Fishing Bridges

[Bronson]

I've heard of people fishing bridges for crappie and was wondering what time of year is best and how deep or close to the channel should you be to find them. Fishing techniques or any advice you can give would be appreciated.

The two bridges I'm thinking most about fishing are on highway 68-80 over Lake Barkley & Kentucky Lakes.

[yellowjacket]

i have done it once in illinois with my uncle in the late summer on the ohio river in galconda ill. and we fishied in about 20ft of water and caught about 10 big ones tht wnet about 1lb a peace. they were caught at 10ft of water on a 1\16th red head and on a black and char tube jig.

[CrappiePappy]

I've heard of people fishing bridges for crappie and was wondering what time of year is best and how deep or close to the channel should you be to find them. Fishing techniques or any advice you can give would be appreciated.

The two bridges I'm thinking most about fishing are on highway 68-80 over Lake Barkley & Kentucky Lakes.

Bronson ... I've only fished for Crappie around bridge pilings, in two places. One is on the KY River, around a logjam against the bridge piling, and that was in the late Spring/early Summer period. There it was only a matter of dropping a bait up current a little ways, and slowly working it as close to the branches as possible. Pretty much a tightline approach.

The other place was on bridge pilings on a lake in Tenn, that happen to be back in a creek. I've caught Crappie from there in the Spring & Fall. Usual techniques used were casting/swimming a jig down the sides/ends of the pilings ... Vertical Casting ( Vertical Casting | Older Articles ) down the sides/ends ... and drifting a minner/float setup around them.

When they are an influence ... shade & being a current break are two reasons bridge pilings are Crappie magnets. If there's some brush that's hung up around the pilings, it's all the more attractive to the fish. They also attract Shad schools, for those same reasons, plus the algae that attaches to the concrete pilings (food source for the Shad).

Any time you have a chance to fish a bridge piling, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. If they aren't there at that time, come back later (or hit it earlier, next time), but do give them a try. I can't tell you how many fish I've caught around bridge pilings, but I can tell you that my partner & I won the Spring Fling tourney of 2001 ... fishing bridge pilings on a rising water level, which pretty much shut down most of the other anglers (who were dock shooting, for the most part). The tourney limit was 10 fish/boat, and we managed 7 good keepers off that bridge ... which was good enough for the win, in spite of (or maybe because of) the conditions.

... luck2ya !!

... cp

[thankfull]

I've found it best to fish bridges between the winter holding areas and the summer areas and fish during the times that they are transitioning from one area to the other.

[Slabs Inc]

I've found it best to fish bridges between the winter holding areas and the summer areas and fish during the times that they are transitioning from one area to the other.

This ^^^^^^^^^^

[birddog one]

x2 thankfull is right on most bridges have riprap also as the winter days warm up the rock will hold heat and the fish will move up in the water I've boated them in 30 fow in the morning then in 10fow in the after noon up close to the riprap

[beagle man]

we fish them year arround, july and august are the best 35 ft of water from the bottom to the top 10 ft ,,, drop jig to bottom and bring up real slow, feel a little tap set the hook, sometimes minnows work real well, especially if the fish are suspended at about 15 ft. pitch and let fall to a pre marked spot on the line, I use black marker and mark my line so when I pitch it and it fall a bit I can easly know when I have reached what I think is the best depth.. in the winter we fish the sunny side or right close to the shade, sometimes the crappei will hang in that grey area between the bright sun and the shade, seems like crappie do not like looking up into the bright sun.... good luck by the way thats on clear water lake, Stockton Lake Mo.

[skeetbum]

This time of year I look for brush or ledges in about 20 fow, give or take. I get above them and drop a 1/8 jig and a bobby garland, or my hand ties on them and dead stick it. An occasional small jump of the rod tip and shake will give it what it takes to trigger them. As the day warms they tend to move some and you just have to experiment to find the ticket. Staying back and casting to them once they're located tends to prolong the bite sometimes, but they're still picky when they want to be. Develop a bag of tricks to dig into and when the bite slows, dig into it and keep after it and you'll be surprised at what you sometimes find. Downsizing helps some too.

[NIMROD]

PM Xring he fishes bridges on Dardanelle in the fall/winter

[genec]

in my lake ,bridges are good now. however each bridge is different ,some too shallow ,some too much current for cold weather ,but like they are saying ,have to check them out,they are easy to find and fish, but do it s-l-o-w- or jig