Taylorsville Crappie

[cpsniper05]

Anyone been or having any luck. Going with the father-in-law Monday. Just trying to see if anyone has been doing any good. Do you think I should fish the main lake or go into the creeks. Ill take any advice. Thanks guys!!

[crappiepappy]

Anyone been or having any luck. Going with the father-in-law Monday. Just trying to see if anyone has been doing any good. Do you think I should fish the main lake or go into the creeks. Ill take any advice. Thanks guys!!

I haven't been to T-ville this year, but in the past I've experienced the Crappie spawn towards the later days of April, even into the first week or so of May. I've always done good on wood along the main lake banks, and some of the major creek arms. I don't know what the water temp is, so if I were going there soon ... I'd most probably fish the main lake banks to start off, then move into the pockets with standing timber, before I went back into any of the creeks. I would expect them to still be in pre-spawn mode & feeding ... so I'd keep a check on my electronics for water temp changes & Shad schools. I mostly cast jigs at T-ville ... have done a bit of minnow/float fishing in the past ... and even longline trolled some for T-ville Crappie. They've all worked, but I'd have to give the overall productive edge to casting jigs. I've had the most success with blue/chartreuse plastics on a 1/16oz weedless jighead ... around blowdowns & standing timber. luck2ya !!

... pappy

[cpsniper05]

I haven't been to T-ville this year, but in the past I've experienced the Crappie spawn towards the later days of April, even into the first week or so of May. I've always done good on wood along the main lake banks, and some of the major creek arms. I don't know what the water temp is, so if I were going there soon ... I'd most probably fish the main lake banks to start off, then move into the pockets with standing timber, before I went back into any of the creeks. I would expect them to still be in pre-spawn mode & feeding ... so I'd keep a check on my electronics for water temp changes & Shad schools. I mostly cast jigs at T-ville ... have done a bit of minnow/float fishing in the past ... and even longline trolled some for T-ville Crappie. They've all worked, but I'd have to give the overall productive edge to casting jigs. I've had the most success with blue/chartreuse plastics on a 1/16oz weedless jighead ... around blowdowns & standing timber. I wrote an article on another method that I've used over the years, which I call "Vertical Casting". You can Google "vertical casting crappie" and the article should show up first on the link listing .... you'll see my screen ID in the title. Read it, try it .... and luck2ya !!

... pappy

Good article and thanks for the tips. Seems like a method in which you have to be very pt. I would think the boat would scare the fish a lot of the times. To vertical fish over some of the structures seems a bit difficult without trolling motor and being able to stay in one place long enough to perform such a method. I will definitely post on here how I do Monday and hope to catch a few. Thanks again.

[peter]

I haven't been to T-ville this year, but in the past I've experienced the Crappie spawn towards the later days of April, even into the first week or so of May. I've always done good on wood along the main lake banks, and some of the major creek arms. I don't know what the water temp is, so if I were going there soon ... I'd most probably fish the main lake banks to start off, then move into the pockets with standing timber, before I went back into any of the creeks. I would expect them to still be in pre-spawn mode & feeding ... so I'd keep a check on my electronics for water temp changes & Shad schools. I mostly cast jigs at T-ville ... have done a bit of minnow/float fishing in the past ... and even longline trolled some for T-ville Crappie. They've all worked, but I'd have to give the overall productive edge to casting jigs. I've had the most success with blue/chartreuse plastics on a 1/16oz weedless jighead ... around blowdowns & standing timber. luck2ya !!

... pappy

Crappie article by crappiepappy

[crappiepappy]

Thanks Peter !!
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cpsniper05 --- you'd be surprised at how shallow & close to the boat (& trolling motor) that I've caught Crappie.

Fished Barkley many moons ago & the lake was flooded up into the live trees along the bank. There was still about 3ft of water up the trunks of those trees. I took the boat back into a stand of those live trees, fishing a minnow under a float about 18" deep. And you had to put the minnow right up against the tree, because the Crappie were nosed up to the tree & wouldn't move a foot away to bite the minnow. I caught several Crappie in the prop wash of the trolling motor, while trying to back the boat up to keep it from drifting into the tree I was trying to fish.

Many times on Watts Bar Lake ... I've circled around docks, shooting my jig up under them & catching Crappie. After several to many passes around the dock, I've used the Vertical Casting method on the dock posts that I've passed right next to (& even bumped into) and caught several more Crappie. Most of the time they were about 5-8ft below the surface, even when the bottom was at 20ft or more.
I've also pulled up to & tied off onto blowdown trees at Watts Bar, and used the Vertical Casting method right down into the branches of that tree. Worked just fine ... and I even had one Blacknose Black Crappie jump clear over the front end of the boat, after I set the hook !!

On Taylorsville ... much the same story as on Watts Bar & Barkley. Even when dipping a minnow on a slip float, or Vertical Casting a jig down the side of a standing tree ... I've been tied to it or running the trolling motor to control boat drift or combat the wind, and I've still managed to catch Crappie from those places.

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Any of you other Crappie anglers reading this :

Give this method a try. It may well put a few more fish in your livewell. It sure has for me !!

... pappy

[jcclark]

I went last Friday, surface temp was 50 to 51 degrees.
Went up the river from VanBurren, water was gin clear
and couldn't find any fish, even on the finder.
Went down to Chowning Ln area and caught a few nice ones out
on the edges of the timber throwing a 1/16 oz jig.
they were loaded with eggs. Brought home 11 total.
The water looked real good.
It's come up since then and with a lot of rain on the way,
it may be to high for a while now.