How do you fish shallow weed beds in the fall?

I have been told that big crappie frequent shallow weedy flats this time of the year. The source of this good news was a Conservation Officer that also likes to fish for crappie. So I believe him. Also I have confirmed that in the evenings some big crappie frequent the shallows among the weeds as I have caught two of my bigger crappie in these areas this fall.

Slip floats set shallow. Tie a small jig and add a bobber stop, bead and slip bobber to the mix and cast to the shallows. Let it sit there for a while and then slowly and I mean slowly reel the rig back to you. One turn of the reel handle every 5 seconds so. Crappie like it slow and steady. Bass may hit this outfit also so be prepared to loosen the drag is you are using light line and ultralight equipment. A long rod with lots of action throughout the entire rod length helps to set the hooks and not rip the hook out of the paper mouths.


Cast a jig and swim it back to the boat over the top of the weed. A 1/16oz or 3/32oz jig head works well with ultralight outfits. Keep the bait coming to you to keep it up and out of the weeds. A curly tail plastic body can be added to the jig head to give it some action.

A long pole 12ft graphite crappie pole can be setup with a drop shot weight at the bottom. Tie the hook onto the main line with either a Palomar knot or a loop knot and leave a long 4ft tag line. If the weeds are growing in 7ft of water and come up 4ft off the bottom this will put your jig right above the weeds. Find holes in the weeds and drop the rig into them. Add a small crappie minnow to the #2 gold thin wire hook. I have caught a few crappie in the weeds by slow trolling this rig across the edge of the weed flats.

Long lining behind the boat. You may also cast out several yards of line behind the boat and let the wind blow your boat across the weedy flats. Adjust the weight of the jig and the amount of line out until you feel the jig just touching the top of the weeds every once in a while.

I was told that the crappie like to bury themselves right down into the weeds. In this case maybe casting of doodling a Charlie Brewer Crappie Slider might work. If the water is stained or colored add some chartreuse to the mix. Like the old timer said, "Any color works, as long as it's got some Chartreuse in it!"

And finally try casting one of the tiny spinner baits with a small plastic grub attached to the hook.

One thing I may try is using a charlie brewer slider hook with a fat shiner. Attach the slider hook to the mouth and pass it though both lips. Slide the minnows mouth up toward the lead head along the hook shaft and then run the hook end back into the minnows tail embedding the point inside the minnow, making this rig weedless. \

Todd Huckabee of Oklahoma like to use YUM Wooly Beavertails on either a 1/16oz Crappie Pro Jig or on a 1/0 hook rigged weedless.

I have not tried any of the Artificial Baits such as the YUM Beavertails but I may try them out and see how they work. I prefer to use southern pro type tubes and lead head 1/16oz crappie jig heads as they are not as expensive. I do add some chartreuse colored crappie nibbles from Berkley.

I was also shown some nice crappie up at Patoka Lake two weeks ago. The guys said they caught them on deep weed beds. I saw them fishing Area #5 (Fishing Hot Spots Map of Patoka Lake) when I was driving by the lake to the launch ramp. That was just one of their spots they told me at the launch ramp. They had some nice slabs in the live well that they showed to me when they were loading the boat up to go home.

Lots of things go on in the weeds. There are lots of food source in the weeds. The bottom must have nutrients or the weeds would not be growing there. There also must be sufficient sunlight for the weeds to grow. When the sun shines the weeds give off oxygen into the water. They take up CO2 and change the water chemistry by changing the amount of CO2 in the water during the daylight hours. CO2 gas in water makes it mildly acidic. By taking up CO2 the pH of the surrounding water is changed to some degree. And by releasing CO2 back into the water at night and taking in O2 at night the plants reverse what they did during the daylight.

I am going to try to find the edges of some weed flats on Blue Grass Pit in Southern IN and mark the edges with my GPS. That way I can make a route to follow the edge with my gps hand held unit. That's going to take some work on the water with the GPS and the depth finder. The same thing can be done with marker buoys. It's hard to do this using an electric only trolling motor. But starting in Jan 2007 they DNR is said to be going to allow gasoline motors on Blue Grass Pit as long as you keep your speed down to a no wake speed. If people will obey the regulations this may work. We could then slow troll crank baits to locate schools of fish in the summer time out in the main lake. This pit covers 190+ acres of water surface and it's hard to cover the lake with just a trolling motor.

Where is the Blue Grass Pit located?

Coming South on I-164 bypass turn East onto Boonville-New Harmony Road and then go about 2 or 3 tenths of a mile. Blue Grass Pit's South Parking lot will be on your left as you drive East. If you past the parking lot entrance don't worry for the next road on your right will be the Parking lot and launch ramp for LOON PIT.


There is an information Display in the Blue Grass Pit's Parking lot and you can pick up a map of the area and learn about the various hunting and fishing activities that happen on the Fish and Wildlife Area's Property. Deer season and wild turkey and squirrels are being hunted right now. You may also run into bicyclist who like to park their vehicles in the parking lot and start bike rides from there.

Note: This parking lot is the South End of Blue Grass Pit. There is another Gravel launch ramp at the North East End of Blue Grass Pit.

Next Jan the DNR is proposing to allow gas motors on boats there. However you must remain at no wake speed if you run the gas motor.

Blue Grass Pit is more than a mile long and it takes a strong battery and good trolling motor to make it from one end to the other and back. And that's under calm conditions. If it's windy and blowing from the North going North into the wind allows you to ride the winds back home to the launch ramp. :)

I saw four deer this last week. Two were standing out in the middle of a recently harvested corn field and the other two I saw from the boat. They were hiding among some scrub trees right along the bank at the Blue Grass lake. I was not more than 200ft from them before I saw them in the trees. I have seen large bucks swimming across the pit not for from the South Blue Grass Concrete Launch ramp.

Boy Scouts are building a new concrete platform right next to the water's edge. This platform will be connected to the handicapped parking area via a concrete sidewalk. It's still under construction right now but should be finished in the near future.