A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to go Bass Fishing

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 This last weekend my brother, nephew and I went to the Stumpfield Marsh which is part of the Henniker Flood Control area in Henniker, NH. We were excited about going Bass fishing, but when we arrived at the boat launch, we discovered that a Bass fishing tournament was already in progress. Of course the lake cannot be closed off just for the tournament so we were still able to go fishing, but after a brief discussion we decided that the Bass fishing today was not going to be so good because most of the lake was already being hammered by Bass fisherman.

Simple resolution for us was to just switch gears and instead of fishing for Bass we decided to fish for Crappie. It was a decision that really made our day of fishing, spectacular. While we could see Bass fisherman shooting off cast after cast and not bringing anything into their boats, we were landing fish after fish after fish. The Crappie were extremely active. As you can see on the map, we did not really venture too far from the boat launch. In fact the red line from the boat launch to the cove is the route we fished. We launched a 8 am and immediately started catching this scrappy little fish and we didn’t stop catching them until we got off the water at 6 pm.

The Crappie were a lot of fun to catch and there were so many that we literally could not go more than a few minutes without landing another one. When we reached the cove, we stopped for lunch and then we spent the next three hours just in the cove catching Crappie. They were so abundant today that during one fifteen minute period my brother and I never made a single cast. All we had to do was drop five feet of line over the side of the boat and within seconds we had a Crappie on the line. If you have never seen a Crappie then you will not know that it is quite a pretty fish.

Once again, our gear consisted of light weight tackle. We were using our ultra light rod and reel combo with 4 lb test line and as you can see in this photo, we were using old faithful for bait. the 1.5″ to 2″ white twirl tail grub on a 1/16th to 1/8th ounce jig head.

My fellow Amateurs, I hope you have the opportunity to stop by Stumpfield Marsh to go Crappie fishing and I wish you as much luck catching this wonderful little fish as we had. Just remember, good company + good fishing = great memories.

To get to Stumpfield Marsh you will go up Rte. 89 West out of Concord, NH. Take exit 5 which is Rte. 202. Within a couple of minutes of turning onto exit 5 you will cross a bridge with water on both sides. Take your first right after the bridge onto Stumpfield Road and go down to the boat launch. Be sure to bring some sort of boat as fishing from the water is easier than fishing from shore. Best of luck.

Tight lines, the Amateur Angler