Crappie Luck?

[Keith Hatter]

I was just wondering if anyone has had any luck with the crappie lately.

I am planning on coming out to try and catch some dinner one night this weekend or next week.

Thanks!

[FishinJack]

Yep, crappie fishing has been very good the last few days. Several limits caught over the last month

Jack's Guide Service

Main lake has been the best for me

[Keith Hatter]

I went out Sunday and had a blast. I ran up the main lake a bit and only fished about 300 yards of docks and had to leave. I had a limit in about 3 hours. Surprisingly I didn't even have to do the normal sort through the shorts to get a limit either. Can't wait to get back out. I had 3 that went over 11".

[motoman]

Yup, was down Thursday night and most of the day friday. Fishing main lake brush piles/laydowns/bluff walls (on the Glaize). We got our limit in a few hours. We were throwing 1/16 weedless jigheads with any variety of light colored 2" curl tail grub. (1/8 ounce seemed to be moving a bit fast for them, and skirted type grubs did not get much love ) Cast it out, let it sink down to the bottom (or as far as you can stand it) then slowwwwwwwwwwwwwllllllllllyyyy reel it back in. The fish seem to be holding very tight to whatever cover there is. If you can feel your line ticking brush underwater; get ready. They would 'tap' it after climbing over any limb.

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The crappie bite felt unusually light to me. Which took a little time to get used to and start hooking them up. We saw a few crappie actually come up to the surface (when we would be reeling the grub in a few inches under the surface) barely touch the jig, then dissappear. They would really half-heartedly touch the jig. Like they would only want it if it was an easy meal. Nothing aggressive.

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Guys we talked to fishing dock slips, had to go through a lot of short fish to get keepers. We had just the opposite away from the docks.

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Hope that helps some of yah!

[Keith Hatter]

Man oh man! That is all I have to say about the crappie this weekend. I fished Fri, Sat, and Sun. When the sun was out, fish brush and rock riprap and when the sun went away beat down the docks. Basically follow the bait fish. That was my pattern and didn't sort through many shorts. From about 8 am to about noon on sunday I started out fishing with 4 poles (tightline with minnows of course) I had to put two of them up because I couldn't keep up but as soon as the sun went away I had to go on the search. The bite I was getting was tap, tap goodbye! LOL They were just hammering them minnows. Jigs did produce some very nice crappie for LOZ. I had the same effect comparing the 1/8 oz to the 1/16 oz jigs. I even went to a 1/32oz jig and had even better results if you could keep the darn warmouth and bluegill off the line. Color didn't matter and they were wanting feathers not plastic... I even caught a 3 lb drum on the 1/32oz jig. That was fun on a 5'6" glass UL with 6lb test line...

Interestingly enough, some crappie I ran through just finished their 2nd spawn. I don't know if anyone else has noticed it or not.

[motoman]

You bring up a good point too Keith. When the sun went down, until sun-up, the baitfish were everywhere pecking the surface around the large community docks. They seemed to hold in the 10-20' range. And we saw and heard some UNHOLY blowups/topwater activity all around where those baitfish were. I was tempted to grab my bass rod and try for something different; but we were on a mission for crappie. So I stuck to the plan.

[kdan]

Interestingly enough, some crappie I ran through just finished their 2nd spawn. I don't know if anyone else has noticed it or not.

Happy for you that you had a successful days fishing. BUT a "2nd spawn"??? You gotta be kidding? They spawn once, in the spring when the water reaches 55-62 degrees. Yes, they do have inmature eggs this time of year in anticipation of next

spring. Just so you will know.

Don' bother arguing, this is fact. I am sure there will be at least a dozen of you to post back how wrong I am. So be it.

As Brian says "end of lesson".

[Keith Hatter]

LOL I don't have to argue with you. Believe what you will, but, I know what I saw. I didn't believe it the first time I learned this about crappie either.

[laker67]

LOL I don't have to argue with you. Believe what you will, but, I know what I saw. I didn't believe it the first time I learned this about crappie either.

You saw eggs that are developing for the up coming spawn this spring. All fish carry the developing egg sacks from one season to the next.

[kdan]

LOL I don't have to argue with you. Believe what you will, but, I know what I saw. I didn't believe it the first time I learned this about crappie either.

I know what you saw. And I know what I have observed for the past month also. That is immature eggs in preparation for next years spawn.