a really good recipe for it. And thank you guys for hanging out with me on another great outdoor adventure in one of our Texas state parks. There's a lot of fun out here, just camping out, a little campfire, a little truck camping, the dangle, that's good stuff. So smash that like button and I'll see you back on another adventure later.