 Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the water you are joining me for my first day out on the water in 2023 and it's an adventure baby we are on the famous now lake in the middle of nowhere of texas lake oh ivy and last year i was out here with john i had one of the most miraculous days on the water uh him as well that we've ever had both individually and together it was incredible bass fishing experience where i netted three fish over 10 pounds and over the course of a couple days we caught some really big fish and i hooked into a giant you know a double digit i lost the fish and i'm not back for revenge i'm not back for that what i'm back for is a three pound crappie that may sound strange to some of you but i really do like crappie fishing and the hunt for a big one is very similar to bass fishing and we're in one of those lakes where they just coincide growing big crappie and bass i've never targeted them out here but we're going to give it a shot we've got a extremely windy day here right now so we've only got about an hour and a half till it gets dark so we're just kind of getting our feet underneath us you know getting some pole stringed up looking at the electronics and just seeing what's out here and tomorrow we'll really start fishing and digging in let's get the silver bullet on pad for the first time since gosh i think october or november of last year let's get to looking for some big crappie trophy crappie baby well i've been fishing for about an hour and i've seen like little bits of fish you know like there's a couple little doobers right there i'm looking for these crappie and i thought it i found some a couple times and now i'm not so sure that they're crappie they're they're acting more like just big gizzard shad or white bass they're just moving way too much crappie tend to not waste a lot of energy they'll sit on cover and just kind of wait so every time that i uh kind of get close to these fish they'll move in and out of my my sonar similar to white bass or some other you know roaming fish so i haven't found any that are just sitting on cover yet but we got 51 degree water that's pretty good for this time of year we've had unusually warm weather i think it's supposed to be in the 80s tomorrow so i'm not sure if these fish are going to be really deep or if they're going to be mid-dab shallow i i don't really know i'm trying to get a three-pounder so finding loads of fish is awesome but typically the big females they're sort of by themselves most times catching a sweet sunset but that's about it y'all i'm out here i'm out here in the middle of the lake right now just dooblin with some randos just swimmer free swimmers around here i don't know what they are i'm yet to identify i've had one fish that have sort it's sort of turned looked at my bait but i don't know these could all be random gizzard shad this is one of the most unique lakes i've ever seen for a big gizzard shad wake up in the morning we're gonna start this process over i think i'm going to run up in the river and focus on more timber that's out in the creek channel i saw little signs of life that there's some trees that i think might have some fish just i need like more isolated big trees i've been just going over thick like seas of brush and trying to pick out fish and it's been very difficult so far so tomorrow we will continue the crappy mission today was just kind of a travel day anyways but hey good start to the the mission with a good sunset get some good south texas vibes get a cold brusky put her to bed think about catching big crappies tomorrow do it a little post sunset dangle because the boat ramps crowded and i just got my first real thump it's the right size but it's not the right species we're all familiar with these on this channel we'll let you go back there is some activity on this little spot that i'm on right now just parked the rig out in a field y'all it comes with your five dollar day fee they're like yeah just go out anywhere and there's no one out here so what is on the menu tonight what are we going to be cooking out here i forgot my headlamp by the way it's an unfortunate error but i do have this this little lamp here so i went to buckys as i usually do on these type trips and we've got a lot to snack on we're sat we've got pickled garlic and having some sinus issues lately slamming the garlic pickled beets pickled beets at buckys are not the best thing for you a ton of sugar in there but gotta have it it's a nice little treat this stuff right here this stuff will make a turd taste like filet mignon pork rinds i got the dills uh the buckys brand actually pretty good they don't have a lot of extra stuff in there i like that and since all of my deer meat is currently frozen i'm not going to be throwing that out tonight uh i'm custom to that that usually happens day one so i get i get a little chicken salad as a snacker and i do a chicken salad with the pork rinds just kind of snack you know a little bit of garlic a little bit of beets um i do have some some eddy gray's deer sausage from a deer of two years ago we could snack on that and i've got a couple sandwiches but those are for later in the week and for a little little tasty snack and uh probably some extra calories well ipa i tried this new shinier ipa from buckys the other day they got this it's called the tex hex the tex hex good name shinier it's good it's good i'm not a huge ipa guy but i like that a lot i'm going to sleep inside of the truck in here and it is actually perfect weather outside it feels like spring last time me and john were here it was like eight degrees i had the camper had to run the heat all night probably would have died sleeping out here in the truck but right now it's perfect so i'm gonna fuel up and i'll see you guys back on the water in the morning hello and good morning fishing freaks from the tailgate had a pretty good night's sleep i gotta say probably one of the best texas nights i've ever seen you know i had that shooting star but just pristine uh skies we could see the stars just oh man it was awesome coyotes were we're singing you know nothing like waking up to the birds chirping seeing a couple white tails and then the very distant background you just hear high powered outboard motors just getting on pad at sunrise whoo oh now that's outdoor greatness if y'all have crappie fished all your life with mono or just flurro give bray to try the sensitivity is just so amazing so if you don't know how to tie a connection knot i've got a video where i show how i tie all my um finesse fishing basically spinning spinning rods i pretty much all my spinning rods i like to use braid so and they use the same connection i usually love pink i may just go with a white there's a standard white all ready and then i'm probably going to put a dangle dart on there because that's the most subtle i feel like these fish in this lake right now i've just been hearing from some of the bass guy that the ramp and stuff that it is it is not fishing good you know that usually goes for bass and crappie just the general consensus so i'm gonna go with the dangle dart because it's the most natural presentation come on baby i see you peeking see you peeking right there there's a big crappie on this tree hmm do they're big crappie or a small bass just have one bite it that gum it looks like a good one too oh gosh come on get out of there get out of there it's either going to be a white bass or big crappie be big crappie god dog it's a largey it looked right it looked like the right kind i will say that is my first bass of the new year perfectly hooked in the schnoz came out with some brush and about 25 foot and that dangle dart it'll get them it'll get them all i know there's a crappie in there too though one swimming on top of there right now here goes that fish all right we're gonna try to drop it back down on that spot it's coming it's coming fish should eat it come on it's a good crappie it's another two pound bass or it's a crappie come on got him be a biggin oh it's another large no it's a biggin but it's not the right kind in the brush thick brush good fish i wish that was a crappie because that's like a two pounder but it's not still fun though eat it there we go that's gotta be a crappie oh another bass oh my gosh guys are just stacked up right there little tasties there's another one on it cracking them right here this might be a little bigger yep it's a little bit bigger that one just tattooed it it was sitting on a tree little de junglings i'm gonna get out of the bait got my lovely baits all organized dangle darts saucies got my dangle darts got my snackies got my grubbies and i forgot my little buds this is the color right here you know guys this color is a clear water killer natural i can usually get a bunch of crappie on one plastic but when you get into bass those teeth are involved those head shakes tend to tear up your baits a little bit the white head seemed to work on the bass so i'm gonna stick with it with the crops here we go gotta be some crappie and wait till these boats go by and then we'll fish them i've i've seen multiple groups on these trees right here in front of me guys i turned around so i could hit this little nook where i saw these crappie i hooked one little bass as i was turning around so hoping they're not all micro bass but the wind is picking up so it might get them going here on this bank turned away looked like it was gonna eat and it just turned away man these are behaving like school of juvenile basses juvenile bass they look sort of long god they're boat shy it's like you can't get 25 feet from them and they start shifting around shawesome makes me think they're bass make a pretty tough on the old eight-ounce jig here oh switch our lures out yeah back in back back back in all right we're getting we're getting a little crazy now just frustrated not being able to get on the crop tops man god dang look at all these mysterious fish it's like they behave similar to crappie but i'm not i'm not convinced i had one bite it as i threw random cast it up into the brush maybe that's the key is not get too close to them you know a little pound and a half large mouth the ones i've landed have all been green bass deep 25 foot out of a brush ball so you know this lake's huge i guess i should probably explore a little more conditions are changing dramatically look at the hair look at the hair flip right now my beans about 15 when the hair flips up 15 mile an hour so i'm gonna pull the troll motor up and see if we can find some other bank that looks tasty come on baby best colored i'm not sure if that last clip recorded but i caught a carp and uh somehow i got behind a gill plate or something and broke my line on a probably the best colored blade bit i have just a plain nickel agnoms coming up great train whole face look at that hit first i kind of look like a hillbilly pyre right now but about to blow my hat off had to go bandana had to put my mic on so you guys could hear because this wind is so insane come on buddy there you go oh my but there's just the bottom literally is just coming alive doesn't look like anything and then you throw it down there and just fish everywhere oh look at that that was like a largemouth jump big magnums this is what i hoped to be catching with crappie but we were definitely on some white bass right now that's for sure so i'm just dropping this to the bottom this blade bait literally on the bottom like an inch off there's something with winter where they get real tight they just get real tight to the bottom and if you just put your bait down there whether it's a spoon or one of these blade baits and you don't lift it up super high like in the summer you know they're usually more suspended off the bottom and you lift your bait way high and they're real aggressive and this cold water stuff is just little lifts it's nice with the life scope you can see how how far you're lifting it know when the fish are you know not liking it but just a foot or two that's all you gotta do this is actually one of the baits i'm i've been most excited about developing because i catch so many different species on these i catch all three you know i don't i don't just fish for bass so this thing will catch catch them all and sometimes the spoon works better than this and vice versa and right now they just want this vibrating you can feel it in your rod tip little vibe little vibe just little pumps little pumps that's such a good fight feeling that tug i got everybody around me fishing for giant largemouth i don't think anybody fishes for these things was that better nothing exactly when the going gets tough it's time for a beat break pop the seal on that baby nice sugary treat kind of gotten out of the wind a little bit it's pretty much possible on this lake but but just made it my first a rig cast on a mondo bass and ignored it so i know how that goes so decided to sit down eat me some beat i honestly don't know where these crappie are i think i'm being fooled i'm thinking i'm looking at crappie i'm not i've watched them on live scope enough times now on various different lakes to to see how they behave you know how they respond to your baits a lot of these fish are not responding like crappie crappie will usually just sit there they might like look at your bait and not chase it but they'll give it a look they don't just swim away you know especially mean being pretty cautious saying 20 feet away or so i'm gonna keep trying i'm gonna keep trying keep inquiring see what i can learn but as of right now i'm just going down the grobs i just met the man in charge of the water here see did his name is travis he saw he saw the bandana far away and he hollered i love you so came over there i gave him a fishing pole i got some new rods had some extras so hooked him up with one anyway uh i don't see any boats over here so i'm gonna go ahead and assume fishing sucks where i'm at over by the dam i've exhausted a lot of different areas that i thought we're gonna produce and right now i'm just kind of rambling so good news is i'm not going to sleep with my truck tonight i'm gonna go john has got a house john b's coming in as we speak and uh he's got some buddies with him so i'm gonna go over there shoot the breeze see if we can figure out a fishing plan for tomorrow but i'm gonna gonna give her one more little dang don't you worry spoon wound up sundown spoon wound up out here in the same depth about 25 30 i don't know where the crappie are well fishing freaks we put in a hard eight out here on the water i caught five bass i think the biggest one was two and a half pounds so uh no crappie and i don't know if you know where the crappie are let me know in the comments i i every time i think i found a few crappie they're not there's a lot of bass in the trees i can tell you that i don't know this lake is perplexing to me and you know it's not forgotten on me the last time i was out here i struggled really really bad just to catch a fish catch a bass the white bass are abundant we can go hammer to those but i don't know what i'm gonna do tomorrow i've got another day out here and i pretty much hit the stuff i thought the crappie were gonna be on today so unless i get some other knowledge i don't know i'm just gonna i may just put a big old pole in my hands and go bass fishing may the fish be with you fishing freaks and i'll see you on the next episode