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FARM 13 / STICK MARSH FISHING REPORTS
For the Month of January 2006
January 31, 2006
We have settled into a cycle of ‘cold front with high winds equals poor water quality --- 48 hours of calm winds equals much clearer water and good fishing’. Basically, with the approaching cold front, the strong 15-20 MPH winds start coming from the south. Then, they shift to the southwest, and then westerly. Finally, as the front passes, they come howling from the northwest at 15-25. This cycle may take 18-36 hours, depending on the intensity and speed of the front. The winds that hurt us most are the northwesterly ones, as they really dirty up all of Farm 13.
So, you can try to read the weather and plan a trip to fish the impoundment accordingly. With the heavy sediment in the water, artificials have been very difficult. However, shiners work pretty darn well after a couple of days of clearing. The south end of Farm 13, over the submerged wood (in the areas of the old canal traces), have proven best. The quantities of bass are not up to the usual expectations, but we are still getting a LOT of those big bass. Nearly every trip, we get at least one in the eight pound range. Plus, our percentage of 10-pound (+) giants is higher than usual. That’s not a bad trade-off: less fish, but larger fish.
For you who want to stay with artificials, you can do it at the adjacent Garcia Reservoir. Garcia is almost totally overrun with grass and lily pads and that limits what lures/presentations can be used a bit. Stan Daniel and Randy Camps have guided parties there with up to 40 bass days. And, they were caught on flukes, RIPPIN’ Stick-type soft baits, and Johnson spoons. I asked Stan to try our ‘continuous motion’ RIPPIN’ Stick presentation on his recent trip to Garcia and he reported that ‘they ate it up’. I went over for a few hours last Sunday afternoon, right on a cold front passage, with high winds and bluebird skies. Sure enough, even under those tough conditions, the bass blasted the Stick right on the surface and without a bit of reservation. The key for me was to find areas of dense grass JUST BELOW the surface, rather than tossing the lure around surface mats. Randy did a trip for us yesterday and had a good day. So, you SENKO (and similar type lure) lovers should be able to have a ball.
It appears the crappie may be migrating from the open waters of the Farm towards the old wooded areas in the south end. There seem to be fewer of them across all that open water now. We can still catch them, but a limit is taking longer. Plus, we are not seeing as many of the big, egg-laden gals as we were a couple of weeks back. This will be the time to try and locate any newly rotted vegetation, no matter what the water depth. Crappie prefer their spawning area consist of grass, with a second choice of wood. Since the tops of the submerged canal levees of Farm 13 are the highest terrain and get the most sunlight through the murky waters, it may be there is a small amount of grass starting on some of them. Accordingly, drifting along side the outside of some of those levees might be a smart thing to try.
On yesterday’s bass trip, we sat back in the south end of the Nursery area and caught bass well. I was fooling around with the crappie jig a bit and caught two in that wood. Plus, one of the small shiners took a big female crappie. Out in the open water, it is still imperative to keep the minnows at seven feet and weighted sufficiently to stay there while drifting. On another trip, I found some big crappie at the very south end of the Farm, back in PinBall Alley.
January 31, 2006
Jim Nelson and Dave Stuart came to try the Stick Marsh/Farm 13 impoundment bass and it sure paid off for them. It took shiners to do the trick, but the big bass showed up right on time. Dave got a pair of giant bass. And, while Jim caught the most fish, those giants stayed at Dave’s end of the Blazer boat.
 
January 30, 2006
Chuck Wood came back for his second trip to the impoundment this month. If you look way down this report page to 10 January, you’ll see Chuck and Darel Bair with a mix of giant bass and crappie. Darel’s big girl went nearly 11 pounds. I sure hoped we could do that again on this trip, but 11-lb. bass are not an everyday occurrence, even on the Stick Marsh. We put those big shiners out into Harm’s Way and they were eaten with regularity. It was great catching and great fun, with a LOT of really fine bass coming to the net. But, when the dust and shiner scales had all settled, there was no 11-lb. fish. However, there were a goodly number in the 5-8-lb. range and that ain’t bad at all!!!
 
January 29, 2006
 James Tripp contacted us to see if the Farm 13 crappie were really going as hot as we had been saying in our fishing reports. At that time, it was going great guns, so we booked a trip for James and his brother, Jeff. We had some pretty strong winds to contend with, but the old drift socks did their thing and we managed to reduce our movement to a crawl. We weighted the minnow rigs down to keep them at that magical 7-foot depth and off to the SE section of Farm 13 we went. Drifting south-to-north with the winds, the guys got a really nice mess of good slabs. It was a bit slower fishing than usual for the big egg-laden crappie, but they were still a snap to catch. James boated the largest of the day, but I just can’t recall if we weighed her, or not. I am sure she was a bit over 2-lbs. The picture looks like it was probably 2-1/4 lbs.
We have already had four super trips in the first six days of February and we’ll get those written up soon. The really big bass just keep coming, and Vernon Grizzard (see the report for 9 December 2005) nailed another giant on his first trip of 2006.
Ya’ll come back, ye hear!?!
January 27, 2006
Wind, wind, wind --- that's the weather we seem to be having lately. It slows down or stops just long enough to let the impoundment settle a bit, and then it comes back.
BUT, the good news is that the water seems to clear faster as time progresses. It is still very hard fishing for those who do not get out on the Stick Marsh/Farm 13 impoundment very often. The guides who fish it a lot, however, are able to have some 'aces-in-the-hole' locations to turn to when the dirty water roils up again. That is the benefit of fishing the impoundment 4-7 times a week.
Artificials remain difficult, but shiners produce great when there is some clearing. We have been advising our near-term clients of the conditions with real-time telephone updates and re-scheduling around those days we know may be poor fishing. So far, this has worked well and we have had very happy customers. This week, we did three trips and re-scheduled two others. 23 Jan, we hosted Bill and Fay Wright from Marion, NC. In 50 shiner bass, Bill had a true trophy in a 10-lb. 13-oz. giant. It was one of the longest bass I have ever seen and was right at 32-inches long. Quite unusual in the length, as most giant bass never get much over 30 inches. They just keep adding body mass rather than length. Fay topped out with one in the 7-lb. range. Between them, they probably had 9 fish in the 5 lb., and up, category. Ted Bates fished with us in the wind on 25 Jan. for his limit of crappie weighing 32 lbs. George Watson and Tom Schuetz came over from Lake Placid yesterday, 26 Jan. and took home a big cooler of crappie that was too full to shut completely. How we managed the two days of crappie in the wind is noted below.
OLD FISHIN’ TIPSTER’S ‘YOU’D BETTER LISTEN TO THIS ONE’ TIP FOR TODAY: Winds are here and more are coming. The windiest month in Florida is March, which AVERAGES 9 MPH for the 31 days. And, February is not far behind. The way to beat the wind and catch crappie lies in three things:
- Keep those minnows at 7 feet.
- Use a drift sock to slow the boat, as per this link:
(www.jimporter.org/tipster/tipster104.shtml
- Remember that the east side of Farm 13 will always be cleaner when there are east winds and the north end cleaner when the winds are NW and north (because the north levee blocks it).
January 26, 2006
After delaying their trip at our suggestion (due to wind and dirty water), George Watson and Tom Schuetz came over from Lake Placid Tom lives in FL 4 months of the year, while Tom still shovels that snow in Wisconsin full time. But, he got a chance to visit George for a week and enjoy some much warmer temperatures. These guys know how to fish and really work the walleyes, yellow perch and salmon up north. This date, however, they opted for the ‘monster’ crappie of the Stick Marsh. We started out like a house-on-fire, with the first quarter mile drift producing 12 big crappie. Then, the winds came up a bit and the bite stopped. Personally, I don’t think the wind had anything to do with it. I believe we just hit the next two drifts across the northeastern section of Farm 13 at tracks that had few fish. They picked up a bit on our 4th drift. And, on our 5th drift, we started hammering them again. The keys were maintaining the proper depth with the minnows and slowing the boat with drift socks.
We have now found good crappie in all four quadrants of Farm 13: NE, NW, SE and SW (north of the southern wood-line). So, I think it safe to say that the entire open water area of Farm 13 is full of big slabs. They are moving in schools, so you should drift. Since they are moving, it does no good to repeat a drift across the same exact area. I have found, however, that when you hit a quick bite of 3-4 fish in rapid succession, you might immediately drop an anchor and still fish. It often works great until the school moves out.
January 25, 2006
After re-scheduling George Watson’s trip from Wednesday to Thursday, I decided I might venture down in the strong winds anyway and see just how bad the water dirtied up. I had a ‘trip of opportunity’ in my pocket for Ted Bates, who is visiting from NY State. He said he wanted to go and to call him anytime. I told Ted that we would try the crappie. But, if the wind and water shut us out, all he would pay was the gas and minnow costs. The winds were fairly stout, out of the north and finally NW. About 3 PM, it really dropped off fine. Ted had never drifted minnows, being a bobber fisherman who targeted cover at a slow pace. It wasn’t long until he figured how to read the tight-lined poles and then he started to jerk them in. I think he is hooked on the easy of drifting for crappie and, especially the giant ones in the Stick Marsh.
January 23, 2006
 Every now and then, we have a fishing party who seems to be family. After a short while in the boat with Bill and Fay Wright, it felt as though I had known them all my life. In fact, they live in Marion, NC, which is very near my NC summer home in the mountains.
I had planned on using the Prime Directive of ‘wife catches the largest and most bass’. But, Fay let me know quickly that this trip was for Bill, in hopes that he could catch his largest bass ever. I think she said his largest to date had been 6+. But, it no longer matters. Bill did, in fact, get a bass that only ˝ of 1% ever get.
With three days a light winds, the water had cleared to a visibility depth on the net of 2.5 feet. That was great! We set up and floated three shiners out under bobbers over a LOT of submerged wood. Almost immediately, Bill nailed a big bass off the far corner of his end of the boat. Then, another. Then, another. Meanwhile, Fay wasn't even getting bitten by a pickerel. So, the Captain moved the boat for what was to be the only move of the day. We re-positioned the rig 30 feet to the east so BOTH anglers could get their shiners onto the ‘magic’ spot Bill had happened onto. That’s all it took and 50 bass later we were out of shiners. The tally was Bill’s giant at 10-lbs. 13 oz. And Fay’s top bass was a bit over 7 lbs. Bill had two more that were in the 8-lb range. Between them, the anglers had about 9 bass over 5 lbs. and very few under 3. It was a great day with all expectation fully met.
January 22, 2006
Conditions at the farm 13/Stick Marsh impoundment continue to fluctuate as weather conditions change. Frontal condition winds cause the water to get VERY dirty with silt from decayed vegetation. After the silt starts to settle you will be able to see deeper, but you will also still notice a LOT of particulate matter in the clearer water column. That will be algae. It’s the solid silt matter that has to settle for fishing to be right.
We are finding, through continuing experience, that it takes 48-72 hrs for the conditions to return to that required for a good bass bite. And, that requires shiners, for the most part. A few are caught on the artificials, but nothing like we are normally used to. In general, you can seem to gauge this by water clarity. If you can put a net in the water and get at least 18 inches of sight, the bass should work for you. That is considering that you are in the wooded areas of the southern end of Farm 13. The better the clarity, the better the fishing.
Crappie, on the other hand, seem to take less time to re-establish activity. Yesterday (see the 20-21 Jan 06 report, below), we got a LOT of fine slabs about 24 hours after the eastern winds from an offshore high pressure system had stopped. The depth clarity was about 12-18 inches out in the open water of Farm 13, whereas the day before it was about 2-inches. We were on the protected east side where the water should not have been affected as much by those strong easterly winds. That may be why the action started again so soon.
OLD FISHIN’ TIPSTER’S ‘YOU’D BETTER LISTEN TO THIS ONE’ TIP FOR TODAY: The real key (outside cleanliness of the water) for crappie is, as always, explicit depth control. The minnows we were drifting had to be between the bottom, which was 8 - 8.5 feet, and approximately 7 feet. Get the minnows above that magic 7-foot line and there would be almost no bites. We used long 10-12 foot fiberglass poles with no bobber. I had 8.5 - 9 feet of line on each pole with sufficient weights to hold the line and bait down during the speed of the drift. We positioned the poles so that about 1-1.5 feet of line was out of the water. We used one or two drift socks, depending of wind intensity, to slow the boat to the proper speed. The ‘proper speed’ is that which deflects the angle of the line into the water no more than about 10 – 15 degrees from the vertical. A simple way to put it is that ‘the minnow is ALWAYS at least 7 feet down, and just off the bottom’. Might take a few pieces of lead 6-8 inches up the line, but that’s what it takes.
Right now, you REALLY need to read the weather closely to assure a good fishing experience on the impoundment. Don’t just show up ‘on the come’, if you are traveling a long distance. You may waste time and money. Email me at jporter@stickmarsh.com and I will give you the best estimate of fishing potential at that time.
January 20 & 21, 2006
 Jonathan Johnson and Scott McMakin got to fish the Stick Marsh recently, courtesy of a business associate. That was a nice gesture on the boss’s part and the guys sure had some great experiences in the two days. We had gone through our usual discussions of weather, water conditions, etc., with a possible re-scheduling option offered. We had major winds the day before their visit and were expecting those winds to continue into their first fishing day. But, since Jonathan was coming from Hendersonville, NC, and Scott from Lyman, SC, it needed to be a ‘go’ due to work days off and other scheduling.
Sure enough, the first morning found us not only windblown, but loading the boat up in rain gear. Yep, it rained lightly off-and-on all day. The water as filthy in the main impoundment. But, we had done some scouting the day before and discovered about a 100-yard square area of clean water in a protected zone. It was shallow and usually not too great a fishing area. But, clean water is kinda hard to come by these days. The total bass caught wound up being small, at around 18. BUT – six of them were over 6-lbs, with three of those being 7-9 lbs. That’s a heck of a big fish ratio and really made the bass fishing day great.
The next day, we returned to our big bass locations, only to be fishless for two hours. So, we decided to see if we could find any acceptable crappie water in Farm 13. The big slabs have come in remarkable quantities and size, when we can find acceptable water. Our first stop was around the middle of the Farm and to the east side. We figured the east side would have better water since the winds had been from the east, and we were right. It was not the best water cleanliness, but the crappie apparently did not give a hoot. What a mess of big slabs the guys got!! Depth control paid a real part in our success, as other boats around us got no more than two crappie.
January 16, 2006
 Don Brown called and wanted to show his Grandson, Justin Hamilton, a good day on the Stick Marsh. They were also bringing friend, Keith Walker. I advised him that I would be trying to assure Justin caught the most and the largest bass. Turns out, Justin DID get a big old girl. I am not sure if he got the most.
The water was pretty dirty for bass fishing, but we had all committed to try. Heading for the south end of Farm 13, we decided to try some areas that had been staging areas for pre-spawn bass in the past. That put us along a submerged levee and small canal (more like a ditch) along the west side of the Farm. Between the canal and the westernmost impoundment dike, there is about 50-80 feet of shallow water containing lots of stumps. We have also seen hard sand areas there in past low water conditions. There is so much decayed grass and muck there now, we really don’t know if the bass can sweep an area clean for a bed.
Using an old stump as a reference, we anchored and floated shiners under bobbers. Sure enough, there were bass present. But, they seemed to want to pester and play with the bait, more than eat it. Most times, the activity appeared to be catfish, pickerel or mudfish, as the shiners would get pulled around, pursued, and occasionally the bobber pulled just beneath the surface and released. But, each time we finally got the bobber to stay under for a few seconds, someone would set a hook and it would really be a bass. However, they were all in the neighborhood of two pounds.
So, we pulled the anchors and moved 100 feet south. That gave us the same ‘mess around with the shiner’ scenario, but the fish were 2.5 lbs.
We moved another 100 feet south and the fish got to 3 lbs.
One more move and they got bigger. Someone lost a really nice one, Keith caught a four-pound fish, and then Justine nailed a ‘biggie’.
It turned out to be a pretty darn good day, considering the conditions.
January 13, 2006
We previously indicated the bass fishing was way off in the Stick Marsh/Farm 13 impoundment. (This is easily verified by asking anyone who visited the impoundment during the Christmas and New Year holiday period.) So, we gathered together our observations and went to our local fisheries biologist, Bob Eisenhauer, for an assessment.
After a few days of looking into the matter, Bob responded:
"The disappearance of hydrilla in the Farm13/Stick Marsh definitely has changed how fish seem to distribute themselves within the system. Last year (winter 2005) the bass really staked up in the flow-way at the north end of the Stick Marsh pool. This was believed to be a result of more fish looking for protective spawning habitat. We also noticed higher numbers of bass oriented toward shallow water along the western side of the reservoir. Our mean electro-fishing catch rate for largemouth bass >14” (1.59 bass/min) was some of the highest we have recorded over the years. Creel surveys results in 2005, show high angler catch rates in addition to record numbers of bass >8 lbs. caught." ----- "We have been running monthly oxygen levels at six different sites throughout the Stick Marsh/Farm 13. We have not noticed appreciable declines since the hurricanes in 2004. Even during that period the Stick Marsh/Farm1! 3 maintained fairly high oxygen, while many waters upstream and downstream from the impoundment experienced extreme declines in oxygen."
So, it appears the water is OK, even though it is VERY much full of silt. (The water is slowly clearing, though. And, some sections are much cleaner than others.) Bob also noted that the bass appear to have redistributed themselves (in response to the lack of normally available grass cover). It may be that all of us, visitors and locals alike, have been looking for the bass the same way and in the same places as we had in previous years. For sure, none of us could recently pattern the bass in the manner and in the same locations as in years past. The only ‘constant’ was the moving water at the east pump station in Farm 13. A couple of us worked that for fish pretty good a few times, but the lack of rain has kept its flow to a minimum. The water flow at the SE corner spillway has given up very few bass, much less than in years past. No one really knows why.
Stan Daniel and I met at the ramp early this week and went out, in individual boats, to see what we could find. We started in the SW corner of the Farm, in the area of the Nursery, and worked over toward the Farm's center. As I recall, I had eight fish on a Deep Wee R, a mid-sized Big-0, and the Swimming Worm. Stan had one on a trolled shiner, one on a Texas rig worm and another on a plug. Stan, then, went from there to another area and did eight on a spinnerbait. We got our boats close and compared notes, agreeing that the bass were very lethargic and would not chase a lure. Only a slow stop-and-go action seemed to get a strike. And, even then they only took hold of it gently, with no real aggressiveness to the strike. (That’s the reason I had successfully switched to the Swimming Worm. It got hung a lot, but it was also a slowwwww presentation.)
After our talk, Stan departed to look over other waters. I had a few shiners left from and earlier trip. With them, I found a nice bunch of bass holding along the inside levee of the western-most ditch, just on the northwest side of the Nursery (coordinates A-B, 3 on the interactive map on our web site). One was 11 lbs. and one was right at 9 lbs. The rest were just fish.
The next day, we both had parties to take out. I stopped on a shellbed area of a levee (coordinates F, 4) in the Farm and the first strike on a free-lined shiner produced an 11 lb. 3 oz. beauty. But, that was the ONLY bass taken on that spot in three hours of fishing. Stan, meanwhile, had gone to the Nursery area and had done well on shiners, with two fish in the eight-lb. class. My party eventually went to the Nursery area and managed a number more (in and around coordinates B, 2-3), but nothing of size. We, then, went out and caught big crappie for the next two hours (in and around coordinates F, 3-4).
Since Stan noted another guide catch a few bass on shiners in the back of the Nursery area, and the fact that the giant crappie are so active, we must believe that it IS possible all of us looked in the wrong places for the bass during late December and early January. That seems hard to accept, since we looked a LOT of places. But, it does not seem logical that one game fish would be so active, while another chose to significantly turn off.
In conclusion, I can report that the fishing appears to be rapidly returning to normal. Shiners still reign as the top producer, but Stan and I proved to ourselves that a variety of artificials would work. We are approaching it on a daily basis and trying to be flexible and ready to change, if need be. If you have plans to come fish the Farm 13/ Stick Marsh impoundment, I would say 'come on down'. I am certain it will only improve even more in the coming weeks and should be back to normal very soon.
Watch our fishing reports, email us, or call 321-951-7841 for status. We are not advertising for your business, as we are already about full up through April. You'll just get the situation as accurate as we can give it.
And, don't forget those giant crappie that are so ready and willing right now! It's the best I have ever seen it on the impoundment!!
January 12, 2006
 Rebecca, Anthony, and Joe came down from Connecticut on a spur-of-the-moment trip to get out of the cold and sit in some Florida sunshine. These young people also brought their fishing gear. Everything started out wrong for them, from the windy conditions to a guide that stood them up at the ramp. I was at the ramp the day they were stood up and we discussed the possibility of a fishing day. I was nearly totally booked and really had nothing open. I told them the bass were a bit hit-and-miss right now, anyway. They still wanted to go! Since I was planning to call some of the near-term clients to suggest they re-scheduled their trips to a time of better fishing, I told Anthony to call me the next day and we’d see. Sure enough, we moved three trips with local people out a few weeks and made a day for the Connecticut trio on the Marsh.
Our day was beautiful, with warm weather and soft, wispy breezes. We only had a dozen shiners, as the group wanted to do just artificials. Starting out, we used the shiners on a high percentage location looking for a giant fish. Anthony had a 5-6 lb. bass come off at the boat and Joe got one about 3.5 lbs. Rebecca caught on to setting the hook quickly, but was unable to get anything to the boat. I strongly suspect her bites were pickerel, mudfish or catfish, as she would have them one for a few seconds and then off they’d come.
We moved over to the Nursery area and had no luck on the last of the shiners. A couple of fish blew the hapless shiners out of the water, but none took them. We put on artificials (RIPPIN' Sticks and crank plugs) and worked all the way (spelled ‘ALL THE WAY’!) across the south end of the Farm with only one 10-inch fish to show for it. Then, we doubled back into the Pinball Alley area (coordinates E, 2) and worked all the way to the reeds in the rear. This was an area used for spawning in past years and the water went from six to 3 feet rather quickly. I anchored in the 6-foot water and told the crew to cast to the shallows, hoping something might be there. Sure enough, Anthony immediately took one on a RIPPIN' Stick. As we fished, everyone was getting soft hits on the plastic lure, but none would take it. I was thinking that possibly Needlefish or bluegills were the primary residents.
Then, I noticed some small gar surfacing in the area. That is usually a sign of tiny baitfish being around, as that is what gar usually eat. And, as my Daddy always said, “Where there are gar, there are crappie”. So, I took my crappie rod and a chartreuse and blue PERFECT Jig and began to cast. Sure enough, the boat appeared to be surrounded by big crappie, all in shallow water and stumps. No small ones, just BIG!! Maybe the idea of an early spawn was already underway. Well, you gotta do what you gotta do to catch a fish, and it gave us some good pictures.
January 10, 2006
 Chuck Wood and Darel Bair are old friends, both having worked for Cooper Tire Company for years. Chuck now lives in sunny Vero Beach, while Darel is in Texarkana, Arkansas. When Darel came down for a 10-day visit, Chucked wanted to show him fishing, Stick Marsh style. Well, he did and he didn’t. You’ll see as you read on.
The day’s bass catch wound up being maybe a dozen. That was the ‘didn’t’ part of showing Darel the Stick Marsh’s great fishing. But, Darel took the first fish of the day and it was just over 11 lbs.! That was certainly the ‘did’ part!! Darel is a slight man, with a lot of agility but not too much weight. That big Momma bass pulled him to a standing position right away never let him catch up good. About all Darel could do was hold on. She made it to the trolling motor (some dumb guides sometimes forget to pull it up and get it out of the way when shiner fishing!), but we got lucky and freed he without incident. Then, the giant bass found the anchor rope. We pulled it up a bit, passed the rod under the rope and off went Darel and Momma bass again. Finally, she came to the net. Thankfully, she was well hooked in the upper lip area. Darel’s only comment was, “I didn’t know they got THAT big.”
From there, we went to the Nursery area and set the Blazer straddle of a submerged canal levee along the western-most ditch. The bass played with the shiners constantly, making us continually think we had pickerel or catfish after them. They’d mouth them, pull them down a bit, and let go. They chased them around some, occasionally making the shiner jump out of the water. It was frustrating, to say the least. But, it what we have all been experiencing since Christmas. After a good while, a bass would mess up and get the shiner for too long and we’d get him. We re-positioned the boat three times, moving further south on the levee each time. With each move, the bass got larger. But, none ever went over 4 lbs. (Stan Daniel had captured two in the 8-lb. class here earlier in the day, we later found out.)
We went for the designated period of crappie fishing. It was a bit slower than usual and we kept losing the big ones right beside the boat. Finally, everyone got into the rhythm of the strikes and we got a good number of nice ones for the fish fry that night.
January 10, 2006
This was the day Stan Daniel and I went to try and locate bass with artificials, as earlier described. And, the pictures are of the two big bass I took on the leftover shiners along the canal levee. I had to take them using the self-timer on the camera, so they are not the best in the World. But, the color was good and I got to hold them up high ala our old friend, John Fox!!
 
January 6, 2006
 Tim Ahmed and his friend, Jim, are local medical professionals. They are always on-call for their patients, 24 hours/day (to include hospital issues), and it is extremely difficult for them to get a day off. So, when Tim’s wife called and wanted to set up a trip as a Christmas present, she indicated that we had to lock in a date and it probably could not be changed. Hoping for good weather and fishing, we put Tim and Jim on the calendar and sent our trip gift certificate.
Sure enough, Friday, 6 January 2006 dawned cold and very windy (‘windy’ as in 35 MPH gusts!). But, we had discussed it the night before and made our plans. With the Stick Marsh bass all but shut down, the water filthy dirty, and the winds so high, I suggested we try the big crappie. The anglers agreed and noted they just wanted a day on the water and to catch something. It did not matter what species.
We ‘rainsuited’ up in the reliable FroggToggs prior to leaving the ramp. We knew the waves and wind spelled ‘spray city’ on this morning. By the time we got to the west wall of Farm 13, everything was wet – the boat, all the gear, and the FroggToggs. But, underneath, we were thankfully all dry and warm.
I set up the long fiberglass poles with live minnows and assured enough lead weight to hold the baits down at around seven feet as the wind pushed us across the impoundment. By setting out both sea anchors, the big Blazer was slowed down nearly perfectly. Only when we got off the west wall 300-400 meters would the speed increase to the point we had to pull up everything and move back to start another drift.
Our first pass turned 4 -5 crappie, with Tim getting the best bite. When we started the next drift, the winds kicked up a bit more and we went too fast. Numerous drifts later, we had worked the winds as best we could and had 20 nice slabs.
Then, I got the idea to stop drifting on the sea anchors and try using the trolling motor up close in the windbreak west shore. That would provide better control and certainly allow us to maintain a proper drift speed. That really worked great and we closed out the cold, windy day with a plastic shiner bag full of great eating crappie.
January 4, 2006
 Paul Williams and Charlie Hatmaker are old friends, having worked over the Kennansville crappie with us a few times. This time around, they brought their good friend, Jim Smith. Instead of Kennansville, we opted for the Stick Marsh and the west side of Farm 13.
The day before, I had gone to the Stick Marsh to try and locate crappie for their crappie trip. Since all the fishing appeared to have gone belly-up on the Marsh, especially the bass, I really felt I needed to try to locate crappie for Paul, Jim and Charlie. I was prepared to recommend they cancel the trip and re-schedule for another day and I had told them so three days earlier. But, I also said I would try to see what I could find. Since all three are local anglers, we could have re-set for another day easily. But, we lived up to our name of ‘World’s Luckiest Fisherman’ and found those crappie so thick and so big it was like Christmas mall over again. I KNEW this trip would be great. It took using two sea anchors in 25-MPH winds to do it, but the crappie cooperated well.
The guys and I hit the water at 9 AM, planning to stay out until dark. The winds had blown themselves out and the day was beautiful. Warm breezes and good friends – it was to be a great day.
We drifted the minnows identically to the day before, except we did not need the sea anchors. The front of the boat started off as the main target of the big slabs. Charlie was having a field day, with fish after fish. Jim, sitting on the middle seat, was close behind. Paul, in the back perch, was starting to do a slow burn. He could even get a strike, much less catch a crappie. That was strange, but fishing is sometimes like that. But, we all know the front or the back has basically no advantage when you are drifting open water with minnows. And, sure enough, Paul made it a blowout from the back seat. He started catching big slabs and never stopped until we had to stop for darkness!
 "The result was 60 big slabs that were kept, which averaged around 1.3 to 1.5 lbs. BIG crappie and all full of eggs. It looks like an early spawn may be coming. While the guys rode the minnows, I tossed a PERFECT Jig off to the side. It worked pretty good, but not nearly as well as the live minnows. "
Now is the time to go for the crappie, so don't wait too long. I have told you where and how. Now, get off your duff and go DO IT!!!
Today's Weather for
the Stick Marsh Area
Past Stick Marsh Fishing Reports
Farm 13 / Stick Marsh Information Guide
Email questions to jporter@jimporter.org.
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