Thread: Genralized Crappie questions

Just a few questions about different crappie gear.
1. What is a bobber stop and how does it work?
2. What size minnow is preferred for most crappie fishing. I normally buy medium but maybe thats why I dont catch many crappie hehe:D.
3. Ive read people talk about "balls of shad" do you normally look for these on the fish locator and fish the area when you find them?
4. Any general guidlines for jig color selection for muddy/stained/clear water?

Sorry to drop all these questions at once, I'm taking my mind off my studies to learn more about crappie fishing (which is a more important subject in my opinion)

Thanks for the help.

Welcome Alwayslearning.

1. Lets say you want to use a bobber and fish at 10 feet deep. You would tie a bobber stop on you line at 10 feet then put on a bead, next would be slip bobber then a weight then your hook. This allows you to fish deep and still use a bobber.

2. I rarely use minnows but when I do, this time of year I like the big minnows and during the summer I like the small minnows because the shad are small in the summer.

3.Yes!

4. IMO you can't go wrong with blk/char, blk/pink, electric chicken, pumpkin/char, pearl/char., or cajun cricket. If I had to choose just one color it would be blk/char. It is mainly what you develop confidence in.

Odie

Thanks for the advice.
When you fish with a jig do you simply drop it straight down close to where you might think the crappie are or is it better to cast it far away and reel it in from a distance.

Hey AL,

You can find bobber stops at Wal-Mart and Bass Pro. Also, I've noticed many Mom and Pop bait stores carry them more and more.

I prefer large minnows. There was a time when minnows were classified as either "crappie minnows" or "bass minnows". (maybe in some places they still are) I always ask for the large minnows. A crappie's mouth is pretty big and they can fit just about any size minnow they want in there.

This time of year (spawn stage) you're going to find a lot of Crappie very shallow, like 3 foot or less. So you wouldn't be looking for shad balls. If you're looking for crappie in deep water, then yes, I'd take Odie's advice and look for shad balls.

In muddy/murky/stained water, black/chart seems to work best. But on Eufaula for some reason, I always have better luck with a green/chart headed jig with a black/pink body.

When I'm in clear or slightly stained water, white/pink/yellow/green are good colors for me.

When I'm fishing for crappie during the spawn, I like to use a jig and float. I set the depth to about a foot, sometimes less and work the jig around brush or rocks. I may go deeper, it all depends on where I'm fishing.

You picked the right time to get interested in Crappie fishing. The spawn is about to bust wide open and they'll be jumping out of the water onto the bank. All you have to do is walk along and pick 'em up

keep a yellow charteruse in your color comdo and you cant go wrong...

"You picked the right time to get interested in Crappie fishing. The spawn is about to bust wide open and they'll be jumping out of the water onto the bank. All you have to do is walk along and pick 'em up"

Hahahahaha........now that's funny!:D

Thanks for the great advice! I see the winds really supposed to pick up friday so I might adjust my plans and try to go out thursday. I think I might head up to Ooologah. Perhaps I can bring some crappie for dinner and maybe some for the freezer. (Crosses fingers)

Good luck on your fishing expedition and hope some of the replies here come in handy for you.

A bobber stop is just something that you place on your line and is used with a slip float.

The slip float has a hole in it, and your line is threaded through this hole, from top to bottom. Your terminal tackle is placed below the bobber.

The stopper is used to control fishing depth. You can fish from just inches below the float to several tens of feet below. To fish 10 below the surface or under your bobber, you'd put the bobber stop ten feet above your terminal tackle (jig, hook, leader... whatever you're using). There are several types and here is a pic of the most popular in my area.



The bead is used for bobbers with large holes that would allow the string ot pass through. To use this type, you thread your line from left to right, through the black tube. Grab the tube with your right hand, and push the string off to the left, onto your line. The tube has a slit in it that you can't see in this picture, this allows you to remove it, without having to pull all the line out of it.

Once you have it on your line, you pull the two tag ends, and it will tighten up and "grab" your line. The harder you pull, the tighter it will grab. This keeps it in place. Now, one important thing to remember when using this, is to always wet your line before adjusting it. This reduces friction. If you've tightened it up it should be stiff to move, but hard to move. Wetting will allow it to move with some pressure, but not 'burn' your mono and cause weak spots.

The bead goes on next, if needed (not required for some bobbers) and then the bobber itself. Just thread your line through it. Its easier to thread dry line through a bobber than it is to thread wet line through. The bobber below would need the bead. It has a big hole through it.



Now just tie your terminal tackle on and set your depth and you're ready to go.

The beauty of this type of set up is that you can reel the stopper through the eyes of your rod and even up onto the reel and when you cast, it will pass back through them all and allow you to make nice casts. You can't do that easily with a clip on type of bobber.

Hope that helps... I'll let the others answer your other questions.

OK, one more question, LOL.

Shad balls... Shad are a schooling fish... safety in numbers. Schooling fish when not under feeding pressure will spread out a bit and show up on the fish finder as a return, but indistinct in its shape.

However, when they are being preyed upon, shad will "ball up"..., literally, they will form a sphere shape and get in as close as they can. The folks on the outside get eaten, while the folks in the middle are 'supposedly' safe.

Take a look at this post by ShilohRed. Now, he has a really fancy fish finder, but the lower pic in color will show you what you'll see on a regular fish finder.

Notice that the bait fish in this screen shot are all balled up. This means that predator fish are attacking them and they are balled up in defense.

The blue scale picture is a side imaging shot of the same ball of fish. Notice that you can really see the detail of the ball and you can even see the predator fish.

If you see this on your fish finder or something like it, stop and fish the area. Trouble is when trying to fish this type of bait ball is that it moves. Current drift and swimming fish cause it to move so you have to move with it. If the ball is close to the surface, you'll see shad 'popping' the top water .... literally jumping out of the water to get away.

Now, go back and look at the bait ball picture again... look at the bottom of the screen shot... those are more fish.... they are not showing up on the color shot, but they do show up in the side image shot. Now, they might be bait, they might be crappie, they might be bass... who knows? I dunno, but those are the ones I would target. They are less apt to move around on me.

Oh, and the best fishing advice I can give ya when chasing crappie is, be impatient. Try an area for 15 minutes max and if nothing, then move on or try something else.

Crappie are social fish and if you are not getting a bit, then you haven't found the party. Keep looking or offer them something different.

GL and I hope you catch a mess of fish!