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Thread: Ballooning Crappie School

  1. #1
    bobberdown is offline Slabmaster II * Crappie.com Supporter * Member Sponsor
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    Question Ballooning Crappie School


    I have been Crappie and Bass fishing for well over 30 years and thought I had most of the tricks of the trade learned. Well I was at a Bass Pro Shop for a meeting with some of the local Crappie enthusiast, and an older guy started talking about ballooning a school of crappie.

    This is what he said. When the crappie is hard to locate and you catch one or two then they stop biting and seem to move. The first crappie you catch you take a strand of line about 4' longer than the dept you caught the first crappie. take a swivel and attach the line to the crappies upper lip, then Tye a small balloon to the line, and release the fish. Now HE said the fish will swim back to the school of crappie and suppend just in the lower section of the school. When the school moves all you have to do is follow the balloon and you will be on the school all day.

    I have some serious doubts about this actuality working because of the stress it places on the fish along with several other factors. Has anyone here ever tried this? d And did it work?

  2. #2
    chaunc's Avatar
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    That's illegall up here in Pa. I've seen a bobber attached to line with a fish still hooked to it swimming around but i'd pick it up and depending on size, keep or release it. Someone's line had broken and the fish got away from them.

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    I have heard of this, too. Don't have a clue whether it works. I have also heard about some trick of putting a string on a clear container with water and minnows with aeration holes poked in it and dropping it down to the level where one has found a school of crappie that won't bite. Supposedly it makes the crappie mad or frustrated after a while, and they will start tearing up the minnows on your hooks. Don't have a clue whether that works either.

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    I have tried the speck on a bobber trick and if the stress has not killed them the pike or other predator fish often get them. One thing I have seen work on occassion is big specks approach and hang out right next to my basket of other specks hanging over the side of the boat. I have only seen this happen when there are only one or two live ones in the basket and it is during the spawn, but the ones that approach are usually nice slabs.
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    Talking

    I tried this technique just for laffs on my favorite crappie lake in southern MS years ago, and can attest to the fact that it most certainly DOES work! However, here's some tips to ensure it is worthwhile to do so: 1) make sure the line is at least as long as the lake is deep, or the fish will pull the marker under; 2) use a styrofoam cup or other ordinary trash-looking marker, or other fishermen will be alerted to your bobber, etc. I tied 4-lb test line to the crappie's upper lip and let it go....next morning, I cruised the lake looking for that styrofoam cup...found it in 20-ft deep water near the dam...cruised by it and marked a huge school of crappie...followed that cup around all day and caught the limit easily...my wife calls it cheating, but....it's a sure way to get "enuff to make the grease stink" (lol)....

    Bushrod :-P

    p.s. make sure it's legal in your state first!!

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    I have tried it with crappie and white bass and it worked. The only problem with the crappie was it went right back to the brushpile it came from and got hung up. If you dont have much structure or the crappie are hanging in channels or drops you should be ok but if they are in the wood forget about it. When we did it with a white bass it really worked well as they were in the open water. In fact it looked like the fish was breaking with the other whites when they started schooling.

  7. #7
    bobberdown is offline Slabmaster II * Crappie.com Supporter * Member Sponsor
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    Well! Well! Like on Myth Busters this could be plausible. I don't think I will be using it in the near future, but I have a private lake I fish for My Crisp Golden fillets I might try it there. Not something I would like to get started at the lake.

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    I have heard of this and we made up something like it and tried it while Speckled trout fishing. We wade in the surf on Grand Isle and had almost no luck doing it. I think the recently caught fish are a little mixed up because most swam to the shore. Others went out. Don

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    Since on Toledo Bend starting with Dec. 1st. through Feb. you can't throw back any crappie it would be a problem for the game wardens I am sure.

    Besides if you troll for them and move back and forth over and past them that don't stop biting. At least that is my experience and why I troll in the spring most all the time. Also troll in the fall before they go deep. In the spring and fall I would say trolling is my method probably over 95% of the time. In the spring I can get a fairly short line (maybe 50 yards long +-)to go back and forth over and over until I am done and have enough fish.

    Didn't mean to go so much into trolling, but it seemed to fit since they don't move on you with that method.

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    yep, it works, but one way to make it better is to have your balloon,
    line and safety pin ready, and all tied togetheras soon as i have the fish in the boat i pin the
    pin on the fishes dorsal fin and get it back in the water, the less stress
    you have on the fish, the more success you will have. works best in
    areas with no brush around, whitebass and crappie are a lot easier to find
    dragging a small balloon

    regards
    john b.

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