to catch those slabs

[bama647]

hey guy just a quick amature question. im finally starting to catch some crappie even caught 1 on a jig today after work but anyway is there a method to catching those big ons or is it all random ive been fishing blow downs mostly with minnows some jigs biggest one yet was 11 inches. id take that all day but would love to see some bigger fish thanks

[guest01]

its pretty much luck of the draw, if you keep catching smaller fish in one spot, then you might try another spot. here on lanier schools of them might have all small fish move a few docks down and you can catch a larger fish. in spring my big fish came from deeper water away from the beds and the beds had the smaller fish. but if your catching fish then stay where your at. cant go wrong with catch-n, its better then looking around allday for the one you might not find

[bama647]

i havent caught more than one fish in the same spot yet.is that pretty normal considering im just getting started

[guest01]

yep, crappie dont always school up in large schools, just stick with it and you load your cooler, could do it in 1 spot oryou might have to move around. when you catch one look for others in same locations,depth, color of bait

[crappiekid24]

Yea its normal once you find a pattern you will start catching more. Remember color is very important. Crappie are color sensitive.

[skiptomylu]

hey guy just a quick amature question. im finally starting to catch some crappie even caught 1 on a jig today after work but anyway is there a method to catching those big ons or is it all random ive been fishing blow downs mostly with minnows some jigs biggest one yet was 11 inches. id take that all day but would love to see some bigger fish thanks

I find that I catch bigger crappie on jigs than on minnows. Most times of the year I catch more and bigger crappie on jigs trolling.

[Wiskers]

i havent caught more than one fish in the same spot yet.is that pretty normal considering im just getting started

bama you said in the first post that you were fishing mostly blow downs with minnows. You may be spooking the fish if they're shallow. Try backing off & casting a light slip cork rig to the outer edge of the cover. Pick off the outside fish first & gradually move on into the cover a little at a time. I know there are times that I have spooked the fish, left & came back in an hour or 2 & cast to the same spot & caught the fish.

[DENNIS BOWERS]

bama,if your minnow or jig is getting caught in the blow down, alot of time when you free it you will spook other Crappie that are close by. If I'm catchin them I"ll lay down the snagged rod an use another one.

[Darryl Morris]

The bigger crappie are going to be a bit more leary. There's a reason they've gotten bigger and I don't believe for a minute that it's all luck on the fish's part.

We fish deep, clear water, submerged brushpiles and catch small and large in the same spots. Two things I've noticed: (1) as the crappie go on the move between seasonal changes in water temperature, the little ones always seem to move in first; (2) the little ones are more aggressive with their bite taking a cork to China immediately or knocking the whooy out of a jig whereas the bigger ones show a light bite under a cork or barely picking up the jig, then when you set your hook you think you're hung up.

Yesterday, we had a descent mess of average crappie fishing 8-14 ft. deep. We moved to a different top where we could fish 18-21 ft. deep and more than doubled our creel with better than averaged sized crappie. Obviously, the fish are on the move out of deep water and sooner or later the big ones will move up in the water column too.

Just for fun, I got my AquaView camera out to confirm this pattern. In 25' water with a bamboo brushpile 10-12' tall, bream and small bass were holding over and just at the top 8-10'; smaller crappie and average bass were holding in the condo at 12-15'; and all the larger crappie were deep down in the brush (much more difficult to catch) at 18-21'. Please don't conclude from that, that if you want to catch big crappie you've got to be on the bottom. That's just the "transitional" pattern right now. As the water continues to cool, even the bigger crappie will become more aggressive, move up higher in the water column and get caught as shallow as, say, 8ft. or less.

Bottomline, if you're spot isn't producing what you want, figure out why it's not on that one particular spot and make a change -- depth, color, presentation, etc. Or, go to a spot where you can effect a change to get the results you want. That's putting a pattern together. Follow the pattern, get results. Change with the pattern, keep getting results.

I've even heard some of the older locals here in the cafes and quick stops say there's no crappie in our lakes anymore. They only had one way they fished two decades ago and when they stopped catching them that way, they didn't adapt and quit crappie fishing. I learn something new on the water every day and I just keep putting those nuggets in my portfolio and I hope I never stop learning.

[mighty]

Now I am know expert but in my two crappie experience my bigger ones at least the majority came from deeper water in the same area that i caught the smaller ones. However my biggest crappie was in about 6ft of water.