New to spring crappie fishing... Help!

[bigbassman]

Ive decided this spring to take up crappie fishing and thought that where else to ask specifics about crappie fishing than crappie.com! Im going to be fishing Kerr Lake/Buggs Island on the nc/va border. Ive never specifically targeted crappie before, so all advice is appreciated. So here are my three questions:
1) Rigging- I dont have any crappie rods or reels. What would be a good outfit for spring crappie fishing.
2) Bait/lures- Should i be using just jigs, jigs under a float(fixed or slip), or minnows under a float(fixed or slip)
3) Technique- What do you guys find to be the most productive way to catch them in the spring?

Sorry for all the questions and thank you all in advance for the responses!
JT

[Legato]

1) - I use sort of an all-purpose rod. I catch crappie, bass, catfish, bluegill, walleye, redear, etc... - med action. Spinning reel is my fav to use, again I use it to catch everything.
2) - Easiest way, use minnows under a float. I have caught a lot with minnows and they will catch anything out there too. Jigs are fun, but I hardly ever use a float with them.
3) - Fish shallow around any kind of cover. Down trees, limbs hanging in water, man-made stuff.....anything that lets the fish hide in/around it. Fish real close to it.

Have fun and good luck

----My setup. 7 foot, med action, Abu Garcia Cardinal - Tournament grade. Abu Garcia- Cardinal 102 spinng real, 5.1:1 gear ratio,

[bdorman]

Like Legato my rigs do double and triple duty. I'd recommend using what you've got unless what you've got is heavy duty muskie rods with 50# test line. Medium power or less with fast or medium-fast action and 10# line or less will cover lots of techniques. After you learn your lake and what you like, you can start buying specialized gear.

In the spring I fish shallower than summer, 4-7 feet depth with my jigs fairly close to the bottom.

Good luck and have fun!

[bigbassman]

Thanks for the responses. So you just cast your jigs right into the cover? What size jigs(1/16 or 1/32) do you use?
Thanks

[skiptomylu]

A good spinning reel is my choice and I also like both a 7' rod as well there are lots of good use for a 10' rod.
Bait...all of them and by that I mean jigs, jigs tipped with minnow, or just minnow's or both with on hook for minnow and on loop for a jig. fish under a cork, fish by casting or my favorite is trolling with my Troll motor. If you try this locate how deep they are holding and drag a jig or Roadrunner type at .8 to 1.2 MPH.
Some will be on the banks on a nest and some will be out in 6' to 7' of water and even some out in 10' of water. SO other than the bank find where most are holding as there will always be a lot around the 6' to 7' of water and they don't lay all their eggs at one time so will go in and out over and over.

Good luck,
Skip

[BGCrappieCatcher]

Yes, you can just cast a jig into or around the cover. That is called "tight lining". A hit will be a light thump. Another option is use the same jig and put a float 18" to 3' above the jig depending on how deep your fishing etc. "pop" the floater, reel, pop floater, reel, etc. You get the picture.

OTE=bigbassman;1816278]Thanks for the responses. So you just cast your jigs right into the cover? What size jigs(1/16 or 1/32) do you use?
Thanks[/QUOTE]

[bigbassman]

[QUOTE=BGCrappieCatcher;1816502]Yes, you can just cast a jig into or around the cover. That is called "tight lining". A hit will be a light thump. Another option is use the same jig and put a float 18" to 3' above the jig depending on how deep your fishing etc. "pop" the floater, reel, pop floater, reel, etc. You get the picture.

Which technique seems to be more productive (w/ or w/o float)?

[genec]

bigbassman,look on NC board ,I replied ,be their from march 15 to may,water is low now and a good time to mark laps. Get intouch with me ,I have a blue bass tracker.there are many ways you can catch them but I mostly use 1-32 white stinger jig. Me and wife caught over 5,000 there last year on that style alone

[BGCrappieCatcher]

Thats a hard one. They both work very well. This time of year when the water temp is cold I prefer to tight line. When the crappie move to the banks in shallow water or if the structure I am fishing has a lot of hangs I will fish a jig and floater. If you fish a jig and floater the strike most of the time won't be the floater going completely under. It might just bob a little bit or a lot of times the will just lay the floater on its side. If you tight line depending on how deep the fish are, when you cast you might have to count down before you reel. Like right now I am catching a lot of fish and when I cast I am counting down to 8 before I start reeling because the fish are deeper. If you tight line you will want to reel slow and not fast. When the fish move to the banks in the shallows you won't want to count down at all. I guess I will say I prefer to tightline but both have their place and are successful. I prefer to use this floater when I use jig and floater.[QUOTE=bigbassman;1816516]

Yes, you can just cast a jig into or around the cover. That is called "tight lining". A hit will be a light thump. Another option is use the same jig and put a float 18" to 3' above the jig depending on how deep your fishing etc. "pop" the floater, reel, pop floater, reel, etc. You get the picture.

Which technique seems to be more productive (w/ or w/o float)?

[CrappiePappy]

Ive decided this spring to take up crappie fishing and thought that where else to ask specifics about crappie fishing than crappie.com! Im going to be fishing Kerr Lake/Buggs Island on the nc/va border. Ive never specifically targeted crappie before, so all advice is appreciated. So here are my three questions:
1) Rigging- I dont have any crappie rods or reels. What would be a good outfit for spring crappie fishing.
2) Bait/lures- Should i be using just jigs, jigs under a float(fixed or slip), or minnows under a float(fixed or slip)
3) Technique- What do you guys find to be the most productive way to catch them in the spring?

Sorry for all the questions and thank you all in advance for the responses!
JT

Unless you're in the market for purchasing more rods/reels/equipment, my suggestion would be to use your lightest Bass equipment (rods/reels) and downsize your line to something between 4-8lb test mono. These outfits will allow you to use several methods that are commonly used for pre-spawn to post spawn Crappie.
Having a background in Bass fishing may be a plus to you, if you think of Crappie fishing as downsized Bass fishing. Follow the lead of the Va & NC members that fish Kerr, and adapt your Bass fishing talents to the methods used by them, and you should be on your way to some promising Crappie catching.

I used to Bass fish, almost 90% of the time. When I switched over to Crappie fishing, at the same or higher percentage rate, I brought my crankbait & worm fishing techniques experience along & adapted them to my Crappie fishing. Now I cast & slow retrieve jigs, & shoot docks, almost 95% of the time. My crankbait fishing experience led me to casting, primarily, and the worm fishing technique led me to be a line watcher as well as using a slow retrieve (swimming the jig on semi-tight line). I'm just doing it with downsized equipment. And while I haven't caught as "many" Bass as I have when fishing for them, I have caught Bass nearly as big as when I was fishing for them .... just on much lighter tackle. My background in Bass fishing also taught me how to use backreeling to control a fish that was larger than what my tackle was intended for.

While I do use spinning tackle, almost exclusively, when Crappie fishing ... I do have some outfits that have baitcast reels on them. I mostly use them for tightlining live bait, when using a float/minnow, or drifting/trolling live bait while I'm also casting a jig. Not all of my spinning reels are UL, either ... I do have/use some reels in the 2000 model size range. Like my Roadrunner/Whirly Bee casting outfit, for instance .... which is a 7' Bionic Blade with a Shimano Spirex 2000, spooled with 10/2 PowerPro braid. Or there's my two BnM Duckworth 8' F&F rods, which both have Mitchell 308x reels, spooled with 4lb test mono.

... cp