On the water!!!!!

   The R.P. Mc Murphy is now ready for the water! His maiden voyage! We (Steph and I) decided on the name R.P. Mc Murphy after the classic movie, one of our favorites, One Who Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest.

   Jack Nicholson's character in that movie is the best! Anyway... on to the fishing business.

   It is Sunday, May 29th and we have over cast skies and calm winds. Perfection for the big debut on the water! I decided to bring Steph to a body of water that was shown to me last winter by a good friend, Adam Forsythe. That winter we had pulled some very good quality crappies and big gills through the ice and Shawn and I hit the same body of water this spring and scored some big crappies. Needless to say I was pumped!
  The new Yamaha run perfect and it felt real good to have a good quality, strong running motor, for once! It didn't take long and I was used to it. I have never had a 4-stroke before so, things are a tad different.
  I don't have a graph on him yet but, I knew right where I wanted to start my hunt for big crappies. We set up with colored hooks and slip floats, and a pail of crappie minnows! I was the first to strike with this beautiful female gill!

                                                                 10" class hen released!

   We continued to catch small perch and lost a few hooks to some toothy critters. It has been a couple of hours, some moving around and, finally...BLACK CRAPPIE GOLD!!!!

12" crappie released!

   This 12" fish took down a live minnow, dancing under a slipfloat! That was the one and only crappie caught this evening. It didn't matter to me if we slayed them or not. Just getting out with the new boat and spending the evening with my wife was just as great!

   As I am typing this, Shawn is in the Grand Marais area of Minnesota, chasing trout. I will be heading to Itasca county in search of big gills and pumpkin seeds with good friend Andy Mott. Stay tuned....