Some times we are lucky enough or in the right position to take advantage of the opportunities that mother nature periodically presents us. Yesterday was one of those days. I will not mention the specific body of water I was fishing on, but I will say it is associated with big water that though is not known for crappies, it is known however, that when you get them, they are hawgs.
My drive to chase crappies has been evident since the early eighties, when I stumbled upon and learned a consistent pattern for catching crappies on a specific body of water. taking these methods, in different variations, I found success in many different lakes and scenarios. One thing I have learned is that you are never to old to learn something about fishing. the trick is to be prepared and willing to adapt to any given circumstance.
That said, Rick Leonhardt from Highbanks, his son Carson and I headed out to explore a new lake.
Handing the controls over to me, I did what I would do if I was looking for spring crappies, which I was. "where's the reeds?" I idled the south side of the lake until we found a shallow area where the reeds reach far out into the lake, moved in between a couple reed patches and set anchor. My poles were already rigged with a bobber and jig head, so that's what we started with. working casts near, into and around different areas of dead black reeds. The area was full of fish. The first was a nice three pound largemouth bass, then several perch, another bass and then...a big fat black crappie! Black gold. that's what we were looking for. Now to catch another. A couple more bites, kind of in the same area produced a swing and a miss.
Being early in the outing, we decided to get to know the lake a little. Wanting to see if there were similar set ups, reed beds that we might find some more, maybe even a heavier concentration of crappies,
we worked our way clock wise around the lake and found another boat set up on his own patch of reeds. He looked quite busy . We did not pressure his situation and moved on past. We did find another reed patch but this are did not hold the crappies we were looking for. We found crappies in three locations on the lake. All had the reeds in common. We tried green weeds, and old rice beds, but the reeds is were where they were.
When we got back to the original location, which turned out to be the most consistent bite we encountered, the trick as we learned,(remember I said we should learn something every time we go out) was that among these dead standing reeds were areas that had thick, like a forest thick, dead reeds that were broken off below the surface and not visible unless you were right on them. , Fishing outside of this thick area produced Perch, Large mouth and Rock Bass. I imagine the big Crappies cruising in the depths and tangles of this stubble searching out unsuspecting minnows to enjoy for lunch. Fishing right in and on the stubble, Using this slip bobber with the jig head, produced the Crappies. The jig head was complimented by a bright rubber tube jig, tipped with a minnow, we learned to cast to different areas in this forest of reed stubble and gently twitch/ retrieve slowly, the bobber/jig combo through and just over the tips of these submerged reed tips. It was exactly what we needed and something the big smoke black male crappies couldn’t resist. They would spot the presentation, race out of the dense cover and hammer it, dragging the bobber down and behind, as they raced back down. Tightening the line, a swift hook set and it was game on.
Those big slabs put up a heck of a fight.
The more I fish Crappies, the more I stand behind the mind set that VISIBILITY IS KEY. If they cant see it, they aren’t going to eat it. This rings true with other fish as well. “what color are they biting on” represents a common misconception to me. It should be “what color is most visible today”
For this reason, my go to color is white. I will vary some times. I like gold and silver chrome too.
Rick was for a time casting a small beetle spin over the tops of the stubble, which I would have thought to be a deadly tactic on these crappies, produced only perch and bass.
The trick was that jig at a pre-set depth, which allowed the rig to drop into the tops of the stubble but not get to far down as to get hung up in them. It also was a slower presentation which allowed the crappies just enough time to notice it, but not enough time to decide against it. Dropping into them slightly, this seemed to entice them and it worked.
Something I would like to add, is if you use your head, when you get onto a bite like this, remember it’s not going to last very long. Two to four weeks depending on the lake and situation. Try not to burn the well. Take advantage of these conditions to find other similar bites in different but similar areas. These are the times when more often than not we hit pay dirt. Remember, this window doesn’t last very long and post spawn, these crappies will move back to deeper water and spread out becoming a lot less easy to target.
We left the lake with eighteen Crappies, smoke black in color, were all but three. The three that were silvery white were females, in pre spawn mode. The smallest two of the eighteen were ten inches long and both were female. The rest were males and all over twelve inches, the largest reaching fifteen inches.
Young Carson, who squealed with excitement every time the bobber disappeared, had a hard time keeping his eyes open on the thirty mile ride back to the resort.
So did I.
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Topic: Crappie time 2012 (Read 3812 times)
