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“It was a tough decision,” said Todd Bray, “but I couldn’t lose with either choice.”Todd and his wife, Lisa, were forced to choose between flounder fishing or driving up to T-Bend to cash in a guided trip that was an anniversary gift from their kids.

“It was really easier than it sounds,” said Bray.“Once we saw that the weather was going to be decent, we called the guide and booked for a day earlier than we had hoped to fish.Since I won’t be able to fish again this month, two possible limits of white perch sounded more appealing than four flounder!”

“Coach Thompson and the Mustangs just keep on winning and I feel good about them playing three more games.The only problem is that it always ties up my weekends in December which is fine with me.”I don’t know what his connection with Mustang football is as he has lived in Spring for the past twenty years!

As it turned out, they made the right decision.They won’t be eating stuffed flounder anytime soon, but they returned home with two limits of white perch and didn’t keep a single fish under a pound.“Lisa caught all of her fish on minnows and I caught all of my fish on black-chartreuse tube jig,” said Todd.

“Our guide said that he didn’t think the brush pile bite was going to last much longer so we fished each pile until they quit biting rather than catching a few and moving.We only fished three piles and were done by noon.We didn’t leave the dock until 9:00.”

I didn’t speak with a crappie guide this past week that wasn’t catching fish and they were all fishing about fourteen feet deep over 28 to 30 feet of water.Johnny Burke said that he felt like they may get the entire month of December in if they can dodge any freezes.

The most improved bass catching pattern, which doesn’t surprise me at all, is vertically jigging spoons in 30 to 35 feet of water.As of right now, the spoon is duping bass, but everything from yellow bass to catfish will occasionally crash the party.That technique has also produced some of the largest white perch I have ever caught.

If you aren’t fishing with a guide, the ability to interpret the message your electronics are relaying is a must in order to take advantage of this bite.Even if you caught fish there yesterday…..if there is nothing on the screen you can believe there is nothing down there!

Once you have caught fish using this program, you can usually tell before you ever lower your spoon whether or not the fish you are marking are going to bite.In some cases, it is all about how they are relating to the structure and sometimes it simply depends on how deep they are suspended.

It is also important to realize that all spoons are not created equal.While it doesn’t drop as fast as the slender hammered nickel spoon, I seem to do better with the conventional wider bodied wobble or flutter spoon. It produces more flash and movement on the fall, but for that very reason it is obviously not a good choice when jigging in brush or timber.

Replacing the treble hook with a single hook will not result in missed strikes and will save you a lot of hang ups.I eliminate line twist with both spoons by attaching a swivel and split ring rather than tying directly to the lure.I fish with a number of very good spoon fishermen that simply tie a small barrel swivel to the end of their braid and use a couple of feet of fluorocarbon leader.

While that technique consistently produces something other than bass, I have gotten two call over the past few days from anglers that recently caught stripers and were wondering if they were making a comeback.That isn’t going to happen and I was surprised by the fish in both pictures.One fish weighed five pounds and the other weighed eight and they were indeed stripers!

If you have been waiting to book a crappie trip I wouldn’t wait much longer.I hope the Mustangs continue to win as well, but forced to make a choice, I will listen to the game on the radio while eating fried white perch.