Any suggestions on Crappie this weekend? All advice is welcome and throw some bass in too! Lol! Will be trolling w/cranks for Crappie in Ken lake or minnowing as well. Bass maybe sus. jerkbait.
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Any suggestions on Crappie this weekend? All advice is welcome and throw some bass in too! Lol! Will be trolling w/cranks for Crappie in Ken lake or minnowing as well. Bass maybe sus. jerkbait.
On Bass a lot of people that I know that have be fishing for bass have been catching them on spinner baits and shad raps...
I went bass fishing down there last week and had success, but i heard that the crappie bite was on for Kentucky Lake. Don't know baits or locations so im no help
[QUOTE=manbearfish;561208]Any suggestions on Crappie this weekend? All advice is welcome and throw some bass in too! Lol! Will be trolling w/cranks for Crappie in Ken lake or minnowing as well. Bass maybe sus. jerkbait.[/QUOTE]
A trick that I learned from an old Herter's Guide Book was to add a trailer jig to the back of a crank bait. I tested this out and found that it works great.
Take a 18" long piece of mono that's of lighter test than your main line. That way if the trailer gets hung up that trailer jig line will break before the main line.
I used a ten pound test line for the main line. Stren Mono 10# test. I did that in order to get the same accuracy on my bandit crank baits as the Troller's Bible Books give me. They calibrated their bandit depth chart by always using the same ten pound test mono fishing line as the main line to the crank baits.
Now I add the 6 lb test fishing line to the jig. Then I tied the other end of the trailer line to a snap swivel. I can make up a bunch of these and wrap them around some fun noodles to keep them from getting all tangled up until I use the.
Snap the trailer line to the rear hook on the bandit and deploy it behind the crank bait. Set the crank bait into the water and zero the line counter reel. Let out the amount of line to reach the depth that you see the fish hanging around at with the depth finder. If the fish are ten feet down then let out the amount of line on the reel counter reel to get the crank baits to the 10 ft depth.
8 times out of 10 the crappie will hit the trailer jig and not the crank bait. You will also catch lots of bass and bluegills with this method. Go slow with your boat at idle speed. Some times I have to head into the wind to go slower in order to get the bites.
I use the Humminbird 898 C SI unit with a digital map of the lake that I fish. It's a Lakemaster chart SDHC card that inserts into the Humminbird unit. They have one for KY lake that's pretty accurate.
Troll areas where crappie hang out during pre spawn.
This weekend here it's suppose to get up into the 70's after a cold front came though this area mid week. But this weekend it's going to warm back up. Being the first week of April it should be pre-spawn at KY lake in the areas near the dam and maybe the areas near Paris TN may have some spawning activity as it may have warmer water.
Water temps are key.
I purchased and installed a trolling plate on my motor but need to make some adjustments to it before it's fully effective. Right now it's either too slow or too fast. I need an intermediate angle and will need to made some modifications to the device to accomplish this.
Now my system worked best in the hot summer months on my lake. The lake is less crowded with fishermen during the hottest parts of the day. They all go back home by 10 am. But the kayakers are out in force at this time of the day. But that's on my small quiet lake. KY lake won't have many people out on the main lake in Kayaks. But you will have to dodge the jet skies and other pleasure boats on KY lake in the hot summer months.
I learned a long time ago (1960) as a kid that crappie would hit a crank bait that was trolled behind the boat. I use to get bored fishing with my dad and when we fired up the motor and were going slow from one fishing spot to another (into the wind) I would let my crank bait troll back behind the boat and was rewarded with a fish now and then. Crappie, Sauger and Bass would hit my crank bait. And I had no idea how deep I was fishing in those days. I just let some line out and waited for the fish to hit the crank bait. I was only about 8 years old back then when we first started fishing KY lake together. We were bass fishing in those days when I learned about trolling crank baits. We have a 20 HP mercury outboard and a 16 ft. aluminum rental boat with wooden bench seats. The motor was at idle speed when we went back up into the wind. We would go upwind of the fishing site and cut the motor and drift back across the fishing area with the wind. I use to use oars to control our drift. We didn't use any trolling motors back in those days. Just the wind and a pair of oars. We would cast crank baits and work the stump beds at the head and tails of the islands.
And if you want to fish for crappie another way try using a drop shot rig with minnows, jigs and lots of scent and keep your baits clean of other scents. Crappie nibbles help get more bites. Let them harden up out in the sun before putting them on the hooks and they will stay on the hook longer and help you catch more fish.
I like to fish with small Comal Styrofoam floats. I use a bead and a thrill bobber stop to control the depth of my jigs. Use a loop knot so that the jig hangs level and has more action. I use 1/16 oz lead head jigs minnow head style and Bass Pro Shop Squirmin Squirt tube jigs with great success. White Lightening #18 is a proven Crappie USA Patoka Lake winner. Ad a drop of clear nail polish to the top and bottom of the float to harden up the area where the fishing line goes though the middle of the float. This will help prevent the line from making a groove in the top of the float hole and prevent the line from getting stuck in the hole and the jig not pulling the line down to the bobber stop. Fish the shallows in the far back ends of the coves bays. Fish will sometimes be in as little as two feet of water in the back of the bay where I use to fish. Cypress Bay. I've seen guys pulling big slabs out of two feet of water by casting small jigs out under a bobber and reeling the baits back into the boat in really shallow water. Be very quiet while fishing in shallow water as the fish get spooked easily. The guy I was watching probably had some brush or something in the water where he was fishing as it was just right across the bay from his house/boat dock. He knew the area and had most likely setup some stake beds in this area when the water was down and the land was dry in the winter months. Come spring when the water levels came up and flooded the area with two to three feet of water. Crappie like to spawn in certain areas with the right bottom type. Not too hard and not too muddy or salty.