Bored? Fish for Crappie and want something to read

[url]http://www.crappienow.com/home/crappie-now-2013/crappie-now-november-2013/november-2013-online-version/108-national-tournaments[/url]

The last couple of years I've been talking about trolling crank baits for suspended crappie using side planner boards.

Guess I'm not the only one using this technique to catch a few crappie.

These guys took a few prizes using this technique.

I learned to troll crank baits and catch crappie by accident one day at KY lake fishing with my dad. We fished KY lake twice a year from the time I was around 8 years old until around 1983. One day back in the 1960's I was moving slowly from one spot to another using the gas motor. But since we didn't have far to go I was going slow. I let the crank bait out and trolled it behind the boat while moving back to your fishing spot. I caught a nice big crappie doing this several times. Not sure why I didn't really pick up on this at the time. Probably because my late father was in control of the boat and telling me where to go and how to fish. But over the last 50 years I've learned now that I was onto something good. We could have caught a lot more crappie if we have continued to experiment with trolling crank baits. But Dad was stuck in his ways and ended up always fishing the same spots in the same old way. Now he was pretty good at catching bass and had caught many more big bass then I ever did. But he fished the lake when it was first formed in the 1940's. By the late 1960's the lake had been around for some 30 years and some of the wood was gone. By the 1980's a lot more of the original wood was rotted away.

It would have been hard to troll crank baits back in the 1940's with all the wood in the lake. You would have lost a lot of baits doing that. But today with the lake bottom relatively clear except for a few man made brush piles trolling cranks is a real option.

BTW: I just found out about [url]www.crappienow.com[/url] and spent the last hour checking it out. It's a nice web site and I learned a few new things today.

The link isn't working for me.

[QUOTE=SLP;526309]The link isn't working for me.[/QUOTE]

Try clearing your cookies and see if that helps. Do you have adobe reading on your computer? I just checked the link again and it's working on my computer. But we all don't use the same computer so that could be the problem. I'm using IE 12 now and I ran CCleaner just a few minutes ago to clear out all my cookies and junk on my computer.

Sorry it's not working for you. Wish I could help you further.

I got a page can't be found when trying to use the second link. But the first link at the top worked OK.

Well today I was able to get through no problem. Maybe they were closed yesterday for the holiday :D.

Thanks for the link it looks like a good one. Other than catching the occasional one while bass fishing I have really never really fished for crappie and I thought this year I might try and learn a little and target them on some days. My children really like to each fresh fish and since I catch and release the bass I catch going after crappie would be the obvious choice. Plus my children are just now getting to the age they are beginning to enjoy going out with me, so they might enjoy catching them with me on occasions. Plus I just enjoy fishing so now that I have a boat why not expand from my old habits?

Any tips for a beginner crappie fisherman that would help shorten the learning curve?

I started out fishing for bass my entire life and back in 1986 my later father bought me a book on crappie fishing for some reason. I didn't really heed it until around 2003 when I saw where some guys fishing in a Crappie fishing Tournament at Patoka Lake won a new Ranger Bass Boat. I figured I could do that too if I knew more about catching crappie. I thought to myself, how hard can this be? Well little did I know it's not that easy to win a Crappie Fishing Tournament. It's more than just luck. So I got the book out and started to read it from cover to cover.

That book is called "Crappie Wisdom" and it's published by In-Fisherman.

My tip to you is to buy this book and read it cover to cover. That's where I started out gaining knowledge about the seasonal movements of the crappie. You can actually target crappie year round an in any kind of waters.

I found out that the best crappie guides fish the same lake every day and they go out and plant cover in their lake to draw the crappie to the best spots. They may put cover into 100 different spots so that they always have a good spot that's fish-able. They do their homework weeks ahead of the season and they do catch lots of big crappie. Getting out and onto the water with a couple of minnows and a fishing pole is good medicine.

Today I use topo maps and digital maps and a computer to help me located good fishing spots. My dad used to subscribe to several outdoor magazines. Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and my favorite Fishing Facts. I know I've read hundreds of articles on fishing and hunting. We saved all those magazines.

Now you can get these same thing in digital form online. Crappie Now and [url]www.crappienation.net[/url] are two other sites that cover crappie fishing.

You can also use Google to find new web sites and online forums. Just remember that most people online won't cough up their best spots to the public but they will give hints tips on how to catch fish faster and better.

I find it funny that crappie fishing has changed very little over the last 50 years. When I was about 8 years old my Dad took me fishing with him at KY Lake for the very first time. He had always gone away fishing with his friends when I was little. I used to watch him leave for the lake and wish I could go with him someday. I waited with my Mom at home for him to return with some fish. He always brought home fish. I can still remember standing in the driveway of his friends house watching them pack the car to leave for KY Lake that Friday after work. When Dad's friend ask me if I wanted to go with them I didn't hesitate one second. I was already packed as Mom had been in on it and had packed a bag for me for the weekend. That was summer of 1959. Back in those days we fished crank baits for bass and it was hard work. But the next spring my Dad bought a motor and we rented a boat and went to KY lake to do some crappie fishing. We fished with a KY lake Crappie Rid. I still have a bunch of them in Dad's old tackle box.

The funny thing is that the same rigs are being sold today as a new way to fish for crappie. Chaps and Coleman sell a rig just like the KY Lake Crappie rig that we used in the 1950. Back then we fished with long Cane Poles and some 20 lb.braided line tied to the end of the pole. Mr. Crappie is selling the same thing as the KY lake Crappie Rig.

My point in this long story! Anyone can catch a crappie with a stick and some string and a hook.

Today there are hundreds of different colors and shapes of crappie jigs. But sometimes the best bait is still a small minnow on a KY Lake Crappie Rig. BTW you can fish two hooks on these KY Lake Rigs.

One big tip that I will share with all the crappie fishermen out there. Berkley makes a thing called Crappie Nibbles. Don't leave home without them. Take some out of the bottle and set them out in the sun to dry for a few minutes until they form a skin on them. Then they will stay on the hook longer. They will eventually fall off the hook and you will have to add a new one onto the hook. Use them with jigs, minnows or on a plain hook. They work. Chartreuse IMHO is the best color especially in murky colored water.

And if you are taking the kids for the first time I recommend hiring a guide to get you into some good spots. Nothing teaches the kids to fish better than catching a bunch of fish out on the first couple of trips. The guides fish the lake almost every day and they stay on top of what the fish are doing though out the season. I'd hire them if I were going to a new lake and had the money.

I still catch bass from time to time and enjoy the fight but when it comes to eating fish you can't beat a nice slab crappie.

The small strip pits I fish have a 18" size limit on LM bass and you can only keep 2 fish. So I started to concentrate on catching crappie to take home and eat.

When you get into a big school of crappie and start catching them one after another it's really fun.

Look for drop offs in the lake. Things like the edge of a creek channel where the creek makes an outside turn. Look for areas where the old creek runs into the old river channel. Then follow the creek channel intersection back into the bay where it started. You will find some crappie along those old creek channels. The creek channel flowing though a flat area with stumps is a good spot to try also. The edge of flooded timber where a creek runs though the timber can be a good spot. Long sloping points can be good spots too. Think current and sunlight. On bright sunny days the fish will be a little deeper or hugging the shade of a tree.

Look at the body shape of a crappie vs. Largemouth bass. A crappie is short and flat and designed for turning quickly around obstacles. They like to hand in the weeds and flooded woody structure and ambush their prey. Bass are designed for straight line speed. They are longer and more slender than a crappie. They like to suspend out over deep water and follow the schools of bait-fish. They also like some of the very same spots that crappie hand out in. And crappie will also suspend out over open water not far from a drop off.

If fishing a moving body of water like a creek or river look for current breaks and wood structures that the crappie can hide in. And if the creek has a mud line fish just inside the area that's clear but close to the mud line. The area where the clearer water meets the more muddy water.

You can catch crappie in less than 2 ft. of water in the spring time. Down at KY lake we use to fish right up into the buck brush along the bank. The Crappie spawn in April in this part of the country. Southern IN and KY. Down South they spawn earlier. They will move into the spawning areas in the spring. The males go in first and make the nest and the larger female come in later to lay the eggs and then head back out into deeper water. They stage in areas near the spawning grounds before they come up to spawn. This is all dependent on the amount of sun shine and temperature of the water. Areas that get more sunlight warm up faster. Darker colored bottom areas and wood warms up first. Sheltered coves on the Wind protected sides of a cove warm up faster. Small creeks and shallow bays warm up faster and they have less water to warm up than the middle of the lake where it's deeper.

All these will be explained to you in detail in the Crappie Wisdom Book. In fisherman also has a couple of good books on crappie fishing too. They have the "Critical Concept" series. They have published two books on Crappie Fishing in the Critical Concept Series. I'd recommend getting a hold of them and reading them. They cover some new information that's not covered in the Crappie Wisdom Book.

A good GPS and depth Finder will help a lot in finding and returning too good crappie fishing spots. But you can also use a rope and a rock and memory to triangulate the spot from spots on the shoreline that line up with each other in two different vectors. Crappie fishing has not really changed that much in the last 50 years but the tools we use have changed a lot.

One last tip. Get a good sensitive crappie fishing rod. Some thing made out of graphite. I like the B and M company as they make some darn good sensitive crappie fishing rods. These help you detect the light bites that the crappie are famous for. Now for the kids if they are young I'd get them some rods that are unbreakable. The Ugly sticks are good for the kids as they won't break. Keep the kids away from your BnM rods or be prepared to buy some new ones. I don't know how many rod tips I broke when I was a kid using my Dads equipment. And I would recommend using bobbers when fishing with the kids. Slip bobbers or the type the clip onto the line and that can be slid up or down the line.

Take the kids out in the spring when it's 75 degs outside and the water is warmed up to 60 to 65 deg F in the shallow bays. That's when you will catch the most crappie along the shoreline in the shallow water.

Later in the spring and summer you can catch the crappie in the deeper wood piles and in the summer submergent weed growth. Fish the edges of the weeds. Casting small jigs on ultra light spinning reel outfits is fun. Small spinner baits are fun too use as well. Cast then along the edge of the weed line and retrieve them back to the boat as slow as possible.

[QUOTE=SLP;526356]Well today I was able to get through no problem. Maybe they were closed yesterday for the holiday :D.

Thanks for the link it looks like a good one. Other than catching the occasional one while bass fishing I have really never really fished for crappie and I thought this year I might try and learn a little and target them on some days. My children really like to each fresh fish and since I catch and release the bass I catch going after crappie would be the obvious choice. Plus my children are just now getting to the age they are beginning to enjoy going out with me, so they might enjoy catching them with me on occasions. Plus I just enjoy fishing so now that I have a boat why not expand from my old habits?

Any tips for a beginner crappie fisherman that would help shorten the learning curve?[/QUOTE]

Thank you so much for taking the time generously responding with such a terrific post, it is very helpful. It genuinely has gotten me excited to try and learn about and go crappie fishing. What is funny is that I am certain that I have the book "Crappie Wisdom" on my book shelf somewhere. Years ago I bought some of the In-Fisherman books for a variety of fish, Lg & sm bass, pike, and I believe that one about crappie was also one of them. I have read the others, since those species I have always fished for, but not the crappie one. I'm going to put the "Critical Concept" series on my wish list as well. I am also going to print out your post and save it as a reference for me because it has so much good advise which I am sure will help me tremendously to get started.

I also really enjoyed reading about you and your dad, I hope my children will have such fond memories when they are older and think back about spending time fishing with me. Thanks again, I really appreciate it a lot.

Y

[QUOTE=SLP;526406]Thank you so much for taking the time generously responding with such a terrific post, it is very helpful. It genuinely has gotten me excited to try and learn about and go crappie fishing. What is funny is that I am certain that I have the book "Crappie Wisdom" on my book shelf somewhere. Years ago I bought some of the In-Fisherman books for a variety of fish, Lg & sm bass, pike, and I believe that one about crappie was also one of them. I have read the others, since those species I have always fished for, but not the crappie one. I'm going to put the "Critical Concept" series on my wish list as well. I am also going to print out your post and save it as a reference for me because it has so much good advise which I am sure will help me tremendously to get started.

I also really enjoyed reading about you and your dad, I hope my children will have such fond memories when they are older and think back about spending time fishing with me. Thanks again, I really appreciate it a lot.[/QUOTE]

Your welcome.

Don't forget the crappie nibbles.

You said that you bought a bunch of the In-Fishermen Fishing Books. I also have the In-Fisherman book on Small Mouth Bass and found that a lot of the material in the book is repeated in all the books. Things like the Ten Fishing Zones from North to South in North American. Type of lakes are repeated in all the books. So some of the chapters you can skip over if you read them in the other books.

I have the In-Fisherman Book on Walleyes on my bucket list to buy and read.

Patoka Lake is said to have some Walleye stocked in there. I remember when Patoka Lake first opened I heard that they stocked it with Walleye and Northern Pike. I caught plenty of Northern Pike in the early years but never did catch a single walleye.

But there are Walleye in the Rivers too. Lots of guys fish the Ohio River at Newburgh **** for Saugers. They are a close cousin to the Walleye. The only thing is that I won't eat any fish caught out of the Ohio River.
Right now the city of Evansville is checking the drinking water that comes out of the Ohio River for a new Chemical. And they were going to use activated carbon to clean up the water if needed. Way too many things are put into the sewers up and down these River Towns to my liking. God is the only one who really knows what's in that water. IMHO. I'm an Environmental scientist who specialized in water quality in College and I know exactly how they are suppose to do the sampling and chemical testing. And I'm skeptical because I've seen how some of the testing is done. I'm also skeptical because way too many people are getting cancer and dying of heart disease and there must be something that we eat, breath or drink that's causing us all to get cancer. If all the chemicals were at a safe level in the water then we would not have so many people with cancer. No one really knows what the Combination of chemicals do to us. The SYNERGIST AFFECTS are unknown to everyone except GOD.



[QUOTE=SLP;526406]Thank you so much for taking the time generously responding with such a terrific post, it is very helpful. It genuinely has gotten me excited to try and learn about and go crappie fishing. What is funny is that I am certain that I have the book "Crappie Wisdom" on my book shelf somewhere. Years ago I bought some of the In-Fisherman books for a variety of fish, Lg & sm bass, pike, and I believe that one about crappie was also one of them. I have read the others, since those species I have always fished for, but not the crappie one. I'm going to put the "Critical Concept" series on my wish list as well. I am also going to print out your post and save it as a reference for me because it has so much good advise which I am sure will help me tremendously to get started.

I also really enjoyed reading about you and your dad, I hope my children will have such fond memories when they are older and think back about spending time fishing with me. Thanks again, I really appreciate it a lot.[/QUOTE]