Yellow Perch Crappie and Surprise Swamp Slam

Have had a pretty successful end to February and start to early march with a few outings solo out to the swamp. The yellow perch started to show up in good numbers and size and the crappie have schooled up making them easier to locate. The only down side has been the bi polar weather we have had with days in the 60s followed by days near 20 and winds gusting out of the north east.

Good sized yellow perch on the jig

Headed out with a buddy of mine for a little cypress tree crappie and perch fishin. I have been finding fish but unable to pull good numbers due to the really windy conditions we have been experiencing lately. With a forecast of 55 degree, sunshine, and no wind I knew we were going to have a good day.
We launched right at 0630 and with the fog on the water it made for an awesome paddle out to our first spot. Since Lee doesnt have a kayak I let him paddle my Trident 13 and I opted to take BB's Hurricane Phoenix 120 to add some slime to it.
The first drift down the bank at 4-5 feet deep and we were not getting any bites, short strikes on minnows but nothing on the jigs. Moved further out to about 30 feet from the bank and went deeper setting the corks to about 3 inches off the bottom and drifted by again and had our first hook ups. Following the pattern we managed to make a pretty decent day including some nice citation yellow perch. The bite died off around 1100 and we ate lunch and made a shore break and then paddled back out.

Another good sized 'trophy' yellow perch.

Fat slab crappie.

The biggest surprise came a little after noon when my cane pole set at about 10 feet with a small split shot and a minnow to bounce the bottom took off and bent near in half. I pulled up on what I hoped was a monster yellow perch only to find myself fighting a striper! After a few runs around the kayak and jumps I landed my first swamp striper. A small large mouth bass a short while later, and a few flyers mixed with the crappie and I had what I would like to call a swamp fish slam!

15 inch cane pole striper!

Not a monster but it was an awesome catch!

White/chartreuse road runners, white hair jigs, and white/chartreuse crappie magnet jigs were the successful artificials. Minnows got the most bites but the bigger fish came on the jigs, they just couldnt resist slamming them as it was jiggled infront of their noses. Got a few nice fish to bring home and let the big yellow perch go.