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 www.crappienation.net 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.
Originally Posted by SLP
Well today I was able to get through no problem. Maybe they were closed yesterday for the holiday.
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?
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