Crappies vs Bluegills, 3/30/2012

I got out for a late-evening of flyfishing on Friday.  I fished from 7:45pm-9:45 pm.

For those who have been following my blog, I will mention that Mark, April, and a co-worker of Mark's were flyfishing this public pond when I arrived.  It was good to see them.  They reported they had caught a LOT of fish (crappies and bluegills), but no catfish this time.

I started out cathcing several bluegills and a couple of crappies.  I decided early on that I wanted to try to catch MORE crappies than bluegills this evening.  So the contest was on.  I'd catch several more bluegills, then a couple crappies.  I'd get close with the crappies, then catch a several more bluegills.  I  was starting to think it wouldn't happen this night.  Then, I was able to TIE at 28 fish each.  Then I caught one more bluegill.  Then 2 crappies.  That made it 30-29 (crappies to bluegills).  I figured I'd catch one more fish to make my evening total an even 60 fish.  It was a crappie...HOORAY!  31-29.

I was tired from catching so many fish, and ready to head home.  I cast all my line out so I could reel it all back onto the reel (this works better than just reeling up the loose line piled on the ground at my feet)...and I couldn't even believe that as I started reeling in FAST, a fish was on my line again!  Bluegill.

Final tally 31 Crappies, 30 Bluegills for the evening.  I didn't take any pictures.
Does anyone else play these silly games while fishing?  Just for the record, several years ago it was normal to catch about twice as many crappies as bluegills from this pond.  Then the past year or so it switched heavily in favor of bluegills.  This year has been more bluegills, but some days the crappies have been pretty aggressive...so it IS a challenge to catch more crappies from this pond on any given day, but it is also a definite possibility.  The fun thing is to try to locate where the crappies tend to congregate.  And while I COULD switch to a larger hook size to put the odds in favor of hooking more crappies...but I haven't gotten that desperate!  :)