My Weakness...The Crappie

I have an admission that continues to haunt me...I have trouble catching crappie. It seems they would be so simple to catch. I have fished for many years, and for the most part, have been successful in catching LM, SM, KY's and bluegills. Even the striper and hybrid are far less trouble than the crappie. I do admit the crappie is not my priority fish, but for me, I feel they should not be as difficult to catch. I have read many articles, and have shared strategies with guys who seem to have no problems catching them. I feel I graph these fish on structure, and I know they school in open water at times as well, but when it comes to catching them, it is another story. I have used every technique, every bait in the book without success. I am just interested in how many of you have the same problem.

i use to have the same problem. i mainly fish green and it has taken me a few years to learn how to catch them there. now i can go out and injoy a really good day of crappie fishing. if i go to a differant lake i dont do very well. i take advantage of the low water and put brush piles out for the rest of the year. not all of the brush piles will hold crappie but some of them will catch there eyes.

Here is what I would suggest for you. You should find yourself a full time Crappie guide or at least a full time guide that does a lot of guiding for Crappie that also has a reputation for teaching. Tell the guide you are wanting to learn how to locate and pattern the fish and learn different techniques to catch them.

By all of this I mean that you need to find a guide that will spend the day on a very focused trip of learning....this means the trip should be focused on more learning and not worrying about trying to catch a lot of fish.

I do many of these type trips every season for bass anglers. The feedback from when I do this type trip has been excellent. Not all guides do these type trips but I am sure you can find a good one who does if you search around. You might not catch a lot of fish on the trip but what you will learn should improve your fishing for the future and put you on the right track to become a more consistant crappie angler which equates in turn to more fish in the boat more often.

Since I do a lot of teaching myself, I understand what you are saying. Thanks for your suggestions! I will do that.

Dave, excellent advice. I do the same for cats, a lot of folks dont understand what makes a cat tick. A lot of my clients come just to catch a big cat, and some come just to learn how to pattern them and how to find them and fish for them under different conditions. In the long run the guys/gals that come with me to learn will catch a lot more bigger cats in the long run, as they will go home and apply my techniques to their waters. Most folks have the idea that they dont want to spend the money for a quality guide, however if they do the math, they will save a lot more in the long run.

Warren....it is about time for those big cats to be biting isn't it? It is now your time of year to shine...I just rented storage to put my boat away till March..my time to rest...lol

Dave you are absolutely right, we are catching some good ones now, several in the 60lb class with a 78 and 82lber to top them off. I know the feeling about the rest, i will start mine in mid april, well except for fishing some tourneys and that can be harder work than guiding. Give me a call some day and we will hit the river (if you aint too tired)...warren

I knew you would be on those big girls by now.

If any of you folks out there want to catch a man eating monster cat, Warren here is your guy.

Warren, who knows...we may do that one day this winter...right now I am planning on staying home this winter instead of all that traveling I have been doing over the past years doing seminars in the winter...will probably do one or two shows but it is getting time for this ol guy to slow down a little and rest more in the off season...lol