First time out this spring

I got a chance to get out for the first time this spring and do some tubin' on a local lake. I was anxious to try my new 6'5" Cabela's Prodigy ML panfish rod coupled with a Tica Cetus SS500 UL reel spooled up with 5lb Gamma Ice. It was funny, as I made my way to the launch area I found Andy there fishing away on shore. He said it had been slow. I decided to try the bay where I really pounded 'em last spring. The water was really low, probably down two feet from last year, and I had to work hard to get to that bay. I popped one gill around 9", but there wasn't much there except for a bunch of little gills and some dink bass. No crappies either.

I decided to make my way out onto the main lake. There was alot of algae up shallow...yuck! And that made fishing difficult, so I went out a bit deeper and sure enough, the crappies and gills were everywhere! There was quite a bit of movement on the surface from the fish underneath, and they were smackin' my float with vigor! I was getting fish on practically every cast using a Culprit paddletail about a foot under a float. Color didn't matter. Caught lots of gills, a couple in the 9" class, with plenty between 7.5" and 8.5". They looked healthy with bright colors, but the crappies were thin, with nothing much larger than 10".

My Cabela's Prodigy rod was awesome, it casted great with the Gamma line. The only thing that sucked was this terrible thumping and vibration I got when reeling in a fish. I figured it was the older Tica Cetus reel I had on. When I got home I tested it out and discovered it was the reel after all. I put on a Cabela's Fish Eagle UL and now it should work fine. I never was impressed by Tica reels, although lot's of people are. IMO the Cabela's UL Fish Eagle is the best reels for about $30.

I didn't get a whole lot of good pics, but here's a few from my outing...