Crappie Cranking

[Justin B]

What are some of your favorite bandit 300 colors? I have been doing pretty good on mad cow and awesome pink lately. What are some good areas to pull in?

Thanks

[DADAKOTA]

Did real well on Pearl black back and threadfin shad. At Jacomo the bone color is hands down the best color to use. Can't seem to catch them with it at Stockton though. Have done real well with the black one at Stockton as well.

[Hunter91]

Firetiger

[straw hat]

Main lake..threadfin shad

Stained tributary arms...Threadfin with a yellow back.

[crappie jerk]

I believe dynamite is in order for stockon this year.. the worst year I ever had at catching crappies.. going to Minnesota for a week of fishing..leaving Friday morning.. we do real well up there on a small lake near glenwood... have to catch enough fish in 2 days to feed 14 people and so far for the last 4 years I've done it. up at five and fish most of the day;..life is good!!!

[WakenLake]

^conservation said it would be bad this year but i never in a million years thought of this outcome. fishing for crappies is quite the workout this year.

[jbeenemd]

Guess I picked the right time to injure my shoulder and have to go though a rotator cuff repair ;>)

Have not been able to get out there with everyone yet. So I guess it kind'a makes me feel not so bad, but then just maybe all those short ones will be about right size later this year when I am able to get back out there.

Jackie

[Justin B]

Thanks for sharing, now I have a few colors to add to the collection.

[Haulin Bass]

Hate to break it to you guys, but the Crappie are still there. The big females just never came to shore.

I caught my limit twice this year, and yes, it was a workout, I will grant you that.

BUT,,,, they big females were staging on the brush piles near where they would have spawned. (But they didn't this year.) We looked and looked for Crappie on the banks, and only found some rogues feeding out of the small river mouths after heavy rains.

But when we went deep, tooling around the very same coves, we found (deeper than normal) huge schools of big females, and boy were they finicky!

One brush pile was in 24 foot of water, and we found Crappie on it all thru May! Some looked like they may have spawned some, but almost all of them had eggs in them.

But we had to throw every piece of junk at them to catch them.

One day it was Chartruse Curly tails, the next time it was green and black slabs. (Those long tailed tubes that they sell up at Truman Lake.)

Other days, all they would hit were naked minnows. Then the next day, it was tipped jigs (Minnows on your jigs).

And that one day, we were practically under the brush pile fishing with Bobbers in 22 foot of water, where there was a 24 total depth.

The lesson I learned this year was once you find them on your fish finder,,,, don't leave, because they will bite on something,,,, you just have to figure it out!

Trust me, once you get a bit,,,, then it's game on, and when the bite slows, wait for a 1/2 hour, they'll be back. And when they come back,,,, you might have to try a different approach. But when you are on a brush pile with 13" & 14" fatties,,,,, "STAY!" Don't leave, don't drive around, because they will bite on something, you just have to figure it out!

I'm telling you, it sure beats catching dozens of shorts, and pissing away all your minnows.

Hang out and wait!

But as for now,,,, the Crappie are heading into their "after spawn" mode of going deep. Nice thing is,,,, these fish will be very hungry come July!

You might still get a few this weekend on the brush piles near the points "in the coves where they would have spawned", but my guess is that they will be moving on any day now. Full moon is gone, and the water will be warming up.

Next approach is trolling! (BOOOYAH!) I love trolling! Ever catch a 15" Crappie on a 6" deep diving crank bait in 30 foot of water? I have,,,, and it trips me out every time! darn fish won't hit a minnow when it's hanging right in front of their face,,,, but they'll chase you half way around the lake to hit that crank bait that is just about as big as they are! LOL.

I will never underestimate Crappie ever again!

[frying eyes]

Crappie fishing has been a little more difficult this, but they are there. I caught a limit trolling a couple weekends ago, only needed to measure one of them. The next weekend trolling didn't work, jig and minnow fishing SLOW. It seems to me there's a lot of small crappie up the river arms, the big ones are more on the main lake. I didn't fish last weekend, but will be back tomorrow. Good fishing!