I've delayed making this post, mainly because I didn't know where to begin. Last week four of us - me, Ed McCoy, Charlie Davis and Ross Malone - hooked up with Aaron Barton, owner of Barton Outfitters. Over two days - fishing Enid Lake one day and Sardis Lake the next, the four of us split up and fished with four different guides. We fished a wide variety of patterns - wading, spider-rigging and livescoping. We caught fish every way, but Charlie Davis probably had the best success Livescoping with Guide Andy Houston on Sardis. They kept 17 crappie, probably averaging 1.5 lbs. each, topped by a solid 2-pounder. Wading was not as productive as we would have liked, but I LOVED doing it. It was the first time I've ever had the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with crappie in shallow water, fishing in one-to-two-feet of water the entire time. We struggled to find keepers but had good numbers of "short fish" (under the legal size limit). REMEMBER, out there the minimum size limit is 12-inches-plus. We threw back LOTS of 11.5 inch crappie - fish that we would have been bragging about in Chickamauga Lake. It was a fun and enlightening North Mississippi crappie excursion. If you want to try it, check out Barton Outfitters. They'll work hard to put you big crappie.
