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Thread: Dipping for crappie

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    Default Dipping for crappie


    I recently read on crappie world that tournament anglers do a significant ammount of "dipping for crappie". Apparently this is the practice of dropping a bait just at the base of standing timber with little cover. Baisicaly it said the timber was like telephone poles with no limbs. I have a bunch of trees in the lake I fish that fit this description and want to try this method. My question is what trees do you try and dip? There are trees in 80 feet of water with tops as big as a basketball still exposed. Down to as shallow as you would want to fish. I guess I am just looking for someone with some experience with this method to tell me what water depth they typicaly target when "dipping".

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    That takes me back to the days when I use to chase the Green Carp, I believe that that "dipping" is a variety of "flippin", an underhand motion or pendulum swing that lets one place the lure with pinpoint accuracy, and with hardly any splash. In the case of a tree trunk, you try and hit with just inches of the trunk, and then give it just enough slack where the lure will fall almost perfectly vertical. My favorite bait for doing this was a 1/4 or 3/8 OZ Black or Brown Maribou Jig with weed guard with either a 3" Twister tail or a black 2" pork frog on the back.

    As to the best targets, the shady side of the tree or tree trunk and steep banks with lots of heavy lay-downs both produced well. When you are faced with expansive amount of cover/standind timber, look for an area that makes the placement of those trees a little different. One lonely tree sitting on a 3' hump/rise can be a gold mine compared to 200 trees sitting on a 20' flat. To a structure orientated fish, the single tree standing on the hump looks like the only cold beer in a ghost town.

    Standing timber next to the old creek channel can hold fish, as can the point of a group of trees pointing to the shallows or to the deep, the Green Carp uses these just like highways.

    I guess I never thought much about dippin/flippin for Crappie, but I just started. It's almost an ideal situation with the 12' - 16' rods we have today. Geeez, now I'm going to have to put a brush bumper on the front of my toon.

    Oh, another thing I forgot to mention, you need very high visibility line or the eyes of an Eagle. Most of the time the only thing you will see is a single "tick" of the line....and you only get one chance to hook up. I used Stren Gold back then and it worked very well, of course I was using 10-20# test.
    I don't think you have to be as paranoid about line size fishing this way as the strike is strictly a reaction and not a planned action.

    One last warning, when you dip whatever your gonna dip, where ever you decide to dip it, you have presented an ice cold beer to a variety of fish and you will get the winner of the race no matter if it's a Crappie or Green Carp. When I lived down in Southern Indiana (Madison), I had Lake Hardy almost in my back yard, I had found a pretty steep hump in the middle of an
    old creek channel. I flipped it several times that spring and could have limited out several times over on Green Carp. In late June the Shriner's had an open to the public tournament with cash prizes for the biggest Green Carp, Bluegill/Redear, Catfish, and Crappie. Within an hour I had the biggest Redear, and went to my hump to pick up what I figured would be a sure thing Green Carp. For the next several hours my buddy and I picked up no less than 15-20 nice Channel Cats. Never caught on Green Carp that entire day. A couple months later I planned an all night Catfishing trip to the same hump, about an hour after dark and we had the lights setup, the Crappie was all over us, had to put away the stinky stuff and break out the Jigs. Final Score: Crappie 200-300 Catfish: O

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    Viet Vet can I please have the gps numbers for that hump? Wow thats a fishing hole. Thanks for the info. The short blurb in Crappie World said the guy lets his bait sit there for a full minute and then he slowly starts the retirive up. I being a reformed green carp man can see where that is a flipping type style of fishing. However agian this article baisicaly said he lowered the bait in the water and moved it down as slow as possible. I will try it both ways and see if I can find a hump in Arkansas as sweet as yours in Indiana. Thanks for the response.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gooch
    Viet Vet can I please have the gps numbers for that hump? Wow thats a fishing hole. Thanks for the info. The short blurb in Crappie World said the guy lets his bait sit there for a full minute and then he slowly starts the retirive up. I being a reformed green carp man can see where that is a flipping type style of fishing. However agian this article baisicaly said he lowered the bait in the water and moved it down as slow as possible. I will try it both ways and see if I can find a hump in Arkansas as sweet as yours in Indiana. Thanks for the response.
    That's one of the reasons for using the Maribou, it helps it fall slower but still departs some action, same with the fairly bouyant Pork Frog.

    Gooch, You will never believe how I found that hump.
    Dad and I was fishing together, I was on the very nose of my Bass Tracker flippin and Dad was in the back throwing his beloved spinners. The last time I looked at my Humminbird Super Sixty (That was on the drivers console) it said 35' plus of water. To make a long story short, I hit a submerged log with the trolling motor that sorta gave me no other choice than to semi-gracefully walk off the nose of the boat. Expecting to go all the way under, I was delighted when my feet touched bottom when the water was just below my neck. I can never remember hearing Dad laugh as hard or as long as he did that day. Today, anytime I stand at the front of any boat I can hear that laugh....

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    Quote Originally Posted by gooch
    I recently read on crappie world that tournament anglers do a significant ammount of "dipping for crappie". Apparently this is the practice of dropping a bait just at the base of standing timber with little cover. Baisicaly it said the timber was like telephone poles with no limbs. I have a bunch of trees in the lake I fish that fit this description and want to try this method. My question is what trees do you try and dip? There are trees in 80 feet of water with tops as big as a basketball still exposed. Down to as shallow as you would want to fish. I guess I am just looking for someone with some experience with this method to tell me what water depth they typicaly target when "dipping".
    Gooch,
    I fish a lake that is full of standing timber like you're talking about quite a bit. We usually use a 10-12' rod with a length of line out a little longer than the rod. Drop a jig down by each tree, if no bite in a few seconds, slowly work it up to the surface and try another tree. This technique usually works best for us during the summer months, but that may because that's when we fish it the most. A lot of times the fish are 9-12' deep but they may over 16-50' of water, just depends on the day. It seems like certain trees seem to hold fish. Many times you can come back to the same tree on different days and catch fish. Best thing I can tell you is fish until you catch them and then keep trying similar areas. Hope this helps.
    Greenfish

  6. #6
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    Exclamation Hey Gooch ....

    check out my article on "Vertical Casting" ... flavor it with your choice of ways to tie a jig on (loop knot, fly clip, Zig's knot placement tip, whatever) and try it along with your "dipping" method - or hybridize the two, if you wish. My personal experience with "jigging" methods, is that most hits come when the jig is coming "up" - rather than when going "down"....at least, when using a "vertical" approach, that is. When using a cast/retrieve method - the jig is usually going deeper or maintaining a set depth, as it comes back to you....and only comes "up", in the water column, as it gets to within the last few feet of your position. The hit can come most anywhere along the route, from spashdown to when you see the jig coming up in front of you.
    Vertical Casting works very well on - standing tree hulks (trunks), dock support poles, bridge pilons, deep brush piles, submerged trees, cliff walls, and blowdowns....especially when casting to them is not an option, or after the bite slows (when casting). And the nice thing about it is, most any style reel .. rod .. or pound test line will work.
    Vertical Casting article - http://www.crappie.com/articles/crappiepappy.htm

    Give them a try, and post your results .......... luck2ya .....cp

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    Greenfish

    That is very similar to what I call flipping the standing timber for crappie with the 10 - 12 ft poles.
    For me this is some of my post spawn crappie fishing technique untill early July. I swing the bait out past the tree to the length of line and just let the bait pendulum back down through the water to the tree. Just watch for the 'line tick' as the bait descends or any variation from a normal non pickup descent as the bait falls. This way I work various levels of the water column for the active crappie. Make several casts or flips to a tree from different angles and move on to the next tree in the tree line.
    After catching a few you begin to see a pattern the crappie seem to prefer as to tree size, location from channel, horizontal branches, water depth and etc. Also be ready for a big ol green carp or even a flathead to grab your bait.
    It amazing how much leverage one has in playing a 6# bass or 10# cat with the long rods if you can keep them in the open water.

    I've had a friend tell me that he will work standing timber in the backs of coves for crappie in water no deeper than 5 or 6 ft and shallower using a long pole. This is in July and August. He does this early morning until 10 - 11 and catches crappie. If he catches a fish from a stick up he just moves on to another saying he doesn't catch more than one or two at a tree. A pattern where there won't be anyone else around and other folks will think you are bass fishing. I plan on checking this out this summer and finding out if this fellow is right on or full of crap...ie.

    I also use my long crappie pole with 50# braid and a circle hook with some cut bait to flip for channel cats around fish feeders in the summer. I've landed 15# channel with this method. This is a absolute hoot to get these fish turned and away from the feeder's anchor chain and into open water to play. The only time I have ever broken one of these long poles catfishing is when a 6#er slipped out of my hand and fell onto the long pole laying in the boat.
    “There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.” Ayn Rand

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    Quote Originally Posted by LBM
    Greenfish

    That is very similar to what I call flipping the standing timber for crappie with the 10 - 12 ft poles.
    For me this is some of my post spawn crappie fishing technique untill early July. I swing the bait out past the tree to the length of line and just let the bait pendulum back down through the water to the tree. Just watch for the 'line tick' as the bait descends or any variation from a normal non pickup descent as the bait falls. This way I work various levels of the water column for the active crappie. Make several casts or flips to a tree from different angles and move on to the next tree in the tree line.
    After catching a few you begin to see a pattern the crappie seem to prefer as to tree size, location from channel, horizontal branches, water depth and etc. Also be ready for a big ol green carp or even a flathead to grab your bait.
    It amazing how much leverage one has in playing a 6# bass or 10# cat with the long rods if you can keep them in the open water.

    I've had a friend tell me that he will work standing timber in the backs of coves for crappie in water no deeper than 5 or 6 ft and shallower using a long pole. This is in July and August. He does this early morning until 10 - 11 and catches crappie. If he catches a fish from a stick up he just moves on to another saying he doesn't catch more than one or two at a tree. A pattern where there won't be anyone else around and other folks will think you are bass fishing. I plan on checking this out this summer and finding out if this fellow is right on or full of crap...ie.

    I also use my long crappie pole with 50# braid and a circle hook with some cut bait to flip for channel cats around fish feeders in the summer. I've landed 15# channel with this method. This is a absolute hoot to get these fish turned and away from the feeder's anchor chain and into open water to play. The only time I have ever broken one of these long poles catfishing is when a 6#er slipped out of my hand and fell onto the long pole laying in the boat.
    LBM,
    I may have to try some of the shallow brush like you're talking about this year. The problem I have with flipping the jigs is all of the horizantal limbs. They aren't on every tree in the lake I fish but there's enough of them to keep ya busy getting jigs loose.

    I know what you're saying about bringing in those bigger fish on the long rods. We've caught several 5# plus flatheads and numerous green carp and some nice hybrids while crappie fishing...it's always a blast.
    Greenfish

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    I would have to say that it will depend on the time of year, water temp and other conditions. At any rate, crappie do like to hide around wood and it this standing timber that will hold crappie. They will move up and down that standing timber depending in the conditions. Search and find a pattern. If you find active crappie on standing timber in 25' of water holding at 15', for example, then I fish that pattern. If the fish stop biting then begin the search for a new pattern. It may change 2-3-4 times a day sometimes. Another key point to tightlining around standing timber is your presentation. They might want it fast moving on a fall or dead still in their face for over a minute before they will bite. Try everything until you lock down a pattern and then go for it. Just put it all together like a jigsaw puzzle and catch'em when nobody else can.
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    Why do the powers that be allow ya'll to have all that great standing timber? In TN we only get stumps or rocks.
    Ya ain't holdin' your mouth right.

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