Trying to target Crappie

[eurolarva]

I found a lake that has a nice population of sunfish. I am catching a periodic crappie here and there and I would like to target them instead of the sunfish. I am fishing in 8 ft during the day. Towards shore it goes to heavy weeds and about 100 ft towards the lake it goes to about 15 ft that is the standard deep part of the lake. As I am catching sunfish I catch an occasional crappie of over 10 inch but am only able to catch two or three a day. I am using a flu flu with wax worms which seem to work better then crappie minnows on the flu flu or crappie minnow with just a bare hook. I have tried deeper and shallow with no success. Is it possible the are only a few crappie mixed in with the sunfish or is there a suggestion that can be made to increase the catch of crappies?

[Greg Clusiau]

Sounds like a low crappie population to me. Whenever you catch one, take note of the depth and location and fish that area heavily (which I'm sure you are doing). Try even larger baits, like plastics, tube jigs, etc. Try various colors. Is it stained? Wish I lived a little (no, a lot) closer. I like a challenge. Good luck.

[pushbutton]

i would agree with pretty much everything greg said, next time you catch one, would try upsizing and try to "swim" some bait in that same area, instead of a vertical presentation(if that is what you are doing), it will keep some of the little pesky fish away and possibly let you know if there is a larger school there. is there any water moving in or out? is the lake on lake finder? you could email me and i could look at it but would think by fishing it, you would have much more insight than i could gain from looking at a map. good luck!

[eurolarva]

I dont really want to give up to much information on the lake. Due to the fact it has a decent sunfish population and it is close to the cities. It has a creek that feeds into it but it is very shallow in that area. Most of the lake is around 15 ft deep and the best activity I have found for panfish is around 8 ft. I am using a flu flu and when I change to a hook, minnow or to a different color I catch nothing. I fished it again today with my daughter and caught one crappie 10 inches. We hit about 20 real nice sunfish but we let all them go including the crappie. I have not had problems with pesky small fish. We catch a fish every couple of minutes and they are all decent size. Pushbutton I will give you the lake info if I can find your email address

[CRAZYEYES]

Have you fished it around dark? Some lakes you can get a few here and there all day but crappies dont always really tun on until low light. I know a few lake that you really have an hour window that the crappies really turn on. The Crappie bite can really vary lake to lake.

[Greg Clusiau]

Re: fishing at dark - Good point. I forgot about that.

[pushbutton]

got to love crappie fishing.....they make you look so smart when they are biting and a complete moron when their not [email protected]

[half-dutch]

1+ on low light.

[Bigtom]

dido on that pushbutton, I know the felling. I had good luck today just trolling a fathead on a lindy plain, red hook

[Jim Uran]

Don't rule out something with a blade on it, like a miniature spinner bait..Shallow lakes like that I've had best luck playing the wind game. Fish the wind blow structure, baitfish get blow up against the weed beds and the crappies will follow.

[hydro]

Have you been out there recently? As the water is getting cooler, the crappies will school up in tight columns near the deepest part of the lake basin. In a "dishpan" type of lake like you describe, they will be scattered about, and most likely mixed in with those sunfish. My method is to drive around until you see some "Christmas tree" shaped schools of fish, throw a marker, and vertical jig a foot or so off of the bottom. Use a jig without hair or feathers and bait it with a piece of Berkely Power Grub and tip with a crappie minnow. If there are crappies and sunfish mixed you will get both in the same pattern. Boat control is critical and your line must remain vertical in order to detect the bite. Most fish pick up on the drop and you just see the line not going back to tight, then set the hook. Good luck.

[palisade1kid]

I'd have to agree with Greg and whoever made the low light comment.There's also another comment of trolling or casting a small spinner bait tipped with a small plastic,however your water temp is what's telling those fish where to be.For us up here in north central Mn. we have 48-50 degree water .These temps are pushing the crappies out to the deep basins. In fact Greg & I spent a half day yesterday on a small lake that had crappies and gills mixed in 28 fow. For us the only bait that worked was a 100th oz hair jig I tie called THE JIG. Greg was targeting those big gills hence adding a waxie,but the crappies ruled outside of a couple gills which one went near 10".

I know that this pattern will really kick ,but has not so far.

If there are not that many crappie then maybe be happy with a bent rod.

From what your saying it sounds like those fish are becoming somewhat sluggish and downisizing to that flu-flu is what's working.

Just like they say...when your in fish don't move to find more...well ...same thing with your bait.Once you have proved out a pattern it may become more about going through the numbers to get crappies.The more gills you catch the more crappies. The more time you spend proving patterns the more fish you'll catch.

At the end of the day...your catch is your catch...if your busy then it's fun right?

[Borch]

We did best this past weekend with a 1/16 oz lindy rattling flyer spoon tipped with part of a minnow in 20-26 fow. The small spoons out produced jigs by far for us. So just another option for your tackle box.

[Northlander]

Borch thats the way it was getting for me up here to until all this wind and rain muddied up the St. Louis. It will be at least a week before its worth trying again. I hope the walleyes are stil biting Inland or maybe I will try Crappies in Fish Lake. Hmmm.

[pushbutton]

probably got out for the last time yesterday.....still finding some fish in the mid 20's, although most are now holding deeper. really do not fish much below 30 ft. had to downsize to 1/48's and a very light twitch on the line is what was triggering the bites. had a good year as far as numbers but always a quarter inch shy....never got one gill over 10 inches or one crappie over 15. speaking of which, will probably spend the remaining time on the water trying to catch an eye larger than 5 lbs....have fallen well short of that mark this year as well

in the famous words of an ex immigrant body builder/actor/politician who also fell short at acquiring the english language

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