Crappies

[CrappieMagnet]

I'll see if I can add something to the forum here.

Fish the wind. If there is no wind, fish structure. If the wind is coming out of the NW, fish the SE corner of the lake. Phytoplankton and zooplankton gets blown around by the wind. The minnows usually feed on these micro-organisms. If you can find the minnows the other predator fish will be close to them.Follow the food chain. Also if there is an island,fish the windswept side first. Fish the deepest weedline. The deepest weedline is usually around the 11-15 feet range,however the weedline could be deeper or shallower, depending on the body of water.

If there is no wind, seek structure. Good areas are docks bordering deeper water. A tree that's in deeper water. Poke jigs in and around the branches. You can also look for suptle changes and hooks in depths. Crappies are attracted to any areas that have hooks and corners in depth and in northern bays in the springtime. The sun warms up the northside of any lake first. Look for muddy bays,creeks...etc. Try verticle structure. Bridge pilings comes to mind. Dock legs also. Transitional areas are also fish magnets. Bullrushes, rocky shorelines and weedlines are great examples of transitional areas. Look for areas that have two characteristics together. Sunken islands and humps are fish highways and the fish may use these from time to time, sometimes even for food.

Table Rock Lake is a reservoir.....and very deep in alot of areas that make awesome crappie habitat.Crappies can be found suspended,tight to cover,or anywhere in between.Try fishing the cedar tree tops and other hardwood trees found throughout the lake.Try fishing around suspended docks,riprap,and also around the many resort docks that are everywhere throughout the lake.Now that it's late fall down there...try fishing in the many creek arms shallow.Use baits that resemble insects,shad, and bluegills.White/red combo jig colors...blue/white....yellow/white....green/white.....chartreus/white....all can be productive.

If the water is cold....use jig sizes all the way down to 1/100th oz....for tight lipped slabs.The warmer the water the bigger the jig size.Same goes with minnow style lures.Small minnow styles could be a small floating Rapala Shad Rap....or a 1-inch Yo-Zuri Snapbean in silver color.Move around....don't stay if you are'nt catching anything.Give a location 20 minutes tops...than move on.

Any other questions...just ask.

[Sam]

CrappieMagnet, that's good advice in general but in my opinion it's a little different here. For one thing, our lakes don't have weeds or weedlines. The other thing is that our baitfish run very big, and downsizing to tiny lures just doesn't work here as it does in many other places. I don't think I've ever caught a crappie here on a lure less than 1 1/2" long, and I actually found a 6 1/2" shad in a big crappie's stomach a couple of years ago. What we have to remember here is that if you think a lure is too big for a crappie, it probably isn't.

I agree with others that crappie in Tablerock don't seem to bunch up as tight in brushpiles and cover as they do at Bull Shoals. Tablerock crappie will be scattered along an area they like and also concentrate in small bunches related to brush and stick-ups within that general area. Lots of times the ones not in brush show up well on a scope - if you're going along a bank or a point in, say, 25-35 feet of water and see scattered fish all along that area suspended at about 16 feet, that's probably crappie.

It's important to remember that crappie like to come up for a lure or bait, but they'll never go down for it. It's real easy to fish below them and never get a bite. It's best to present a lure or bait just a foot or two above where the fish are.

My favorite method to cover water and get crappie located is to scope for them in places where I've found them before. If I see fish on the scope that I think are crappie, then I'll slow-troll that whole bank for them with a 1/8 or 1/16 oz. jighead and a 2" swimming minnow, keeping an eye on the scope and staying in the depth where suspended fish are. I use the trolling motor to go as slow as I can and still keep the tail of the lure wiggling, and sometimes just drifting with the wind is enough for that.

Within that area if I get bit when I pass a flooded tree or some brush, then I'll stop and cast to it because crappies may be bunched up there. If I'm casting, I'll downsize to a rig with no more than a 1/16 oz. jighead and a small crappie tube (gitzit), because I can move that slower and also jig up-and-down with it. Preferred colors change with different days. Most often, pearl or light blue colors work best and sometimes I'll dye the tail of the lure chartruese.

[CrappieMagnet]

Thanks Sam.

I'm just saying in general that's what crappies do here.Every lake is different in some way or another.Locating them is the hardest part.Presentation the next...and getting them to bite is the last.Tactics here in Minnesota are different than on Table Rock or Bull Shoals...but sometimes they do work...given

all the different weather patterns....structure...moving water....well lots of variables come into play...in catching crappie.

Most anglers down there and up here aren't willing to share their hot spots...GPS coordinates....brush piles...bridges to any angler...so giving them some kind of reference to what crappies eat,and locations on how to find them not only in natural lakes,reservoirs,rivers or streams is what I was trying to do.Not everyone

can catch crappie....there were lots of days where I could'nt put together a pattern for catching them...that's the way it goes some days especially after a cold front goes by....but hey...that's why they call it fishing.

If someone here can use a tip from you or I...hey to me..it's worth my time for sharing it......Just my .02 cents worth.

[Sam]

If someone here can use a tip from you or I...hey to me..it's worth my time for sharing it......Just my .02 cents worth.

Yep, I agree - and the information you shared is worth a lot more than that.

[rangerman]

The worm weight tactic works great on Lake Fork, as generally this time of year the crappie are starting to move little bit deeper. It works great on Table rock as well. You will pick up numerous incidental catches, however, by moving slowing around the tree tops you will catch crappie.

I agree with Sam on the crankbait size.

[Sam]

I've got no problem in downsizing the WEIGHT of a crappie jig - in fact I love to fly fish for crappie with no weight at all when conditions are right. Weight just has to do with how deep you need to fish, how far you need to cast, and how hard the wind's blowing.

Also, using a smaller SIZE jig is right in some places. Over in TN I've caught slab crappies on little 3/4" Assassin jigs, and the big crappie jigs I use here wouldn't get a bite. Here on Tablerock, Bull Shoals, Stockton, and Pomme de Terre though, I can't get a crappie to bite on a lure that small. Maybe some guys do, but it's never worked for me even once.

It gripes me though, how lure manufacturers, when they downsize the weight of a crappie jig, also downsize the HOOK SIZE. That ain't right - and there's more crappie lost beside the boat because of little-bitty hooks and a poor hookset than anything else.

Tiny hooks are good for bluegills, not for crappie. When a crappie unhinges its mouth to bite, it's got a mouth almost as big as a bass of the same size. Big hooks work best, even on small crappie.

I pour my own jig heads every winter, and for the 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 oz. sizes I use a #1/0 gold jig hook. For 1/32 and 1/64 oz. I go down to a #1 hook, but no smaller than that. I seldom get a poor hookset in the lining of the mouth, and I don't think I miss any bites because my hook is too big.

[CrappieMagnet]

Hey have you ever tried using a sickle hook jig?They have worked really awesome for me on Table Rock last time I was down that way.I was fishing the private docks on Indian Point down near Silver Dollar City.Crappies were slamming them as soon as they hit the water.Here's an example.

They have a half moon type hook style and they are also very deadly on Minnesota lakes.This one is 1/16 oz.

[rangerman]

I luv that jig. Did you tie them, if not who is the manufacturer?

[CrappieMagnet]

No it's not mine....A friend of mine down in East Texas ties them.A package of 4 sells for $4.95 + shipping.

It's a weed body jig.

[Sam]

That's a real good looking crappie jig. I didn't know about sickle hooks, but I like the way it leaves a good gap between the point of the hook and the lure body. That'll work!

My gripe is with lure manufacturers who tie small crappie jigs on little tiny standard hooks, leaving 1/4 inch or less between the hook point and the lure body or jighead. That's just ridiculous for a fish that sucks in a lure with a mouth that opens to a good 2" across. What kind of hookset could you expect with such a rig, other than just hooking the thin inside lining of the mouth?

But yeah, that sickle hook would do the job.

---------------------------

Hey, just a "war story", but I learned a whole lot about how crappie bite on a trip a long time ago, and it's good info I've been able to use ever since. This is why I feel the way I do about big hooks, or at least hooks with a good gap between the point and lure body.

On a lake in CA, I once got into a perfect situation for "sight fishing" for crappie. The water was dead calm and clear, there was a hump out in the middle where it was only about 12 feet deep, and the bottom was covered thick with 2' tall green water weeds. The sun was shining, and I could see every leaf on those weeds. No fish were visible, but 12"-13" crappie were down in those weeds and they were biting.

I was casting a white 1/16 oz. doll fly, and since I could see, it was easy to move it right over the tops of the weeds. I'd be watching my lure, and suddenly there'd be a crappie following it, a few inches behind and below the lure. When the crappie made up its mind, it'd ease up and forward, distend that big mouth, and gently suck in the lure along with a whole bunch of water. Once in awhile the crappie would spit the lure and water right back out, and since I hadn't felt anything yet at that point, if I hadn't been able to see I wouldn't have known I'd had a bite.

Mostly though, once the crappie had the lure it'd close its mouth, expel the water through its gills, and gently turn to its right and down. THEN is when I would have first felt a bite if I hadn't been able to see.

Of course I tore 'em up that day because I could set the hook based on what I saw rather than what I felt. That made it real easy, but I would have caught a limit anyway.

I thought it odd that every doggone one of them turned to the RIGHT after biting - I guess crappie are right handed. I think that holds true everywhere because since then I've noticed that most of the crappie I catch are hooked in the left side of the mouth.

It looked to me like they were taking in an amount of water equal to maybe 10 times the volume of that lure when they bit, and that's why I think large or wide-gapped hooks are called for in crappie fishing, and there's no point at all in using tiny hooks.