Two Surprises

A short trip to Evans Lake this evening yielded two unusual events.

I was blessed with this beautiful sunfish in full breeding color display on the first cast of a shallow crankbait - a Mann's Tiny 1- Grey Ghost.

No surprise here - I've caught several nice sunfish recently.

I also caught some healthy bass like these chunks:

The first shocker came when I pulled in this healthy white crappie.

I've fished this pond in every season and have photographed most every fish caught and according to my records the last time I caught a crappie was two years ago!

I had given up thinking that any crappie survived especially with the higher number of bass that I've seen this year. I guess you never know...

The second thing that caught my eye was right at dark I noticed something slipping over the concrete wall that defines the swimming area and seperates it from the main water body. At first I couldn't make out what it was. Fish? Frogs? Snakes? Turtles?

I continued to watch and finally got positioned so I could see. The mystery was solved when I saw a juvenile fish slide over the wall sideways. There was only about 1/2 inch of water moving over the wall and the smaller fish could make it in the normal orientation but the bigger ones had to lay on their side to get across.

I can only imagine that the predators get active after dark and the prey is escaping to the swimming area to escape becoming dinner. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen at the Lake.

Every outing is unique and special when you pay attention to the little details.