Leeches

[eyecrosser]

Took my son fishing the other day at a local farm pond. The color of the day was a smoke/glitter colored tube. Caught a mess of bass and 3 crappie between 12 1/2 and 15 inches. Should have had more but the wind bowed the line so bad missed several fish. Through the bass back and kept the crappies for lunch. All the crappie had leeches about 1- 1 1/2 inches long filling their stomachs. Anyone else experienced this in early spring??

 

[toadfrog]

I got a leach hand pour for just that reason . Looks like a willow blade with a bump on one end . Pour it bone white on the belly and black /copper green hilite on top . Fish that sucker around dead brush and where leaves and vegetation mix . If it is in the pond they will bite it until the water reaches 68 degrees or so . After that the bite slows on that particular bait . Go figure .

 

[hookup]

Time for a leech pattern rabbit hair jig ...

Smallies love these small eals that look like grass sticking out of the silt. A 3" floating stixbait on a standup head rocks during that time of the year.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Live leaches are a bucket brigade bait of choice in certain CO reservoirs for other species as well including walleye & catfish.

Those are some nice crappie! A dark tube on a light head might indeed mimic a leach.