Bald Eagle State Park Crappies

My wife and I went camping up at Bald Eagle State Park Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Due to the heat, we only fished for a few hours and that was starting right before dark until a couple hours after dark. We targeted crappie off of the handicapped fishing pier.

Monday night we fished from 6:30 pm to 10 pm. We caught around 70 to 80 crappie. Kim caught several in the 10 to 11 inch range. I had some between 9 and 10 inches, the rest were between 6 and 8 inches. Kim used fathead minnows and I used a hand tied marabou crappie jig in white.

Tuesday night we didn't start fishing until 8:30 pm due to the intense heat and fished until 11 pm. We hung one propane lantern over the side of the pier and tied it off so it was right at the top of the water to bring the crappie shallower after dark and it worked pretty well.

Kim was on fire starting out catching crappie on every cast. We caught quite a few crappie. We both used a white hand tied marabou jig. Average size was much smaller with the fish ranging from 4 to 6 inches. Not any size but lots of fun. Total crappie caught in around 6 hours was approximately 125 crappie.

Tuesday night I also tossed out a line with a whole raw shrimp trying for a channel cat and I connected with one nice channel cat between 26 and 28 inches. Fought hard with some long, drag screaming runs before I got it in.

This was Kim's first time fishing in two years and she had a lot of fun. We packed up early Wednesday morning to beat the heat.

Tim