Two 3-plus pounders anchor Hosea’s catch Saturday morning
It might have taken Twayne Hosea years and years of crappie fishing to break the mythical 3-pound mark at Poverty Point Reservoir State Park, but the Delhi angler hasn’t looked back since catching a whopping 3.52-pounder on Feb. 25.
That fish — potentially the state’s new No. 2-ranked sac-a-lait and the largest ever caught at Poverty Point — kicked off a 30-day run unlike any other for Hosea, and he capped it off in style when he landed two 3-pounders within hours of each other Saturday morning.
Both fish, which weighed-in at 3.24 and 3.16 pounds, would have been Top 10 white crappie in the state any other year — except for the fact that Poverty Point has potentially placed four brand new fish in the Top 10 in the last month.
On Saturday morning, Hosea’s four heaviest fish tipped the scales at 3.24, 3.16, 2.28 and 2.24 — an impressive four-fish stringer weighing 10.92 pounds.
“That’s my heaviest four fish ever. My first 3-pound fish was the 25th of February, but as far as having two 3-pounders in one day — that’s unheard of for me,” Hosea said. “And then to top it off with two 2-pound fish was pretty exciting.”
Hosea said his recipe for success hasn’t changed: he’s still fishing with a 1-inch bluegrass Bobby Garland Baby Shad jig on a ⅛-ounce jighead, and he caught the fish once again in a spot locals refer to as “the hump off the graveyard.”
“It’s hard for me to get away from something I’m catching fish on,” Hosea said with a chuckle.
But April 1st is just days away, and Hosea said the clock is likely ticking on the record-breaking crappie action this spring at the 2,700-acre lake north of Delhi.
“I think the main spawn is over on the north end of the lake,” he said. “A lot of the people have moved now to the south end of the lake, but all the reports I’m getting from down there say they’re not doing that great yet.
“I think we’ve probably got one more good week, maybe a week-and-a-half, but not more than two weeks. Then you’re going to have to work hard for your fish. They’re going to scatter: they’ll be off the humps and off the shoreline and the banks, and you’ll have to really look for them. That’s when you find your good fishermen then.”
Moving forward, Hosea said he would target oxbows on the southeast side of the lake where late-spawners stage in deeper water.
“That’s where the second spawn takes place, down in those cutoffs in 6 to 8 feet of water where it drops off to 30 feet,” he said. “That’s where we usually catch.”
He’s getting replica mounts completed of his four-fish stringer from Saturday, and returned all four slabs back into the waters of Poverty Point.
“”That’s going to be my 4-pounders next spring,” he said. “I’m going to let them grow up and be big boys.”
