Crappy Fishing

[hoosieroutdoorsman]

What is everyones favorite crappy tactic?
Do you just go for seek and find crappies ?
Do you jig or slip bobber break lines after spawn?
Do you slow troll flats with a mini spinner during pre spawn?
Or do you hit DEEP water with slip bobbers or vertical jigging during the heat of summer?

[bassrod2 - TJ]

The wife interviewed a couple website members of ours and wrote a piece on it, it'll be out the end of March early April as a newsletter. also Mike has a copy of it. Or let me know and i'll email it to you, [e-mail]

[DocHolladay]

I usually fish for them in the spring. I like to use roadrunners, various colored jigs and tubes, and minnows. I hit every fallen tree I can see visually and on the depth finder. The roadrunners are cast using an ultralight rod and reel to the trees to catch any and all crappie that are hanging on the edges or suspended open water. I make several cast at various depths to be sure I cover all of the water column that the fish could be in. After that I go in close and use a fly rod that I have converted to a crappie rod. I use the jigs, tubes, or minnows under a bobber. I set it at various depths until I start catching the fish(usually 4-6ft.). Sometimes I use a jig or tube at the bottom(weighted) and put a minnow above it at about roughly 12". That way I kill two birds with one stone. If I haven't gotten a bite in 20-30 min. I move to the next one. I might put a little more time into it if I really think the tree is holding some fish. About 2 weeks ago we caught a few on a drop off from shallow water(2ft) into the channel. The crappie, hybrids, and yellow bass were stacked up on the drop off at any depth from 8-22ft.. Every fish that was caught was at 10-12ft. on minnows being retrieved under a bouncing bobber. My buddy managed to catch 6 fish with the same dead, torn to pieces minnow. All we were doing was popping the bobber a little as we retrieved it with a couple of seconds pause every now and then.

[hoosieroutdoorsman]

Thats a great tactic Doc, I like to do that myself in the spring.I also like to hit deep water drop offs during post spawn, using 1/64 th jigs tipped with minnows.When I can find under water rocks in about 18-25 feet of water thats when I can hit the bigger ones,,at least around Indiana anyways. I have always liked deep water crappy fishing but sometimes it hard to get to big ones suspended below the smaller ones as the little guys tend to snatch the bait on the way down.

[bassrod2 - TJ]

went blue gill and cappie fishing Monday, used both 1/64 & 1/32oz jig with a minnow and red worms, picked up 45 gills, 32 crappie. Did some bottom bouncing also fished about a foot off the bottom. fOUND a lot of blue gills on the beds. I think we had a GREAT day on the water, it was cold (mid 30's) but sure had fun.
ENJOY THE OUTDOORS,
TJ

[michihunter]

All that and no pics TJ? You should be ashamed of yourself!! ;D ;DSounds like you had a great time!!

[admin]

So when's the fish fry? ;D

[bassrod2 - TJ]

;D Pic's will be comming soon!!!!!!

[admin]

Look forward to them TJ

[hoosieroutdoorsman]

Thats great TJ,, as soon as some of the fronts moving through here straighten up I will be heading out to explore the crappy waters too.How deep of water were you fishing? Were they hanging close to flat by a drop off? This time of year when it is below 50 deg. that is where I usually find them?

[bassrod2 - TJ]

hoosieroutdoorsman said:

Thats great TJ,, as soon as some of the fronts moving through here straighten up I will be heading out to explore the crappy waters too.How deep of water were you fishing? Were they hanging close to flat by a drop off? This time of year when it is below 50 deg. that is where I usually find them?

we started in 3 to 5 feet on the flats moved out to 10 to 12 at a drop off and things picked up. Water temp was cold only 38 and 42 degrees. They seemed to hit red worms much better.

[bassrod2 - TJ]

admin said:

So when's the fish fry? ;D

As for the Fish fry. SORRY but I tossed them all back in.

[hoosieroutdoorsman]

I am hoping the water temp here in Indiana hit the low to mid 50`s within a week or 2,, I seem to fair much better with those temps in the early spring. All next week is suppossed to be in the mid and upper 50`s so will keep my fingers crossed.

[bassrod2 - TJ]

I've been checking all the weather sites on the net, Seems they all say we'll have at least 1 more cool month then things will start to warm up. So pan fishing should be BOOMING for a while.

[fossilman]

I bobber fish with minnows...........

[bassrod2 - TJ]

fossilman said:

I bobber fish with minnows...........

Nothing wrong with using a bobber or float to fish.