# Cod and me and the crappie tree



## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Codwrinkle and I hit the Tallapoosa yesterday in search of crappie. 99% of the places we checked had not squat, except for Codwrinkle's first ever yellow perch. He was elated! Not because of his first yellow perch, but because he was beating me on the fish count. Wanted to quit fishing and put the boat on the trailer before I caught up or passed him. Bless his heart.

We hit nearly all of last year's honeyholes without a tap. I'm thinking we're looking at Skunk City when Cod heads for a giant pine tree that I think is too shallow to hold fish. The tree lays about 50-60 feet out onto a shallow flat, and the very end of it sits in only 4 feet of water. I would have bypassed it, but Cod was driving, so here we go.

He's commenting on all the turtles on the tree trunk, wishing he had brought his .17HMR, thinking he could whack the one on the right, hit it on the left side of its shell, richochet into the one on the left, and enjoy all the turtle schrapnel raining down from above. Sick puppy.

We make it to the end of the tree and I mechanically flip a jig to it. I'm on! Cod casts and he's on! Hallelujah! Drop anchor. We're bailing the crappie. The wind is a bitch, blowing 20 mph from our left, then blowing 20 mph from our right. Despite the huge bellies in our line, we're catching crappie!

And we're hanging up real steady-like. Cod says break off every hang-up so we don't "spook the tree". I told him we were decorating the tree like a Christmas tree. At one point, the wind blows my line over a limb, and a crappie hooks itself on the other side of the limb. I have the crappie hanging out of the water and ask Cod if we should go get it. He says, "Break it off! Lose one crappie or risk scaring off the rest." POW!

We picked 25 off that ONE tree before they shut down. I also caught my personal best white bass (2 1/2#?) that I tossed back. We went to another half dozen spots without so much as a nibble before calling it a day. Thank goodness for that one tree.


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## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

Look at Bodupp slaying them crappie!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## amarcafina (Aug 24, 2008)

Sweet sounds like the shallow water is where to go next few days !!


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

That's what it's all about, hunting and poking around trying different things until boom, you smoke them! Nice mess of fish.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

jcoss15 said:


> That's what it's all about, hunting and poking around trying different things until boom, you smoke them! Nice mess of fish.


We had run out of tricks until Cod birddogged that tree. We weren't marking anything in deep water, so they had to be shallow... right? But our most productive bank yielded nothing. Apparently all the fish in that creek were hanging in that tree - like our crappie jigs.


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

That's the way it goes sometime. If that sort day happens on Friday we will be looking for a special tree.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

fishwalton said:


> That's the way it goes sometime. If that sort day happens on Friday we will be looking for a special tree.


Hope you find one JB - without all the wind.


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Get that grease going and give me a yell!!! hahaha nice haul brother!!!


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## Al.remoraking (Aug 20, 2016)

............And we thought you only striper fished. 
Way to get after those papermouth. Good story,great bunch of fish.


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## olegator (Dec 6, 2014)

Cod and me and the crappie tree......Sounds like the title to a country western song....or a kid's book.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Smashed em! Too bad you didn't have the .17HMR for the side of turtle soup with your fried Crappie.

Sounds like your buddy is never gonna let that one down either. Anytime you say "No, we should go..." he's gonna say "You remember that one time we..."...


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Chris V said:


> Smashed em! Too bad you didn't have the .17HMR for the side of turtle soup with your fried Crappie.
> 
> Sounds like your buddy is never gonna let that one down either. Anytime you say "No, we should go..." he's gonna say "You remember that one time we..."...


I'm afraid you're right, but instead of saying anything, he'll just give me "the look" and do whatever he wants to do anyway. BTW, he never touched the first fish. Since I was in the backseat above the livewell, he would just swing his fish to me without saying a word. Like a good boy, I would unhook his fish, drop it in the livewell, straighten the grub on his hook, and tell him to get me another one.


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Bet you never get near that tree without "trying it". I did the same trick with the crappie on a limb deal early in the week. Wind blowed the back of the boat around and I scrambled to the back with the net. I was trying to winch him to the top so that I could get the net on him and ended up putting one leg up to the knee in the live well. I always leave the hatch open so that I can toss the fish in without having to get up. Bout broke both legs!!
Congrats on Pullin out a good mess. How'd you cook 'em?


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Try'n Hard;70405 How'd you cook 'em?[/QUOTE said:


> Did the egg wash/flour/frying thing. Added a little Tony Chachere's to the flour.
> 
> Had to freeze half of them to share with Codwrinkle. Lonely at the cleaning bench. Cod still hasn't touched a fish.


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Bodupp said:


> Did the egg wash/flour/frying thing. Added a little Tony Chachere's to the flour.
> 
> 
> 
> Had to freeze half of them to share with Codwrinkle. Lonely at the cleaning bench. Cod still hasn't touched a fish.




Cod don't seem like the kinda guy I would want cleaning my food! I cleaned 20, 22, and 12 last week. Nephew sorta wanted to help but I have a system and needed to get done. He was thrilled to get to load up the guts and drive the mini truck down to the drain where I dump them.


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