Questions for the experienced

[CatchumDeep]

I’m a relative newbie to crappie fishing (been trying to figure it out for the past five years or so). I’m trying to understand better how to fish for pre-spawn crappie. I like to fish at North Mississippi Reservoirs and have numerous tops located on my GPS unit. I fish those submerged tops from pre-spawn in early spring throughout the summer and fall, until the lakes are drawn down to winter pool depths.

My question pertains to fishing those tops for pre-spawn crappie (while the Corp of Engineers is allowing the lakes to fill back toward summer pool). The tops I target during the pre-spawn are around 8-12 feet deep and water is murky/muddy as rainfall fills the lakes. My questions:

1. If I move close enough to see a top on my bow mounted fishfinder, place a marker buoy and then back away to tightline fish the top, am I probably spooking crappie in tops at those depths? If so, how long should it take for all the fish to return to the top?
2. Is it better to stay back away from those tops and cast a jig under float to where I think the top is located?

I prefer to tightline with a jig pole (addicted to the thump when they hit the jig) but am afraid I may be spooking some of the crappie while in process of locating their top. On occasions when I have anchored away from tops and located them by casting, I seem to catch more fish from a single top. Problem is that I haven’t done this enough to answer my question.

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks…Dan

[willsjwills]

we fish tops around here in 8 to 12 ft of water with good results. the only time we're concerned about spooking the fish is if we get hung up and have to retrieve our jig.if we do get hung up and spook the fish we back off, give them a "cooling off period", fish another top and come back an hour or two later. They eventually move back into the tops that have been disturbed. We use both casting and tightlining methods, mostly tightlining. Like you, I love to feel that hit on a tight line. lol

[bugman]

With 8-12ft of dirty or muddy water i doubt that you are spooking the fish very bad,i have had my trolling motor bump shallow stakebeds in stained water and continue to catch fish but if the water is clear i'll back off and cast to em using the slip bobber technique you mentioned.

[Spoonminnow]

In my local waters, once crappie school in anticipation of the spawn (any species' spawn), I can't fight them off with a stick. They bite a huge variety of lures and the choice of lure is only limited to the depth it can reach.

In 2005, the ice was thick until April 1 and the crappie were stacked in a cove. We drilled a dozen holes in a big circle, hitting each with hair jigs, Fin S Fish on 1/32 oz jigheads and 2" chartreuse tubes on 1/16 oz jigheads. We, averaged 5 crappie per hole and saw the hits just below the hole. The depth was 7', but the jig only needed to be between 2' below the hole and above the weed tops.

The ice melted and the white perch prespawn started one week later. All species of panfish were stacked in the shallows (4') and all species hit the same baits plus 50 more designs of soft plastics. I'm talking 4 fish a minute!
One particular lie down in 8' held the largest crappie - average size 11'' and all we did was pitch flash jigs (flashabou) vertically betweed the largest branches and hit 3-4 fish/ minute. My partner is a bass anlger and couldn't get the jig action right or feel for the nothingness once the crappie hit his 1/32 jig, but soon got the idea and we were one for one.

In my experience, bobbers work well with a variety of soft plastics, hair jigs and small tubes, where wave action imparts a finesse action, but the lure must have a finesse action to begin with. Similar in a verical approach is a drop shot rig which works great for nose hooked soft plastics or hair jigs. The weight depends on the wind to control the line bow, but usually I've found 1/8 oz. is enough.

Crappies and perch are my favorite panfish species and sometimes you hit the school just right and in many locations. IMO, It's just a matter of finding the school and making them hit. Once you start the frenzy going, the numbers are amazing.

[DRPEPPER]

I am fairly new to targeting brush piles to tight line too. But, the pros I have fished with (Jerry and Darryl) seemed to use the GPS to locate the area a pile was in then mark it by throwing a bouy just up wind of it after pin pointing it with their depth finders. I think that is key rather than placing the bouy directly into the brush pile. They both constantly run Godzilla trolling motors that didn't seem to spook fish in 15' of fairly clear water.
Did I tell em right fellows?
DP

[CatchumDeep]

Thanks for the replies. I really appreciate how members help each other on this board.

Dan

[Jerry Blake]

I am fairly new to targeting brush piles to tight line too. But, the pros I have fished with (Jerry and Darryl) seemed to use the GPS to locate the area a pile was in then mark it by throwing a bouy just up wind of it after pin pointing it with their depth finders. I think that is key rather than placing the bouy directly into the brush pile. They both constantly run Godzilla trolling motors that didn't seem to spook fish in 15' of fairly clear water.
Did I tell em right fellows?
DP

You got it right, Don!