Anybody Doing Any Crappie Whacking

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Just wondering if there is any kind of bite ill be on the Osage arm around Coffman bend. Hopefully something will be hungry

[MOsmallies]

Not sure when you were heading down, but I was just at the 25 mile marker this past weekend and did pretty good on Saturday (Nov. 24). I started out the day fishing for bass and couldn't find a consistent bite so I started targeting crappie. Found them suspended in, over, and around brush in 10 to 20 feet of water. My best spot was a rather isolated dock on a bluff bank that I knew had brushpiles right along the sides of the dock. We also caught fish off deeper brush that was not around docks, but the docks seemed to hold a few more fish. My father in law and I spent about 3 1/2 hours targeting crappie on Saturday and caught 25 with only 5 shorts. No big keepers... all were 9 1/2" - 11 1/2".

I was throwing a 1/16 oz. chartreuse roadrunner jighead with a 2 1/4" Lake Fork Tackle Live Baby Shad in Pearl. I was also tipping my jigs with a chartreuse sparkle Berkley crappie nibble. My father in law was throwing a plain lead colored roadrunner with a blue and chartreuse minnow shaped plastic. Both of our trailers had pretty subtle action. We did not try anything with more action like a twister tail. We'd basically throw our jigs past the brush, let it sink on slack line to the depth the brush was at and then would slowly reel just fast enough to keep the jig moving towards us. Jigging it did not result in any strikes. They just seemed to want that consistent gliding action. Some bites were light and others took the jig well. Definitely pay attention for light bites. We did not try minnows or jigs fished vertically over the brush but we probably could have picked off a few more doing that.

Let me also say that we fished a few new spots on Sunday and couldn't find the crappie. We were fishing a little shallower and I think we should have stayed out deep, but the wind was making it difficult. We did pick up 12 bass (10"-14") and a nice fat 15" white bass fishing more protected areas.

Good luck and let us know how you end up doing.

Paul

MOsmallies