 Oh, there he is. There's a good crappie, good crappie. Howdy-do and welcome back to the channel everybody. I just want to say thank y'all from the last video all the awesome comments and just loving that video because man it felt good to catch that big old Mando. Today we were heading out to another lake that is known for giant bass and it is literally what started up my life. As a fishing freak the world-famous Lake Fork. But before we get out on the water I want to tell you about today's sponsor, which is Tecron Marine Fuel Treatment. First of all, let me say if you guys are not using a fuel system treatment in your marine engines You better. If you're fishing constantly every day running your motor, that's actually a good thing for it. It's kind of like your car, but if you're like most people and even like me where you're letting your boat sit for a week at a time or a couple weeks at a time That's kind of a rare stretch for me But even then I like to have some sort of treatment in my fuel to make sure that the engine is not getting gummed up. Tecron is great. They put a ton of research behind their product. Chevron of course making some of the best fuels on the planet and they treat all different types of fuel systems before this marine treatment system particularly focuses on rust prevention and cleaning your engine components while you're running this stuff. Especially if you have an older motor, it's going to help clean that engine up and get better performance as you use it. Best thing to do for your motor, get you some Tecron and use it at every fill-up. This stuff is 10 ounces right here treats up to a hundred gallons. So that's going to last you quite a long time, especially if you're running a smaller motor. As you guys know, I like to go out on the deep angles sometimes like this time I'm out in East Texas. Sometimes there's not a whole lot of gas stations around and a little tip for you. Try to fill up at the places that frequently are going through gas where there's a lot of activity because you get out to some of them places and there's like one car there a week that fuel is going to be a little stale. That's when you especially need something like Tecron in your fuel system. And if you're taking a long pause from the dangle, Tecron's got you covered. Stabilizes your fuel up to two years. Now thankfully I live in the great state of Texas and I never have to winterize my boat, but if any of y'all are north of the wall you need to stabilize your boat for the winter, Tecron's got you covered. There'll be links down in the description where you can check out Tecron Marine, but you can pick it up basically at any West Marine store nationwide, walmart.com or you can go to tecronclean.com and they'll show you exactly the benefits and the features of Tecron at a detailed level. So thank you Tecron for sponsoring today's video and keeping my engine clean. Now let's get out to the world's famous waters of Lake Fork and experience the Mount Dore greatness, y'all. Oh man, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad we're here together on the sunrise moment here at Lake Fork, Texas, baby. Y'all that are new to the channel, this is literally the place that changed my life. I was into fishing always been into fishing, but when I came here I went out with a guy, me and a buddy of mine. When I was a young man, I saw what was underneath the water and it changed me. It made me want to dedicate my life to bass fishing and try to figure out how to catch bass. I've never seen anything like it. Respect to the day when Fork had a lot of grass, clear water. You can see in the water really good. Nowadays, it's still good the fish are just kind of hidden in other spots and this lake makes you a really good angler. When you're here all the time trying to figure out these floor to strain mostly bass, it makes you a real good angler to go anywhere else and learn a lot of techniques here. But anyways, I'm here today. I got Billy with yourlakeforguide.com. He was nice enough to let me and LunkersTV stay at his crib last night and he's taking out Lunkers right now. So I'm coming back from my other trip, coming off a 10 pounder baby. So life is good. I'm feeling really good about today. What I'm going to be doing though is I'm going to be targeting bass and some crappie. I'm going to try both. I hear they're up in the shallows. Hey buddy, where are you going? It smells like shed right here. Do you smell it? It smells like watermelon candy. I love it. Oh, is it? I don't know. I've been smelling that for 10 years out here. Where are you going? How about it? I just rocked out just to say I went 50 in a fast boat. Water temps looking around the 60 degree mark. This is when you can get out on the points and do some damage on some big ones. See, here's a problem with me on the floor is I'm just, so many bass memories come back. I'm like, oh man, I remember this spot. I remember this spot, this spot, and here, here, here, here, here. It's like, I can't ever focus on the matter at hand because I've been always thinking about other spots. But I'm going to start in this one creek that normally has a later spawn and see if there's any that are going to pull up. I'm going to start fishing just some moving baits. Probably throw some baits and stuff like that and then go from there. If I see some shallow pool, that's what this lake's known for. Big stumps. Okay, I got to focus. I got idle through here. And we're off to the races, everybody. Oh man. Hitting the pavement here with a little swim bait, a five-inch swim bait, with a little spinning hook on it. And then I'm also tied on a frog. I had a frog tied on from the other lake. There is a lot of skim and a lot of shallow bushes around. So my strategy here is just kind of slowly swim that swim bait through there, work a frog, maybe throw a chatter bait a little bit. Well, it's been no luck throwing the swimmer so far. Probably going to end up breaking out a jig. Yeah, I mean, it'd be a crying shame not to break out a black and blue jig on the Lake Fork in March. If I don't get anything on this bank, I'm going to change low cows and maybe even change up species. You're the crappier up in the shallows right now. I decided to change methods, y'all. Headed into the back of a creek right now. One of my buddies, his grandpa used to live over there. And there's some some brush back here. And I'm hoping that some crappier moved up into this brush to spawn. It's a good place to bass fish, too. Actually, Rob and Billy are right over there, and they're doing some blind-bed fishing. And basically what that is, is you're just looking for sandy spots. You're not really seeing the fish. It's kind of overcast. You can't really sight fish too well today. So that's how they're tackling that. I want some crappies. I caught one. I literally have one in my cooler. I need a bunch more. I'd love to come home with at least a dozen. Well, not the right species, but we got ourselves a bass. It's quite a small bass. I actually got that one throwing a little rooster tail. Trying to see if there's any active crappies in here. Oh, another little bass. Trying to throw this rooster tail. See if I can get a crappie on the line and jig for him a little bit more so far. He's catching a little bass. Okay, this is not a crappie, but it is just as delish. That is a yellow bass, folks. And I think I just had another one following me up right here. Normally I catch these in super deep water, but they might be spawning as well. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Big crappie. Big crappie. Big crappie. Come in here. Oh, yeah, that's a mondo. And let's pull it down here. Right, y'all. There's a freaking toad crappie right there now. Golly. That's what I was looking for. Hit that rooster tail. Hopefully we can get in the mess of those. Oh, there's another one. Oh, boy. Oh, gosh. Uh-oh. This might be a bass or a big crappie. I mean, a tree. Oh, still there. Still there. See, they're a big crappie or it's a bass. Oh, gosh. Is this a catfish? What the heck is this? This is a catfish. Oh, boy. That'll be good. Man, y'all, you start throwing a little rooster tail around. You catch everything. Nice jump, yeah. I'll stick him on this side. Oh, this might be another species. Nope, it's yellow. Sweet. Yellow bass. And there's no limit on these guys. He absolutely hose hounded it. There's no limit and no length limit on these. You do just want to keep the bigger ones. The smaller ones are just hard to fillet. I'm guessing there's a little school. There's another one. Got him. Feels like a yellow. They are running back here to spawn, baby. Gotta watch the gill plates on these suckers, too. They'll get you. We're loading it up. Oh, there he is. Got it. Crap. There's a good crappie. Good crappie. Good crappie. He just hammered it. Another hammer. He can fork. You are so good, man. Lake fork, man. Such a healthy fishery. And there's white and black crappie in here. I just throw in the regular old crappie jig. Oh, just had one right there. It's got him right there. It's got a crappie right behind the boat. Oh my gosh. Good one. Good one. Another hammer. Look at these guys. Absolute hammers. Caught him on the jig. Got him right in the chnute. Look at that, y'all. These are all towed crappies. So there's just a kind of a mess of them. Oh, there's another one. Got it. Oh my gosh, I'm on the juice. On the juice. Get away from that pole. Get away from that pole. Come here, baby. Oh, yes. These are just absolute hammers. Another towed next cast. Oh, man. Hello. Dangling, bro. Dangling. I'm on a hot spot right here. I can't leave. Let me fish this little hole out. Oh, there we go. There we go. He absolutely choked a crappie jig. We are getting the meats. Oh, that's a good crappie. Toads, baby. Freakin' toads. We've got some number five, and they're just huge. They're just massive. All right, let me show you guys the rig here. My yamper river, as you guys have seen in many, many videos. My creek fishing videos, a lot of crappie fishing videos. It's the ultimate crappie fishing pole. Super sensitive. It's really light. You can whip little jigs out with it like this. This is a 16th ounce jig head with a sickle hook on it. It bends out really easy. So if you get a cotton brush or a dock, you can just pull it out. When you guys sent this in to me, somebody around DFW that has like a crappie tackle store, I need to go in there, but I feel bad because I can't remember the name, but y'all sent this in to me. I've been alternating between this little lake fork. I think it's a micro shad is what it's called. Really good little crappie bait, and some other ones that you guys sent in. I'm going to give this color a shot because the other one I was using had a pink tail. It boogered up on me. Eight pound test line. Actually, I think this is six flora. Oh, golly. That's a good one. That's a good crappie. Come here. Come here, baby. Good crappie right here. Pulling that drag, son. Oh, giant. Giant. Come on now. Get up out of that brush. I believe these are just all hammers. They're all hammers, baby. Y'all absolutely hammering it. That one just knocked slack of my line. Purty fish. It's kind of working this jig through those trees. Comes through there a little slower than the rooster tail. There's another big crappie. Another big one. Come on, baby. Get up out of there. Get up out of there. Get up out of there. Oh, we have just found the hammers. We have just found the hammers spawning in the shallows, y'all. Oh my gosh, this is so much fun. So much fun. There is yet to be a small one. So for all y'all that are new to crappie fishing, 10 inches is the keeping length. This is just well beyond that. They are hammering this little lake fork micro-shad too as soon as I switch to it. It's been every cast. Well, we are going to be eating real nice. Pop it through there. Just get a little pop. Oh, there he is again. 16 ounce jig sinks so slow. Oh my gosh, this is a hammer. This is a hammer. Oh my gosh. These are just massive crappie. And they're pounding it. I mean, it's swallowed. It's swallowed. This one's got it so good. This is how you know you're using what they want right here. Look at the size. Look at the size of this crappie. And look what's down there. The pig, baby. That's a pig. Now the boys are bass fishing right now. They wanted to go to lunch, but I just told them I can't right now. I'm on a hot streak. As soon as they're done biting, we're going to go eat. Boy, starting to figure out the technique a little bit. There's another one. They're just all up in this bush. Get out of there. They're all hammers. They're all hammers. This is fun on this yamper. Fun on this yampe, y'all. Absolutely amazing rod for this. I think this is one of the smallest ones. No need to measure at all. Twitch it through there over those tree tops. He's not as big, but he's still nice. Got them crappies figured out. It's a black crappie. Beautiful. Only one I've had to measure so far. Almost 12. Y'all, I'm so excited because the last time I remember doing this, me and my dad were up in Canada, and it wasn't this hot where they were just biting just about every cast, but just catching hammers up there in the shallows when they were spawning. And it's just rare for me. I've never done it. It's just such a cool bite. I mean, it's just like bass fishing except miniaturized, and they are delicious. Oh, there's one. God, it's every cast. The crappie spawn a little bit before the bass. They move into the same areas, same shallow areas. I've been catching some bass in here as well, and they make those beds just like the bass do, but you can hardly see them with the naked eye. There's not even a need to throw minnows. You can throw those little underspins, those road runners, obviously a rooster tail. Seem to catch them on those and then just a simple old jig. So these jig heads, the hooks are designed where you can just bend them back. So that's what I've been doing, just take my little pliers, bend them back, and then just put my little crappie thing on. I got to get another bait. Caught like eight fish on that bait. I tore it up. The baby shad, that's what this is called. It's the micro shad. I think I was calling it the micro shad. Lake Fork Trophy Lures. That's the tackle store I used to live in. They're making some killer crappie stuff. All right, I got a little lime green unit. Let's see if a little color change will get them switched back on. Oh, there's one. There he is. Oh yeah. Oh boy, you are a big one. Yes, sir. Come here. Get around those poles. Ha ha. One more big one. Come and pop a big old black crappie, y'all. Nice fish. Golly. Golly. I've never been on a crappie bite this hot, like in the shallows. You know, I've been wanting to figure this out for months now. And to figure it out today, it feels so good. There was a moment though where it was just every cast. There's another one. It's like they turned back on or something. Come here, buddy. Golly. Oh yeah, baby. They're all big. Dude, they're all like 15 inches. They're hammers. Oh yeah, baby. Yeah, doggy. Let me show you how to dangle, son. At the massiveness of crappies. So good. And we got some yellow bass in there. And we got a catfish. We have done well. Caught all the crappie I could catch right there. Instead of going and trying to catch my limit because these are so huge, I'm actually going to just take these home right here. I am so excited that I finally got to figure out crappies in the shallows. And I'm going to expand on that technique more when I need more fish. You know what we got to do, man? We got to turn them in the golden crisps, baby. So let's get back to the house, get to cleaning them, and put them in some grease to feed the whole family. It's supposed to do right there. Okay, so when that happens, and you will do it, all right, don't act like you've never done it before. This is why I really like this clamp deal, and it helps you a lot easier instead of using your your thumbnails. And then there you go. I mean, that's real, real easy to do. Fat, crappie pork chop. Oh, no, almost dropped it. So I had a few 15 inches and the average size was 14 inches, which is crazy. Look at these slabs, y'all. I got a bunch more of these to clean. Look at the back paint on them. Woo, man. I think we're going to do, I think we're going to do Frank's Red Hot, at least half Frank's Red Hot. That's a recipe I've done before. And it is a classic. It is good. And maybe just some traditional for mom, because she likes that traditional. But anyways, we'll see you at the Rackley Family Fish Fry and get these recipes on these delicious slabs. If you're not a fish eating person, and you just want to try it, get into fish, this is going to change your life right here, y'all. But what I'm going to do today, instead of using the Frank's Red Hot, is I'm going to try the Texas Pete hot sauce. This is a new one that I haven't tried salt in the grocery store. I was like, I'm going to give that one a shot. And what that does, it basically gives you your coating to then batter your fish in the flour and then put them into the grease. This is going to be two fried recipes. But once with cornmeal, traditional, this other one is more like a hot wing. And it's absolutely delish. So after I clean the crappie, you know, wash them off, I hose them off of all the scales. And we have just beautiful filets like that. These are huge. And those crappies were so big. Another thing I could have done was throw them on a big green egg and actually grill them on a half shell. That's another recipe for the future. Don't worry, crappie time is not over. That is the nugget size right there. I feel like with that thickness, you put those in the grease and you make them all similar, and they'll fry up all the same way. You just want enough to cover fish completely. Already shook it up. That's going to be enough. And that's going to act as a stickiness to then you can then put it in the flour, just regular flour with a little bit of pepper. Ready? We're going to take these over to LSD's house. That's right. Sniff that cayenne, baby. It's going to be good and delicious in your mouth. Don't worry, it's not going to be too spicy, I promise. Full bottle should do it. That's it. We got mega crappies, dad. I'm excited about mega. Have I shown you pictures? I saw your bass. I hadn't seen the crappie. Okay. I caught those just down the way from where you caught your seven last week. No kids. I got to go catch some of these. You want to catch some crappie? And then I got one catfish in there too. A little bonus. A bonus whisker biscuit. This mixture right here, this is the traditional recipe for mom. She just likes that traditional stuff. But it is two parts cornmeal, one part flour, and all you do is just drop them on in. There's a little bit of salt involved, not much, and stick them in the grease. So it's time to take them out and the goldenness has been achieved. Sometimes crappies are so good you don't even need to catch them. But I'd like a little hot sauce. Oh, there we go. We lost the owl house. The wind is so terrible it blew the dagum thing down. Shoot, I'll just leave it down here. Crazy weather. I'm glad I was fishing yesterday and not today. It's traditional that the men do a taster tester first just to make sure there's no poison in there that's going to hurt the ladies. All right, dad, we should split one. We should. There's not a whole lot here. We've got some left for the ladies, but let's take a good chunker here. Split it. Cheers to golden crispies, man. Oh my gosh, that's good. Really good. That is really, really good. Now I must try. Oh yeah. Without even ketchup. Wow. That is what you're getting with the crappie. The flakiness. Oh man, golden. A little bit of pepper, a little bit of salt. You got to get you some of that, I'm telling you. That is worth a serious dangle for. It's crappie time. Now it is time for that Texas Pete, y'all. I'm really interested in the Texas Pete and to see if it is different than the Frank's Red Hot, if it's better or worse. I think the Frank's Red Hot buffalo sauce, it has like a gooeyiness, like a stickier effect that really makes a good batter. So the Texas Pete seems a little bit thinner, but we're going to see no pepper in there, no salt. All the spices are included and it's going in straight flour. Spice to this. Little spice in it. I mean who doesn't like hot wings, first of all. Goes fantastic with your favorite light beer. I got some. Time for the Texas Pete. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Look at that. See I like that texture better myself. It's really, it's about the texture. What an incredible day on the water. That produced so much more meat than I thought. You know, traditionally you catch a dozen crappie. It's enough for, you know, probably the four of us, but because they were so big, I've got two additional meals out of it, which is incredible. Just awesome fillets. The Texas Pete. Oh, it's time. It's time for a taste test, y'all. This is it. Oh yeah. We in business. Oh man. The flakiness, the flakiness with the flour, and it tastes like a wing. There's a wing aftertaste. Oh man. That is just too good. Look at the thickness on that crappie too. Mm man. Wow. Give that recipe a shot. I'll leave the instructions down below, but it's easy as you saw. You basically just pour it in there and add some spices for you. It's basically just that and flour. Delicious. I was so pumped to go out there and catch those crappie the way I did, y'all. I've been wanting to get on that little pattern for so long and try to figure that out. I finally did and now I want to go take it to other places. It's just fun and I'd love to catch a really big one, like a really big crappie. Like try to catch a three-pounder or something like that. They're really a cool fish and they're obviously tasty. They're the tastiest freshwater fish in my opinion, at least down here. Walleye. Different category. That's where we're going to leave it today, y'all. I got to get in there and eat me some of those crappie. And if y'all want to stay tuned for the next fishing trip, fishing is going to be good for the next few months, y'all. It's going to be awesome. Stay tuned. Subscribe right here to the channel. Hit the notification button so you don't miss a single dangle and make sure to go ahead and hit that like button. I sure would appreciate it. I love you guys and I'll see you on the next dangle.