Southern Tactics...? whatever you want to call it

[Lunker]

So I was wading backwaters yesterday and had a new experience with crappie fishing. It made me think of those southern fishnig shows where they use really long rods to pull crappies out of brush, anyone seen them? Well here's what my tactic was.

The only fish I was catching were right alongside these big dead trees in the water. So I thought of those shows and got myself right in the middle of the trunks and branches. I only had a 6ft rod, but the water was brown so they couldn't see me comin as long as I stayed about 6 ft away. I put a jig and minnow on with about 3 ft of line hanging. I would reach out and dip it into the brush and let it sit. The crappies would take it, and I would have to set the hook early so they wouldn't run it into the brush. The one problem I had was I lost or missed quite a few fish trying to lift them over branches and get them out of brush. The result?

Only one fish I caught was under 11 inches. I caught multiple 12-13" fish and one 9" bull gill. I lost one legitimate 15+ incher(possibly a mounter), and one legitimate 14 incher. The big one was the only crappie I've ever had double over my med. st croix.

So now I'm thinking of investing in a long rod , haha. But seriously this was a weird way to fish but I sure like the results.

[slipperybob]

LOL's I was considering a salmon/steelhead pole for this purpose too...A simple crappie cane pole wasn't gonna do it for me.

[decoy]

That's a great story!

A few years back 1999-2002 the big crappies from Red Lake were getting into the Red Lake River which runs through town.

People were catching crappies by the bucket loads I remember we could go out and pull 15-20 big craps from one hole in a matter of minutes. They were just waiting in line for the plastic. After an hour of hole hopping, a guy could have caught and released well over a 100 13-14 inch crappies. These were that 95 year class, and it was awesome.

Toward the end of that little era, the craps got harder to locate, but you could still locate them from time to time.

Once I found them under a tree "like you describe."

It was one of those big elms that leaned at 45 degrees over the river. Well, I climbed the sucker and sat in a limb. I had a ball for a few days going out and climbing that tree and hoisting those big craps up into the air up into that tree. The branchs were good camo.

great story!

[Timrek]

FYI,

Not and add or endorsement but I saw that Mills Fleet Farm had the collapsible polls in 10' or 12' sizes for $10. I am thinking about getting one and giving it a try.

[Lunker]

Good spot, I'll have to take a look.

I was at it again Friday. Only fished about 2 hours due to the fact I was freezing my hands off in the wind, but I landed about a dozen fish and lost a few others, though I had a much better hooking/landing ratio today cause I didn't lift fish over the branches, I let them fight and walked to them. Had six over 12", including three of those over 13".Also caught one smallie. Selective harvest. Once the fish bed I'll have to switch it up.