open water

[CrappieJohn]

I took the boat today to a lake near home and did some serious searching for crappies. Couldn't hardly beat the morning for it and the fish were even fairly agreeable.

I had to clean the ramp off before I could launch, but found that shore fishing would not have given up fish so it was worth the work.

There was no need for a secchi disc today as the water had about three inches of clarity. Water temps were very interesting though. I found a spread of temps from 40 to 50 degrees on surface waters in different locations and attribute that wide range to sun exposure. The temp at six feet was almost universal at 42.

In all I took 26 crappies (all c/r). They all came from water of at least 11 feet, but were suspending at about 5 1/2 feet. I passed over one area where we had been ice fishing a week ago today and marked so many fish that it appeared as a false bottom reading. They were all sunfish and readily hit the plastic being offered. About a dozen of those made it to the boat but were also returned and the largest was about a 10 incher....just a pinch shy of that mark. I returned to this spot a little before getting ready to leave and the fish were still there, but tight lipped.

The bays of this lake had ice yet and my best fishing was where the deeper water of the main channel met the shallower water just outside the iceline. The depth was a critical factor....too shallow and nothing would even look at the bait. If you swung out to the twenty foot water you'd lose track of the fish.

Oddly enough, the fish were fairly tight in bunches where usually they spread out at this time. After locating them they hit very well on plastics. No bait even taken today.

[Dan Thiem]

Great report Tom,

With the water being so dirty how do you think them fish could see the bait?

Must have been great to be out there! Sounds like you did good, maybe nextime you can call me and drag me along with you.

Thanks for cleaning up the ramp too.

[CrappieJohn]

Saw your other post.. I was out there fairly early, and yes I had to clean the ramp a bit. No fish came as shallow as you reported, but they could have moved up as the water warmed a bit more consistant. I think afternoon fishing is the key for those who are shore bound, but I am still piecing together the cold open water puzzle and I would really rather fish the mornings while it is quiet.

I owe you a trip so we'll have to settle up on that soon.

The purple/chatr you know what did it this morning. You know....those new things I have shown you.

[Oldtyme]

Quote:

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The purple/chatr you know what

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Uh Oh. Crappie Tom is keepin' secrets from us.

I plan on going out tommorow. The lake I go to is open (just drove by it today after work). Hopefully I'll have the same success you had today Tom. I know we're due for a windy day so I'll be fishing where I can get out of it....

But I'll be there....finally.

I made it out Tuesday but it was too the river, no fish... just couldn't find 'em. No experience on a river. It was a great day though as I found out the outboard I just bought ran perfectly

[CrappieJohn]

Good fishing tomorrow Old Tyme.

[Captain B.R.K]

I'm just droolin' Crappie Tom about your post! I can't wait to get out on the water and chase some bluegills and crappies.

Speaking of plastics- are you using the same type of plastics you sent me last spring?? Are you setting it up with a bobber or just vertical jiggin' or pitch-n-jiggin' it back to the boat? No bait I take it?

[united jigsticker]

Tom,

You lucky guy!

I wish I could have made it down this week. Sadly enough, I had to put in 70 hours at the shop this week. Ugh!

Thats ok. I laid down $275 between G. Mtn. and Flt. Farm today.....

Hopefully I'll be in the boat next weekend.

[Oldtyme]

Lol. Me too jigsticker. I just spent $120 on fishing "stuff" in the last 2 days. Had to have them culprits everyone is raving about...

Too bad the only place I could find them was online, so I won't have them for my trip today.

I am up & ready to go, the weather is not. Only 33 degrees now. I think I'll wait till it warms up a bit

[CrappieJohn]

BR....If those plastics were paddletails yes. I am, however doing some continuing research on a couple other un- announced baits and many of the fish taken were on one of these.

When are you coming down to visit family and get some lessons?

At this time of year the fish tend to be so specific as to depth that I almost universally use a float for control. I might get in situations where a jig cast and dropped freely are needed be fore the spawn, but I don't see that very often.

For the moment, the Culprit paddletails are the ticket. You can narrow down your color selection by using three: Junebug/chartreuse tail, black/chartreuse tail, and chartreuse sparkle. The brown/crawdad, bubblegum/silver glitter and the pearl/elctric blue/glow silver tail are others that work well too, but my go to colors are those mentioned first. I actually smoked the crappies one day thru the ice with the first color mentioned, two weeks before ice out.

I found all of my fish relating to deep water on points with current. I fished at five feet but later in the day the fish had come up to within a foot of the surface. With the dirty water and clarity being about three inches, they took advantage of the warmth generated by the sun on that dark stuff.

[gman2002]

ct, just wondering does gander carry those paddletails ?

[CrappieJohn]

gman...

These paddletails have a very limited retail availability, but if you e-mail me I can get some address info to you. Just click on the TSJigs.

[Mr. Pike1]

Crappie Tom. I fish a very similiar profile plastic to the culprit you have in the photo and actually if you put them side to side you most likely could not tell the difference. I personally have my best success with pink head white body and green head glow body.

I do have one question for you are the one you use sented plastics or no. I have had my best success with scented but that is most likely due to the fact that in my mind I think the sented will out perform the unsented. Just looking for you feedback on this.

[CrappieJohn]

There are times when I down size to 1" twisters and those are generally scented. Exude and Powerbait are popular scented baits. If I find that I need scent along with the standard sized baits, I simply dip them in cod-liver-oil. Normally though I find no need for scent.

[Down to Earth]

Mr. Pike1,

I'll have to concur with Tom on this one as well. When I first started devoting my fishing to plastics I bought a bottle of Powerbait Crappie Scent. After a bit I just stopped using it, and to be honest the bites came just as often if not more. I think its more of the profile of the lure than the scent.

Andy

[Mr. Pike1]

Thanks Tom and down to earth, my other all time favorite jig for any species is the Mepps tub jigs in a variety of color with simple uncolored lead head. Aside from crappies I found great success on walleye, smallies, and pike with this jig in a larger profile. I have used the exude twister tails you speak of with some success on the mississippi river. While at my local sports store over the weekend I noticed exude had 1.5" nymps so I picked up a pack but have not tried. I have the Berkely nymps and have done well. The scented Berkly tubes have produced but nothing magical in my mind. I just got back from a 30 minute trip to a lake by my house to fish a shallow channel that connects two bodies of water. Still to early as nothing there yet. It is a mud bottom and once it warms up there is a bug hatch and the crappies are there thick for a couple of weeks. The one problem is that last year the word somehow got out and this area got hit hard with many many people overharvesting. I saw the beautiful 9-11" female population just get destroyed as people were keeping everything they caught. That is sad as when I first moved here 3 years ago I could go there after work and no one there. I caught and released everything but if this year is like last it will not be fun as there were like 30 people in this very small channel are...Oh one more favorite is the berkley micro minnow. Last year I was out with my father and easily caught 50 crappie on the chartruse mepps tube with the micro minnow and never had to add bait once. It was catch, release, and catch some more. My father wasted half his time re-baiting with a minnow. He is set in his ways even after watching me detroy the fish on plastic he stuck to the live bait.

[Oldtyme]

Crappie Tom. You say you fish those under a bobber? How do you fish them??

I had a slow day today. Only caught 2 crappie (nice size though) and they came at the same time, one on a spinner & one on a minnow/jig/bobber. I thought I may have stumbled onto them at that point, but that was it. I started catching bass & I read if that happens shallow up...tried but no more crappie. I covered a lot of area today but couldn't find 'em.

I'm interested in hearing how you fish those jigs though.

Lucky me is going out again tommorow

[CrappieJohn]

Old....I fish them under a float just large enough to keep the jig up and not sink under its weight. The float works down to a depth of 5...maybe 6 feet depending on rod length.

[Down to Earth]

Tom,

That is a well placed jig on that picture. I can't wait to try those out. Seeing that purple though just added $10 to my jig order as I "had" to order some candy purple jigs in anticipation of use. Great report. Hopefully I'll be able to get here soon. This weekend was busy doing yard work.

Andy

[CALVINIST]

Tom,

When the ice first goes out and fishing open water, do you slow down your presentation on the paddletails? Do you have any sucess with working 'em horizontally, or do you put them under a float or vertically jig them?

[CrappieJohn]

From ice out until the spawn, I seldom fish without the float. Reason? Keeping the jig in fish producing depths is of utmost importance while the water is cold....even while cool. Stop and think, "does depth control play an important part in ice fishing? These fish are still "cold acclimated" and will behave much like those fish you chase under the ice. As for speed or whatever, you have to allow the fish to set the pace.

[Oldtyme]

Thanks Tom, do you still use the float after spawn?

I guess the question I was asking is "how" you fish them. Do you cast out,let sit,reel,sit,reel,sit/etc?

It was another rough day. Tried a new lake & was unsuccessful. So I went to the lake I normally go to since it was still early & was on my way home. I almost got skunked but the fish below made my day Caught on a fish-n-spin spinner (a tube style beetlespin). My normal black head/chart tail.

I put it on the tacklebox so I could measure the tacklebox when I got home (it's 11.5 inches).

I let this beauty go of course.

It's amazing that one crappie can make me feel good about my day, plus I got a great tan

Click for the big picture.

[Oldtyme]

Pictures don't do her justice. That fish was fat. LOL

[CrappieJohn]

Old....With the float I generally just give three or four short twitches and let it rest a second, then repeat. A slow steady retrieve will take fish occasionally. Really though, you have to try different retrieves and let the fish tell you which one they prefer.

After the spawn when fish are scattering the float comes off until the fall fishing heats up, then it goes on again.

[BrianF]

Hi Tom

Do you find that crappies show a preference for paddletails over other types of plastic - namely curl tails - early in the year like this?

I have used curl tails exclusively for years with some success here and there, but have often thought the curltail presentation was too aggressive for ice cold crappies.

Are there other times that paddletails shine over curltails?

BTW, thanks for all your info.!

BrianF.

[CrappieJohn]

Brian....

Welcome to FishingMinnesota.com and to the crappie forum.

You answered your own question actually with your thoughts about the twisters being too aggressive. In cold water they are unless they are very small (1") and are fished without much retrieval speed.

Perhaps the biggest issue with twisters is that the spinning tail gives the illusion that the profile is much larger, where the paddltails are relatively narrow. The Action of the paddle tail control;led by the short stem between the tail and the grub body. The size of the tail may generate a unique vibration too.

Two weeks before we lost our ice on a local lake I was catching fish thru the hole using paddle tails....not great numbers but they did hit.

When I hit open water, I set my prefernences as such: first is water temp, then depth, then lure profile, then color,and finally action. Once you are able to get in tune with what the fish want at specific times of the year you can almost eliminate the need for the bulk of your tackle. Today I fished with one small box and two zip-lock bags that a sandwich wouldn't even fit in. And yes....it was the paddletail design that got the fish.