Page 11 - Crappie NOW | March 2015
P. 11
St. Johns River Plunking
If that wasnt surprising enough,
first Outlaw then Parrott brought up
hefty crappie out of this very dense
Florida flora.
In my years of following crappie
experts, I’d seen plenty of low-tip
fishing. The edges of weedbeds,
the outer slats of wooden and metal
docks, against tupelo and cypress
trees, beside bridge pilings and riprap
and even along swimming platforms
— all done with low-tip fishing where
the approach was definitely vertical as
opposed to horizontal. But never had
I observed this straight-line plunking
in such a dense floating jungle.
When the boat I was riding
in drifted close to the team I leaned
out and asked what they were doing.
Outlaw, with a smile as wide as a
herons wing, alternately called it, When a strike occurs, the crappie is quickly pulled
dipping-and-sticking. No one seemed up and out. You don t want to give it the chance to
to have a fixed named for the tactic, run through the stalks.
I even heard Probing, so on the
spur of the moment I decided to tag
it Plunking, as it seemed the angler had monster. Outlaws and Parrotts rods
to plunk the crappie on their heads to illicit a measured 12- and 14-feet long respectively.
strike. Yet the rods lightness was a distinct feature.
Over the course of several days on the With a plastic reel resembling a fly reel on
St. Johns, Outlaw and Parrott werent the Outlaw’s pole, the total outfit weighed about
only team to dig into the pads and pull crappie four ounces.
vertically. Joining the fun were Jim and Barbara Outlaws reel was something else to
Reedy and the team of Matt Morgan and Doc behold. Its braided line was spooled like a fly
Watson. reel and the retrieving handle a squat plastic
About the only difference in the parties knob, functional only for putting line back on
tactics was Morgan and Watson’s affinity for the reel but not for fighting fish. The reel had a
exposed deadfalls in the midst of thick pads, low-ratio gear with a barely useful drag located
and the plunking of dead falls without weeds. at the side center of the spool. The drag was
meant to prevent an overrun when the angler
Reach Out and Touch Someone drew line out to make a length adjustment.
In this cover-orientated water, the When a crappie was hooked, it wasnt the
common denominator among all the anglers drag that fought the fish but the torque of the
was a super-long rod and the low-tip approach. long pole.
With all these veteran crappie anglers, the Parrotts gear was slightly different from
overall length of line from the rod tip was his South Carolina partner’s. He employed
nominal. Sometimes someone used a few feet a small spinning reel on his rod. This was
of line to make a wood-based presentation but affixed at the very end of the rod’s cork handle
constantly there were only inches between the while Outlaw’s fly reel was positioned about
rod tip and the water surface. two-hand lengths along the butt. Both anglers
Beside this, the equipment key to this touted the lightness and balance of their
fishing was a rod I came to call “a feather equipment, adding the rods and reels could
9 Crappie NOW January 201511 Crappie NOW March 2015
If that wasnt surprising enough,
first Outlaw then Parrott brought up
hefty crappie out of this very dense
Florida flora.
In my years of following crappie
experts, I’d seen plenty of low-tip
fishing. The edges of weedbeds,
the outer slats of wooden and metal
docks, against tupelo and cypress
trees, beside bridge pilings and riprap
and even along swimming platforms
— all done with low-tip fishing where
the approach was definitely vertical as
opposed to horizontal. But never had
I observed this straight-line plunking
in such a dense floating jungle.
When the boat I was riding
in drifted close to the team I leaned
out and asked what they were doing.
Outlaw, with a smile as wide as a
herons wing, alternately called it, When a strike occurs, the crappie is quickly pulled
dipping-and-sticking. No one seemed up and out. You don t want to give it the chance to
to have a fixed named for the tactic, run through the stalks.
I even heard Probing, so on the
spur of the moment I decided to tag
it Plunking, as it seemed the angler had monster. Outlaws and Parrotts rods
to plunk the crappie on their heads to illicit a measured 12- and 14-feet long respectively.
strike. Yet the rods lightness was a distinct feature.
Over the course of several days on the With a plastic reel resembling a fly reel on
St. Johns, Outlaw and Parrott werent the Outlaw’s pole, the total outfit weighed about
only team to dig into the pads and pull crappie four ounces.
vertically. Joining the fun were Jim and Barbara Outlaws reel was something else to
Reedy and the team of Matt Morgan and Doc behold. Its braided line was spooled like a fly
Watson. reel and the retrieving handle a squat plastic
About the only difference in the parties knob, functional only for putting line back on
tactics was Morgan and Watson’s affinity for the reel but not for fighting fish. The reel had a
exposed deadfalls in the midst of thick pads, low-ratio gear with a barely useful drag located
and the plunking of dead falls without weeds. at the side center of the spool. The drag was
meant to prevent an overrun when the angler
Reach Out and Touch Someone drew line out to make a length adjustment.
In this cover-orientated water, the When a crappie was hooked, it wasnt the
common denominator among all the anglers drag that fought the fish but the torque of the
was a super-long rod and the low-tip approach. long pole.
With all these veteran crappie anglers, the Parrotts gear was slightly different from
overall length of line from the rod tip was his South Carolina partner’s. He employed
nominal. Sometimes someone used a few feet a small spinning reel on his rod. This was
of line to make a wood-based presentation but affixed at the very end of the rod’s cork handle
constantly there were only inches between the while Outlaw’s fly reel was positioned about
rod tip and the water surface. two-hand lengths along the butt. Both anglers
Beside this, the equipment key to this touted the lightness and balance of their
fishing was a rod I came to call “a feather equipment, adding the rods and reels could
9 Crappie NOW January 201511 Crappie NOW March 2015
