journal features

my first crappie

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Lower Buckhorn Lake, 2016.10.07

I caught a lovely crappie today, a good-sized and healthy-looking specimen with good "shoulders". Crappie have an odd way of fighting on the line, more a vertical twitch that the usual panfish three beats left, three beats right or the blue-gill's bass-like power-dives and short drives. I was delighted to pull the thing out of the water, as I'd wanted to catch one.

Sadly, the thing had badly inhaled the entire lure and I still hadn't replaced the rear treble-hook having only just received the lure today. I hadn't even clipped the barbs, so was my rush to get out on the water.

The size of the thing impressed the angler in the next cottage, I don't really know what to expect with crappie but this one lived up to the species' reputation for a tasty meal.

What a great way to start a fishing weekend I mean Thanksgiving weekend!

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.