super shallow crappie

[bream]

So i accidently stumbled across some crappie in some shallow water. Like 1ft and under. I was chasing mullet in a cut off the bayou and picked a few little ones up. It was afternoon so im assuming they're moving up once the sun heats the water up. I have no experience fishing this shallow. My plan is to drop down to a small cork about the size of an acorn to keep from spooking them if I can. Anything else i should consider? Water is super murkyso any particular colors. I got the usual blue/white red/white pink/white. Thanks in advance.

[CrappiePappy]

I'll tell ya what I'd do :

I'd be throwing a 1/32 or 1/16oz marabou Roadrunner ... and not "at" the bank, but "along" the bank (+/-parallel) ... and after I caught several, I'd check to see if they were all males ... then I'd find the nearest dropoff/ledge and start throwing there, to see if the females were staging close by.

In water that shallow, murky or not, I don't think color would be a big factor. Anything pushing water is likely to be noticed.

If by "little ones", you were referring to the size of the Crappie ... it may be that the larger fish have already come & gone, as they sometimes tend to spawn according to size, with the larger fish coming in first, followed by the smaller/younger ones. But, there still could be some larger females staging, or even post spawn resting, out from those shallows. Even the females of the smaller/younger crowd would likely be bigger than the shallow males.

... cp

[bowhunter012463]

[bream]

The majority of the ones i caught ranged from 2" up to 3 1/2". Have you noticed any difference from beetlespins to roadrunners? I dont have any road runners but have a ton of beetlespins.

[CrappiePappy]

The majority of the ones i caught ranged from 2" up to 3 1/2". Have you noticed any difference from beetlespins to roadrunners? I dont have any road runners but have a ton of beetlespins.

The only differences I've noticed between RR's & BS's is the tendency of a BS to ride higher in the water column (given the same weight & retrieve speed used), the BS being more prone to entanglement (upon casting), and the RR being easier to cast a greater distance (due to it being a more jig-like shape vs the spinnerbait shape of a BS). That's just my observations, and they are somewhat limited, as I have only sparingly used a BS, myself.

If those Crappie were less than 4 inches long ... I wouldn't be too concerned about catching them, myself. But, I still hold by what I said about checking out the closest drop ... especially if it has some cover on it. I don't know about your area, so I'd only be guessing why those little guys are there ... but, I suspect it would likely be "feeding" or for "protection" from a larger predatory fish (possibly even other Crappie).

Just out of curiosity ... were these Crappie caught by rod/reel or net ?? And since you were "chasing Mullet", for what reason would you care to waste your time on such small Crappie ??

... cp

[bream]

They were caught in a net. I was chasing mullet for bait. I don't want to waste my time on the little ones. I'm assuming since there are little ones there are larger ones. There is no real drop offs that close. The mouth of the cut is about 1-2ft deep and goes to 3-4ft across the.bayou a good ways. It does get deeper but no sharp drops. There is plenty of structure inside the cut not so much on the outside of it.