The Reel Deal: Trout or Crappie
by Lindsey Lucas
When I am writing and watching videos of fishing, there are always things that are missing – in my mind anyway.
For example, you rarely see anyone getting a hook embedded in their shoulder. Let me tell you a story about a time my dad, younger twin brothers, Logan and Landon, and I went trout fishing.
Even though we grew up doing all types of fishing, I’d say crappie is one of the best fish to target. However, since our boat has been in the shop, we decided to go fishing for trout. We hadn’t done that in a while.
We all helped dad get our trout fishing stuff together and loaded into the car, put on some old country music and headed for one of the state parks here in Missouri.
We grew up going to a state park called Montauk Lodge. It’s probably one of the best, family-friendly state parks I’ve been to – especially if you like to fish for trout. The people there are always willing to help each other out and lend a hand. When I was 12 years old, I won a youth trout tournament with a 6-pound rainbow trout. The prize included getting it mounted for free.
On our most recent trip, it was pretty warm outside so we had the windows down with nice cool air blowing in the car as we sang along to the music. We finally arrived at Montauk and we put our vests on, tied on jigs and went to our favorite spot.
My dad and I were using our favorite rod and reel combos, the B’n’M Little Lucy. My younger brothers were using poles that we’ve had for a while, but they love them because they’re their favorite colors. We got to our spot and not many people were there since it was later in the day.
There is a dam you can walk across to get to the other side of the stream or you can stand on the ledge and fish off of it. My dad and Logan go on across while Landon and I chose to stand and fish off of the dam. We’re catching fish left and right when, the next thing I know, something pulls on my sleeve pokes my shoulder.
I looked to my left, where Landon was standing, and realized when he went to cast he hooked his little silver jig in my shoulder. I was hoping Landon wouldn’t set the hook thinking he had a monster trout on the line. I quickly reached over trying to get the hook out before he felt the tug of me trying to remove the jig from my shoulder. Luckily it wasn’t super deep and I was able to just pull it out before matters got worse and I ended up being the biggest catch of the day!
We all had a blast like we always do when spending time together. The hot summer day sure did wear us all out so on the way home Logan and Landon were sleeping and snoring like bears. It sure was time well spent, now we’re just waiting to get our boat back from the shop, to tear some crappie up! Even though we all love trout fishing, crappie will always have my heart won over.
