crappie tippin

[lars0926]

Hello all. I'm no CrappieTom, but I have devoted myself entirely to crappie fishing. I eat, breath, and sleep the big, black Minnesota variety. Over the years I've learned how to successfully fish and catch papermouths around the state at any time of year.

Recently I've read some of your questions about seeing crappies, or marking them, but not being able to boat them. I just wanted to put it out to you to remember to go small and time the fishing outing based on conditions.

GOING SMALL. I can't overstate the importance of being willing to go small on crappies. Many of us who have luck catching crappies in the spring are spoiled by agressive crappies who will take larger baits and rigs. THIS IS NOT THE NORM! In fact, many fisherman know that crappies feed a majority of the time on petite food supplies. Yet, somehow, we throw this knowledge to the wind when our tackle boxes are full of beetle spins and 1/8 oz. jigs.

For example, this last Sunday I fished crappies at about 6:00am. My rig consisted of an ultralight rod, 2lb test, a 1/64 oz jig, and the smallest crappies minnows I could find. Even then, the bites I would get out of the crappies would be almost non-existent. I then switched to very, very small pink plastic bodies that barely covered the hook on my jig. Still the bites were minute. Were the fish small??? Absolutely not. In fact, I boated several large fish (15"+). The key is to get on the small side of their food chain and work up in size. This is a much easier process than starting large- and missing out on fish that are not in a heavy feeding mood.

TIMING. Another thing worth mentioning is the time you go fishing. If you're in a mesotrophic (deep bowl) lake, most crappies will be in the vacinity of pre-spawn haunts right now. Any drop-off in the 14-20' range will be warm at night and hot in the early morning light hours. Especially the 20 minutes prior to the sun climbing above the tops of the trees. It's worth mentioning here that the 3-4 days before a full moon are your best bet for landing fish in quantity.

Good news is that we are going to quickly be moving into the thick of fall. Don't avoid the lake on choppy water days under overcast skies. In those conditions the crappies will feed on small AND big baits and will be virtually everywhere in the water column. The trick is to fish with the winds on the back side of the boat (no anchor). I once boated over 500 crappies in a choppy fall day in depths ranging from 12' to 50'. Once again, the small bait helped as it slows the rate of decent and will allow you to cover all of the water column (unlike a heavier weight which goes straight to the bottom).

NOTE: When I say small, I mean tiny, tiny. In the summer months I sometimes catch crappies suspended at 17' deep over 35' deep water on very small bait. This summer I caught most of my fish on a micro hook no bigger than my pinky fingernail. All I did was tie a red piece of string to it that was about 3/4" long.

[united jigsticker]

So many ways to catch Crappies.

Good info sir.

I find the opposite in many cases, which shows what a diverse approach can be taken to Crappies.

For instance, you have had great success this summer on a micro hook and piece of string.

My success this summer came by free casting 1/32 to 1/16th oz jigs, no bobber or bait, and having the Crappies grab hold during the free-fall. This tactic was still successful last weekend, and begins to be successful for me after the spawn.

The times that I slow down my presentation is early spring after ice-out, and the winter season.

Then I'll go to the deeper water and down size, but I am not alway stuck on going super small. Many times, when the fish are negative, the best way to entice them is to upsize, in fact, get more aggressive and bring on a more aggressive "rush" to instigate a hit.

Rightfully so, a plain hook and a single maggot falling ever so s-l-o-w will bring in some negative fish, and the downsizing is a nesscesity as times.

But don't get too rapped up in going small and slow. Winter time produces the best results for Crappies on semi-large (in the eyes of a Crappie angler) jigging spoons and swedish pimples, as has become many of FM's favorite weapons in the arsenal.

The other ingredient that is very important is color.

Do they want two tones, three tones???? Single tone??? No tone?????

Bright? Dark? Flashy? Dull? A combo of both? Maybe all three.

Well, bi-golly, while we're at it, what about shape?

Round? Tear drop? Vertical jig? Horizontal jig? Horizontal spoon? Plastic? Hair? Paddle tail? Twister Tail? Feather tail? Stubby tail?

Do tehy want bait? No bait? Minnow head? One maggot? Two maggots? Three? Different collor maggots?

Wax worm? Mushed wax worm? Scents? Canned artificial baits?

And in what combo? Tear drop, grey in color, fished at a 45, with a single red maggot coupled with a half mushed waxie?

Maybe a jigging spoon with three maggots, two red, and one white...or is it two white and one red?

Do they want to come up 1 foot for the strike? 2? 3? more???

Troll it? Jig it? Stationary? Pump it? Rock it? Pulsate it?

Should I make em' chase it? Leave it sit? Drop it to them?

Can I hover on top of them, or should I cast to them?

Should I fill the hole with slush, or let the sun shine down it?

Do they want to chase it into the weedline, parralell, or away from the weeds?

Uff-Da.

That's alot to chew on. I better go Crappie fishing.

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Good fishing,
UJ
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[CrappieJohn]

Lars....You have touched on one of the key triggers in crappie fishing....adaptability. And at this time of year you need to be very amendnable (? sp) to it. Being ready to fish in an a fashion completely out of tune with the norm has to be a pair part of one's plan of attack....fishing bait when artificials should be hot, going shallow when being deep is dictated, the list is endless. But repetitious ppractice of the tried and true should be left to home in the spring and fall transition periods.

On the flip side of this coin is the need to be willing to up-size though and that can be a tool when we begin to border on the warmer water periods. Nonetheless, it too can be a practice that takes fish now as well.

To show how fickle these critters can be, I have been fishing a backwater area where deep water is readily available- within twenty feet of where we are doing the catching- and has little of any structure other than a couple of submerged tangles. The bottom is bowl shaped and consists of mud and muck. At the widest point this fishery is perhaps 125 feet across. Within two miles of this area you would need to fish the crappies in deeper water, fish deeper, and have obvious structural elements in place to really be successful. Here though you fish barely two and a half feet deep. And you fish small! This is historic in nature....year after year after year it is the same thing. And for as long as I can remember, the word will get out that the bite is on and a hundred people a day will filter into this area daily armed with baitpails and huge bobbers and eventually end up going home with a few mediocre fish to show for their efforts. And one or two people will absolutely smoke the big boys using the meerest of jigs on the meerest of tackle. And the vast majority ask, "why?".

The answer is , as you stated, is that the food - huge shoals of micro-sized minnows- abound back in this area. The crappies are focused on the surface water since that is where these little guys are finding their plankton and preferred water temps. In order to be successful on these crappies, one has got to be acutely aware of this particular annual pattern. And one has to be prepared to leave anything larger than a few hairs for trial and error in the fish simply will not hit. The same goes for bait. I come down to a 1/32 ounce hair jig....well it is actually a few ( 12-14) feather fibers. Nothing more. A flu-flu fished next to one of these looks like a carp laying next to a sardine. When wet, these jigs are not as thick as a toothpick.

My theory is that the natural prey found in here at this time are so transparent that only the head and lateral line are readily visible. These thin jigs must look like a lateral line with the black head , or orange head, (both with eyes)suggestig which end to hit at. Flu-flu jigs have to be trimmed down to almost nothing to compete with these jigs. Tip them? Nada.

Yesterday the fishing was done with two different color patterns. Orange head/ yellow feather fibers and blach head/pink feather fibers. Both caught fish. The black/pink outfished the other fifty to one. Did the dinks pester us? Yes, but then they always do. Were decent fish taken? Absolutely....up to 14 inches with many in the 11-12 inch range. And sunfish were plentiful too. Not just sunfish, but nice sunfish. Of the thirty or so sunfish I caught, only three were not of "keeper" caliber.

The only natural element that we found to become a detriment was shade. If you got into shade, you got into a dead zone. Fish back into the sunlit waters and wallah....fish again. The magical line was where sunlight and shade met. The largest fish came from that spot.

Your observations are right on the money. Sound advice for this time of year and again in the early spring. The challenge here is not to get people to read and understand this ploy, it is getting peole to leave the familiar territory and venture into a largely under-used tactic to catch these fall fish.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

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[Matt Johnson]

I can tell this is gonna be a good topic

lars addresses some good points. Going small can be the key throughout a good majority of the year when fishing crappies. Crappies feed on a variety of things, and a good portion of those things are micro-orgainisms like plankton and zooplankton, as well as bloodworm and other invertebrates. Sure, crappies feed heavily on minnows as well, but I would have to agree with lars in saying than so many fishermen focus on "too large" of presentations. I know a lot of fishermen that go out and buy a scoop of crappie minnows and only use those, and if the fish aren't biting, then the fishing aren't biting. Rarely do I use a crappie minnow anymore when fishing for crappies. Yes, there are times when a crappie minnow is preferred and its a must have item, but often times thats not the case, especially when targeting larger fish on a consistent basis.

The mention on timing is an important factor too. I like to call it "patterning" but the rule of thumb is the same. Understanding when and where the fish are is most important when it comes to crappie fishing. Crappies can be so focused on a certain area during a certain time of year and often times fishermen will miss out on something if its over looked. Crappies will use a vast majority of the water column throughout the calender year, ranging from very shallow, all the way to some of the deeper portions of many lakes. And, some of this movement will happen within hours during certain times of the year as well. Crappie location can be as difficult as Abstract Algebra at times, but it doesn't have to be if you pay attention to the seasons, water temp, where the food is, and weed growth...all of which have to do with timing and will change with time.

But, like UJ said, there is a flip-side to everything. There are also several occasions when up-sizing gets the bigger slabs. Crappies will put on those feedbacks and prefer a larger piece of meat. Corey Bechtold has had phenomenal success this year with 2 inch power-minnows, why, because he has figured out a pattern for when those slabs want that extra piece of meat. What is that pattern? I donno, Corey hasn't told me But its working for him.

I've done very well this summer on small spinners for crappies. These fish are mostly in an aggressive state and will hit a variety of baits, but the spinner seems to weed out the bigger fish. Oh yes, smaller fish still snatch them up, but not as prevalent as if I'd toss out a crappie minnow. I'm sure in this situation the 2 inch power-minnow would shine as well.

And then you have your plastics. This is Tom's forte I use a lot of plastics, I actually probably use more plastics for crappies than I do anything else. Plastics are so versatile that its hard to pass them up. Confidence is the key with plastics. A lot of fishermen choose not to use plastics because they are not confident in their ability to fish effectively with them. Once you build a confidence you will understand the importance that plastics have, and the only way to build that confidence is to use them on those days when everything you throw seems to work. Get a feel for how they function and you'll be hooked. Tom has written several excellent articles and posts on plastic fishing, many of which can be applied day in and day out during the open water season. I can feel safe to say that everytime I fish crappies during open water I've thrown plastics. This doesn't mean that I've only thrown plastics, but they are always brought out sometime or another.

Tom hit the nail right on the head...adaptability. This can be true for so many areas of fishing and with so many different species. Very good point Tom.

With the water temps changing as we near the turn-over, we should see a change in location. Crappies will begin migrating towards the nearby edges and will begin to rise as we approach winter. Fall crappie fishing is some of the best. Lets go get em'!

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Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson
Pro Staff Coordinator
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[BDR]

You guys wont mind if I copy all this and sell a book would you? Great info from all!

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Brian Rogers
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[turn_in_poachers]

I was out crappie fishing yesterday morning. Arrived at Wal-Mart by 6am and got some tubes and some pretty big shad type plastic minnows in the blue color, about 2 inches in lenghth. Now Im a die hard "minnow" man when it comes to crappie, but I didnt want to buy minnows this time and decided to go all out plastic. And I gotta say, it was non stop action. Ive never caught crappies on plastics before, but after reading a couple threads on here, I decided to try it out. I was rewarded big time. Caught 10 in less than 1 hour. 4 measured over 12 inches. All were released. I always thought, the bigger the lure, the bigger the fish. And I was pullin out nice slabs. After an hour though, the bite stopped suddenly. Should I have downsized my lure? Does the size make a difference when they stop hitting? I just stick with what works at the moment. I just thought it was the time of day that caused the fish to turn off. Just because the fish arent biting doesnt mean I have to go home. What other methods are productive when the fish turn off?

[This message has been edited by turn_in_poachers (edited 09-30-2004).]

[united jigsticker]

When the fish shut down on a certain spot, I typically will move to seek out another active school. I love the hunt.

But that's not always an option. Changing up the color scheme a little bit, or going to a different style lure, has brought in more fish off a slowing school for me in the past.

Sometimes a school will only hold so many active fish, and the rest will be nuetral, or maybe even negative.

Other times, it seems, the school may become spooked after a certain number of fish are lost, missed, or even released. Or, they may be spooked by a passing by predator, or even your boat.

In these cases, I've found I can move off the school for a while, and return a while later and pick back up on a good bite. The time between active fish can be anywhere from 10 minutes to hours, to the next day in some cases.

I've seen many times within the same body of water that different schools within the same lake structure have different active periods, that is, different times of the day when the spot is the most productive. One spot may be a gem at 7am-10am, while another spot, even though its holding plenty of fish, isn't a real good producer until evening or late afternoon.

Some spots may even differ in the bite from others within the same body of water in differing weather conditions, and certain weather can shut them down.

On a cloudy day, one spot may do well, while another waits for brighter conditions. And if I am on a good bite on the cloudy spot, and the sun pokes out, the fishing slows or may even stop.

Like I said, I typically prefer to seek out new spots when the bite on the current spot fades...But I might just be L-A-Z-Y.

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by united jigsticker (edited 09-30-2004).]

[CrappieJohn]

T-i-P...Here is where you are going to hate us guys who got you into plastics.lol You have done well by doing what you did...taking only plastic and forcing yourself to fish it. At this time of year, plastics are a banner bait and can remain as such if we answer your question in a broad way. Yes, size will make a difference and yes, color will make a difference. BUT...profile will make a difference. When you cansider size for example, whatever is available in your everyday (common baits)twisters, tubes, nailtail (rattail), paddletails, etc., there will be something comparable in three inch and again in one inch. These are size differences. Each of those just listed though are examples of profile differences. Now throw in a half dozen colors in each catagory and each size and....well you can see where I am going.

My advise is to pick up smaller packages of new plastics to try and if you simply do not find success using them you are not out much. If you make the investment in different colors and limit your collection to baits 2" and less, you can find things are pretty painless. Don't just go on a wild buying spree though. Purchases should include the tubes( I prefer 1 1/2") and a few paddle-tailed baits (1- 1 1/2") and some of the nail tailed baits(3/4- 1 1/2"). A clue when you are shopping for your area is to forget the discount stores and go to well-stocked, reputable bait/tackle shops or places like Gander, Galyons, or Cabelas and get quality products. For home area bait shops, ask what is the best movers in the plastics for, say, crappies. And be specific with your questions about color. Look at what is on the racks in different sizes, colors, profiles. The nearly empty hooks at the display can give away secrets as to regional preferences if many of the other hooks within that catagory of bait are yet filled!

As a generality, stay small in your jig size. A killer set-up on a 1/16 head might be worthless on an eighth, but be completely outstanding on a 1/32. Jighead size is detrimental to plastics action and what works with what is purely trial and error. Line weight will become a factor as will line type. Do not use fluorocarbon line if you are going to incorporate a float with your plastics attack...it sinks and will mess up your hookset. Floats should cast smoothly and "just" support your jig. Floats are your most consistant way of keeping these baits in the strike zone and at times are so "key" in the way plastics behave that you should be certain to have a good supply of those along as well. My favorite float is the Thill Mini-Stealth in the #2 for 1/32 ounce and less and the # 4 for 1/16 and slightly larger.

Fishing plastics is a wonderful way to expand your fishing abilities, but is certainly not limited to panfish. Like anything, this develoement process takes a little time, but the rewards will bless you for years!

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

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[delmuts]

man ! what great info! it is so hard for people to understand that it is a absolute must to use lite line. as tom mentioned people are slow/ stubborn to accept using it. i have had many people stand next to me that were not catching fish and wondering why. even tho i show them and tell tell you need to go small and lite. they just flat tell me that they will stay with what they are using. hmmm! 10 # line; 1 1/2 in. bobber with a 1/8 split shot and a leader ! ( i use this for northern!!) i have gotten away from the 2# line due to my littel lake having so many little bass that tear up the 2# so i now use 4#. but i do feel that i am loosing some of the action on my lures and spooking some fish. i still think the moderators should combine all of this great information into a book and sell it on this site! i read a lot of magazines; what info has been shared here would take years worth of them to get half of this great tips and how to's ! del

[CrappieJohn]

I just got home from the same spot I spoke about earlier and the fish are still on. They were hitting the pink/black hair jig with a vengence, but the size of fish had dropped off a little for both crappies and sunfish. And they had shifted to deeper water. The number of fish that my buddy and I caught is absolutely unreal....how many is unknown. We'd have lost count today after the first hour and we were there for 4. And to think....it just gets better!

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

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[united jigsticker]

Light line! YES! It has a huge influence on the action and play of your lure, not to mention visibility to the fish, and strike sensing.

The other important factor that is often overlooked is confidence. You must have confidence in yourself, your lure, and the lake you are on, or a person can simply get discouraged much too quickly and skip something that could be very productive.

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Good fishing,
UJ
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[turn_in_poachers]

Thanks for the info Crappie Tom. I usually do buy my stuff from a bigger store, but since I just got off work at 6am, Wal Mart was on the way and the only place open. I do have to say though, Im only on a crappie hunt because Ive been unable to locate any bass as of late. So I spend time searchin for slabs. But the thing is, once I find them, I dont want to go bass fishing anymore.
I still use 6 lb test for crappies. Thats what I have spooled on my "all-around" pole. Im a bass fisherman at heart, so my crappie arsenal is limited to just a few jigheads and lures. And, I never did have any luck with plastics for crappies (until now), thats the main reason why I dont have a wide variety of crappie stuff.

I do agree, that using plastics is based on your confidence of the bait. I was always a live bait trout fisherman from Montana until I moved up here. I didnt know how to fish for bass until my cousin introduced me to plastics. I was doubtful at first, but after the first hit, I was hooked. All I carry now is artificial.

Well, after realizing how hot the crappie bite can get, Ill get a new pole next year just for crappie. I like longer rods, maybe a 7 1/2 to 8 ft rod with 4 lb test, and a whole array of plastics. Now what are some good excuses to tell the wife why you have so many poles? I always say, one for a different style of fishing. I currently have four. I always compare it to her 40 pairs of shoes and how it goes with a certain outfit. THATS how my poles are. Thats when I usually get my ear chewed off. And next thing I know, she has a new pair of shoes. =)

[CrappieJohn]

TiP.... If your wife sews, ask her why she has so many kinds and colors of fabric .

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

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[delmuts]

turn in. i to love bass fishing. BUT do love my panfish too. for a versital rod set up; go with a light rod ( 6-6 to 7-0) load the two spools with 4 and 6. this can be used not only for panfish, but works well as a finess set up for bass. i have to admit i love using my ultra lite ! i do some bass fishing with it( in open water) . as for dealing with the wife ? you're on your own !! i'm divorced ! del

[turn_in_poachers]

Well, I was out fishing crappies last saturday, and theyre still very aggressive. Plastics worked best this time around. We had minnows on hand too. Remember how cold last saturday was? It was 40 or something in the morning with a strong wind. Fish were very aggressive though. We used plastics all morning because we didnt want to stick our hand in the minnow bucket. My hands went all numb when wet from using minnows. I guess thats another way of forcing yourself to use plastics! =)