Crappie on stumps

[crappieintern]

I am sure there will be lots of different answers here but, how many crappies do you catch on each stump you fish? I have been fishing in about 3 ft of water and the stumps I do catch them on, I only seem to be able to catch one fish and have to move on. Am I not spending enough time on each stump? I fish jigs and have also tried to cast bobbers w/ jigs to keep the boat away from the fish. Doesn't seem to make a difference. Thanks!

[lowe175]

Hard to say buddy I've caught lots on big stumps also have had the same results as you. In my experience the bigger the root ball the more fish it will hold. I wish I could give you a better answer but that's just the way it is sometimes. You might try minnows to make sure.

[doggone]

Sometimes that's how it is,the fish are each picking out a choice spot but they ain't sharing it much.So you have to just hit as many of them as you can.Fish here,fish there. Try not to spook em and have a couple rods rigged with something different.Catch one, put it in there again,no bite,pickup different rig and try that.After you tried a couple things daylights burning move to the next.Fish aren't always schooled.Sometimes they don't want to get along and play nice so they all stake out a choice place to ambush food and tell the others to back off this is my turf.

[Cmj]

This is usually my approach no matter what type of structure I am fishing, as I am after the active fish. I have a local lake that is very similar to what the op describes. 3-5 fow, loaded with stumps, and a small creek channel meandering through it. The fish usually hang out on stumps near the channel at about 2-3ft. As previously stated, there wont be a fish on every stump. In fact, there will be long stretches of the channel that don't hold any fish at all. So, spending several minutes on one stump just doesn't make sense. Once I find an area that is holding active fish, I slow down and fish the area more thoroughly, but I still only give each stump a few seconds. If I catch a fish, I drop back down to see if there is another. Sometimes I will catch four or five on one stump, and sometimes only one. Each day is different and being observant will help you put a pattern together. This is what will maximize your catch at the end of the day...







Some folks will locate an area that is holding fish and sit there till the cows come home. This works okay on my particular lake because the fish are constantly moving in and out of the channel. If you find a spot that they are using, chances are you will pick one up here and there if you wait it out. I prefer my method because I don't have the patience to sit in one spot all day, and I feel like I am increasing my odds by covering more water and searching for active fish. Try both ways and see which one works best for you. After a while you will begin to put together a method that suits you. Good luck!

[skeetbum]

Staying back from a piece of structure and not spooking the fish sometimes helps up the catch too. If they're in about the same depth you could also peg a small float on and keep it in their face a bit longer. The run n gun approach is the plan of the day sometimes, and tons of fun when it's going on.

[trypman1]

Float and jig, jiggle and stop, jiggle and stop.

[wicklundrh]

I had a day last year where I would catch one fish vertical jigging a stump however, if I backed away about 10 feet and underhand pitched the jig and let it pendulum swing the fish would nail it. Who knows if they were hitting it because they were mad at it or if they were chasing it away, but they simply wanted it moving. Sure wish I had a camera to look underwater and see what they are doing. Might be a classic case of "the fish are not biting because they are not there"!

[snake River]

if we are going to fish trees or stumps tried to pick them with the lot of structure such as a dead tree or branches or something to hold the fish better. normally the fish would like something that they can get under to ambush whatever they are feeding on I have fished a lot in rock piles and sometimes the patient would be holding especially if these were large boulders that they can get into and hide into structure the same thing applies to trees in the water if I'm searching for a spot to fish I will usually try to find a place years or a lot of tree files's the more the better.

[M R Dux]

I don't fish shallow water like you describe much any more but when I did, I would not expect more than 1-2 fish off any stump that shallow. Crappie in water that shallow unless the water is seriously stained are spooky as all get-out. My way of dealing with that would be to mark several stumps in the close vicinity and catch my 1 or 2 then move to the next then the next then eventually back to where I started. After leaving a stump the fish that might have been spooked initially will move back into the prime area like described in doggone's post.

If you are fishing a lake that gets a lot of pressure, you are risking giving up a decent spot by moving to the next stump but IMO it is worth it most days.

[crappieintern]

Went out tonight, still seeing lots of bait on shallow stumps and structure. Managed 4 fish. Thanks for the tips and I'll update once I try different colors and sizes of jigs.