Help!! New to Crappie fishing, but not to fishing.

[ftpolkkingfisher]

Glad to have a forum to share secrets and tips...and of course spots. I am new to the crappie fishing thing, but have tried it 3 times. I did it at night with minnows on Vernon Lake, and caught one. My buddies that I brought on my boat, caught some; like 3 nice size. I don't know if we got the technique down. I really wanna get into them with those jigs. I am down here at Fort Polk and wanna try Toledo Bend..prefer the South end. I have fishing there several times but never crappie, only Hybrid Striper and bass. I have a boat and the hook and line map...plus a gps. I need to know what tackle (bait or whatever to get them into the boat) and location. Oh and how to catch'm. I am willing to take somebody along with me on the water. in exchange for a CRAPPIE 101 class.

Dino

[roybuoy]

welcome from Georgia,post on the Texas board someone will help you

[DENNIS BOWERS]

Welcome From Tn.!! With Jigs the most common used is 1/16 oz.,with mini tube baits[squirmin squirt from Bass Pro,ect.]. You can either vertical jig[best over brush piles,condos,ect] or Cast and Retreive. I use this method 85 % of the time. I use a fairly slow retreive year round as Crappie Wont expend alot of energy to eat most of the time like Bass will.Also you always want to try to keep your bait above or at fish level as they will go up to feed but i personaly dont beleive they'll go down. Hope to have helped you some- Cant tell you anything about your location. GOOD LUCK TO YA!!!

[Darryl Morris]

Welcome from Arkansas. There are a few informative articles on my website. But, I am going to improve it, maybe today, by adding some stuff about different presentations and tackle setups. I'll make a post on the main board when it's ready.

[GRIZZ]

Hey Darryl

I finally went and look at your site. Very nice!! I see you have many 16 inchers there. What do those 16's weight on average, and do you catch hogs once in a while over 3? I see you also have walleyes. How large do they get on your lakes?

I used to catch 3's once in a while on chautauqua, but its been years since I had a 3 on and I'm seriously itchin for one.

[Darryl Morris]

Hey Darryl

I finally went and look at your site. Very nice!! I see you have many 16 inchers there. What do those 16's weight on average, and do you catch hogs once in a while over 3? I see you also have walleyes. How large do they get on your lakes?

I used to catch 3's once in a while on chautauqua, but its been years since I had a 3 on and I'm seriously itchin for one.

16's are in the 2lbs range, haven't caught a 3 yet.

[GRIZZ]

Hmm with your extensive experience in those lakes I'd think we would have to say that there may not be 3's there. Have you seen or heard of others catching them?

If any of you keep track of CrappieUSA tournies youll know that there were some monsters caught last year. In particular this one - http://www.sctraveler.afreepress.com...0516&cp=346763 - and that new record catch of 25.83 pounds for 10 fish that was caught on Grenada Lake. That's astounding to catch so many in that size range in one day. I'm hoping that potential is available on Watts Bar.

[CrappiePappy]

I'm hoping that potential is available on Watts Bar.

I wouldn't get my hopes up too high, Grizz. I've fished WB for many years, and mainly for Crappie over the last 10yrs or so. Best I've done is a little over 2lbs:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...EdenMarina.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...attsBartoo.jpg


The majority of fish weighed in at our tournaments, over the last 5yrs, were averaging a little over 1lb. Big Fish weights were just over 2lbs.
I've never heard of, nor seen pics of any 3lb Crappie ... not that they aren't present, nor that I'm an expert on WB or anything - just that I have no knowledge of such. Don@Eden or Killer might know more about WB's "potential" ... they live on the lake. .......... luck2ya .......cp

[GRIZZ]

Its one of the things I need to appreciate about this lake I live on. It grows big fish. Muskies, walleyes, smallies and crappie are all bigger than the norm for a lake this size in this neck of the woods.

Pappy, the fact that you can travel there, fish a little and get 2lb'rs is a good sign. Those years when I was getting a few 3's a year at chautauqua(and I mean 1-3) were years I was landing 3000 - 5000 fish/yr. I believe with a lake like Watts that with the numbers will come some monsters. Between my duties as fishing director and my own fishing time I'll be putting some serious line time in this summer. I'll bet most of the major reservoirs in the south that have healthy populations of crappie are carrying record size fish. I'm talking 4-5+ lb'rs, and a lot more 3's than we expect. One of the things I learned to do on chautauqua is to target the bigger ones with larger lures and finesse techniques with very light line. Grubs as large as 4 inches arn't too large for 2-4 lb crappies. You ever seen a mouth on a 3? You also need to target the big ones in slightly different areas than you do the schools of average sized ones. Typically slightly on the deeper side of a school. The big ones are more loners than youngers ones. Its funny on this lake once in a while I hear of guys catching crappie while trolling for muskies with lures as big as 8 inches. In the fall when I'm walleye fishing I catch crappies on my 5 inch thundersticks, its when that happens that I switch to a little floating crankbait or a 2 or 3 inch berkley power grub and start catching some nice crappies. One more difference I've noticed between northern lakes and southern reservours is that the potential for 100+ fish days is less though the average size of the smaller numbered fish are larger. Seems the fish are more scattered and they are harder to target in the deeper water. I've observed that someone catching 20-40 fish consider that a nice day. I hope to disprove that when I learn Watts better.

By the way pappy arn't those big white crappies some of the prettiest fish there are - nice pics.

[CrappiePappy]

according to all the WB "lake ads" ... White Crappie dominate there. Now, you can't prove that by me, or by the Spring & Fall tournaments that we've had over the last 5yrs ... LOL!! Most of the weigh-in creels were Black Crappie ... in all events. I have caught some slab White Crappie from there (as evidenced by the pics) ... but they were mostly caught in early May.
I've caught most of my White Crappie from there, on minnows ... most of the Black Crappie on jigs. That may have been a "timing" thing, or a "places fished" thing.

One other thing I like about WB, is they have Blacknose Black Crappie. Now, all the "so called experts" say that Blacknose don't fight any harder or act any different than a "normal" Black Crappie. To which I say, and I quote Colonel Potter from *MASH*..... "Mule fritters !!" They're the only Crappie I've had on, that have gone "airborne" on me ... one even jumping/clearing the entire front end of a TX17 Tracker :D You get one of those dudes, in the 2lb range, on .... and you better hope your line overtests ...LOL!!

I don't think there's much trolling done on WB, for Crappie ... at least not in my limited knowledge of how they're usually caught. Shooting docks, casting flats & shoreline brush, or drifting minnows seems to be the "way" it's done. There's not a lot of natural cover left .. so those who know which docks to target, and where the "planted" cover is, are the ones that catch 'em with the most frequency. You may hit a gold mine with trolling & big bait techniques ... just be advised - there's a lot of huge Cats, Stripers, and Smallmouth that like the same baits

The size limit at WB is 10" ... and the daily creel is 30/angler. And they're ALL "pretty" to me ........... luck2ya ...... cp