Ky Lake Crappie

[jayrod00]

we were bass fishing Johnathan creek last weekend and ended up catching 5 crappie over 2 lbs on BIG spinner baits (dual blades) that we were bass fishing with......I have never caught a crappie on a bait so large......

[Moose1am]

I have caught crappie on smaller white spinner baits. They will hit bomber crank baits as well.

I am setup to troll Bandits (crank baits) behind the boat. I have caught crappie this way as well. Caught three nice one at Patoka Lake Last Fall in just 30 minutes.

The other day I was fishing minnows tight line and wanted to move to a new spot not far away. I turned up the trolling motor and set it on 5/5 high. I left my line in the water baited with a rosy red minnow on a #2 gold wire hook. The 1/4 oz lead weight finesse Drop shot weight was attache to the bottom of a long tag line. The hook was attached to the main line with a loop knot that I left an 18" long tag line on the knot.

A nice sized crappie tagged my minnow and hooked itself. I was going almost 2.0 mph (gps used to get speed). I caught two more crappie this way. I was fishing in about 7 to 10 ft of water tighline so when I kicked the motor into high gear the line was forced up to the surface. I estimate it was about 3ft to 4ft below the surface based on the angle of my fishing line coming off the end of the pole into the water. (trigonometry helps). I knew the lenght of the line (side 1) the angle of the line to the water (angle 1) and I had a right angle (angle 2) and I could estimate the height of the pole above the water (side 2). I had two angle and the lenght of two sides so that helps.

The point is that the crappie were able to easily swim at 2.0 mph and grab the bait. And I noticed that when I did a turn and the line was going faster in the water I got more bites.

The crappie were enjoying the warmer surface waters. I got temperature readings on the surface waters between 63 and 70 deg F. The warmer readings were found in the shallower waters. The deeper waters (60) deep still have 65 deg F surface waters in the middle of the lake.

I suspect that the bait fish were up on the surface feeding on hatching insects or other aquatic insects that were also in the upper warmer waters. I saw another boat fishing in the area and notice that they had their fixed bobbers at around 1 ft to 2 ft deep. They were out over some deep water near the shallow water hump that I was fishing. They were about 200 yard away from me when I got there and then moved over by me. I hate it when people do that! I like to move around and they were always in my way. Anyway I only saw them catch one crappie and they eventually moved down the bank and out of my way. I ended up catching a few crappie on a new spot that I found. I may go back and fish that spot again to see if it's productive. I found a hole with lots of submerged brush under the water. And in a strip pit that's a rare thing. I have found one or two ohter spots in this pit with submerged brush and these holes are good crappie spots. So now hopefully I have anohter GPS coordinate to add to my honey holes. hehe.

Give trolling for crappie a shot some day. You can catch some nice suspended slab crappie using this method. I want my boat to slow down to around 1.0 to 1.5 mph and at times go up to 2.5 mph.

I see one guy fishing in a boat that goes BACKWARD with his 4 stroke engine. That keeps him slow enough with the big gas motor to still troll for crappie.

we were bass fishing Johnathan creek last weekend and ended up catching 5 crappie over 2 lbs on BIG spinner baits (dual blades) that we were bass fishing with......I have never caught a crappie on a bait so large......