Smiling Faces

Just another happy face. My youngest son, Agony, I mean, Anthony.

I know it might not look like it to you, but take it from me, He's beaming! Maybe not from the size so much, but from sheer volume. This is Sullivan Bay, not far from the entrance, coming in from the Kab.

In the morning, we would drift along the shore (?) and cast or flip our bait against the wall, let it fall in and sink. It worked good too. It's just to bad we didn't try that approach sooner in the trip.

We kept hearing about a crappie hole in the bay near the entrance, by some sunken logs, but the bay's a big place and that hole's hard to find. They said it's near some sunken logs. One day Pat and I found the logs, but by accident. We were headed back to the cabin and saw somebody was fishing in the area and so we pulled up on him. He wasn't thrilled, but he wasn't catching any fish there anyway, so he told us it was right around there and took off. We couldn't see it and were just trolling around when all of a sudden we hit the log. That was a shock. It's about 1 1/2 feet or so beneath the surface and hard to spot. The only reason we found it was because Pat had the trolling motor down so low in the water, we snagged a limb. We didn't catch anything there either. The next morning we all went back, but we couldn't find the log again. So, we hit the shore.

We were flipping worms and leeches toward the shore (1-2 feet away), letting them fall and reeling in. Nothing. Then, Pat happened to flip his bait to far and it hit the wall and fell in. Boom a 12" crappie. Naturally we all started doing the same thing and we were catching them like crazy. All kinds of fish too. Crappies, smallies, perch, and even a northern. Pat caught a small perch and we all laughed and congratulated him on such a fine prize. Then when he threw it back, a northern took him as soon as it hit the water. It was like he knew we caught that fish and were going to throw it in right there. We all just stood there with our mouths open. It happened again to Jim a couple of days later. I noticed that both times we threw the fish back in away from the wall, although I never got to act on it. Besides, we were catching fish anyway. We caught a lot of fish there that morning and every morning after.

Sullivan Bay is about 1/4 mile wide and about 1 1/2 miles long and a slight curve to it. In the morning, the sun doesn't rise above the tree line until about 10 or 10:30 in the morning on the north side of the bay. After that, nothing, until the next morning. We only had 4 or 5 days left (we go for 2 wks.), so I don't know if it's like that year-round, but I know where I'll be starting out this year.

The best part about it is that the area's so big, you can always find a good spot to be by yourselves if you want. The area we covered everyday was only about 5 or 600 feet long. Almost the same starting point each day and the same results each day, too. Float 6-7 feet from the wall, or shore, and toss. If you didn't bounce off the wall or get your bait right there, you didn't catch a fish. I'll never forget that. We used 2 boats and we all caught fish all morning. The water depth changes alot, too. It goes from 2- 12 feet every few feet, it seems like. It's really a great spot.