Finicky Crappie

[WHARFRAT]

It was such a nice weekend, I really didn't care that the crappie were being tough.

Light rain Sat Morning, perfect! Only saw about 4 boats out on my end of the lake until I came in about 10:30.

Crappie bite was light, managed about 4 keepers and about 4 shorts. Caught a nice LM verticle jigging in front of a dock.

Tried Shooting at first, but that was really a bust. Went to casting along the sides and in front, Caught a couple. Best luck was jigging straight down about 7-8' in 15-20 FOW. Got back to our condo, and the wife was out on our docks. She was tearing up the crappie. And while my keepers were "just keepers", about every fifth one she caught was 11-12". I just put my tail between my legs and went inside for coffee.

Later that afternoon we went out trolling cranks, Again, she tore me up. Catfish, crappie, and White Bass. All were great size! I managed a 13" LM.

About an hour before dark we went out to pull some more cranks, and we got into a decent School of White bass jumping. This lasted about 20 minutes. The first few we caught were all over 15", then seemed like all we caught were 11-12 inchers. Probably caught 20 between us.

Sunday morning it was real foggy, went down to the docks and caught a couple of nice crappie, and probably 5 or 6 dinks. Lifted about 7:30 and went out in the boat. Managed 1 decent crappie. Came in about 10 and the wife was back out there showing me up. This time, it was more 10-11" fish than smaller ones.

She was using Bobby Garland baby shad in the cajun cricket color, and also slab busters Pumpkin Seed/Chartreuse. Me, I was going with blk/chartreuse, and ice blue.

It seems like they were lowering the lake pretty quick this weekend. It looked to me that it dropped not quite a foot since Friday. Just seemed unusual for the first part of Sept.
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[stuartsx5]

Thanks for the report. This has the be the greatest time of the year to be on the water. I'm hoping to get up there Thursday or Friday to try my hand at trolling cranks for the first time. What kind of bottom/water do you look for when you go trolling?

[fishinwrench]

This "pulling cranks for crappie" thing is really taking hold isn't it ?

I hear about it from everyone (customers) lately it seems, but I've never done it. I even see PWC's rigged up for it.

From what I gather they are targeting suspended schools so I'm not sure that bottom composition is important at all.

I do know that suspended crappie on LO love No-Wake bouy cables, so maybe trolling figure-8s around the bouys would be a good way to catch a mess ???

[stuartsx5]

Thanks for the input. If I can getaway between working on broke down cars I'll let you know how it goes.

[WHARFRAT]

Me personally, I get bored too quick pulling cranks, but my wife loves trolling crankbaits for any species. Her favorite lure is Berkleys Flicker Shad. Usually in a green/chart color. That's usually our afternoon activity if the lake isn't too busy with boat traffic.

I'm no expert by any means on trolling, but we usually try to follow the river channel or the flats where it takes a sharp bend. Seems to work for us. Normally you can catch just about anything that swims in that lake. Seems like when you do catch crappie, they are generally good sized fish.

We have caught a lot of Channels and blues this summer, a lot of drum, a few white bass, and even fewer walleye.

It also helps with my new 115 4 stroke, it's quieter and trolls down to about 2.5mph. A lot better than my old 2 stroke.

[MOsmallies]

Great info WHARFRAT.... Trolling can turn a tough day of casting into a good day of fishing/catching.... The multi-species thing is fun as well