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Thread: Adapted to conditions and caught a bunch! Too bad mostly runts.

  1. #1
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    Default Adapted to conditions and caught a bunch! Too bad mostly runts.


    Water level is up this year as compared to the severe drought in the last two years. Because of that, the annual weeds are dying faster leaving large areas without weeds to fish.

    The lake is boomerang shaped with three major areas: west end (deeper), middle section (7-8') and the north end (5' or less). Fish can be schooled anywhere and caught using light jigs and small soft plastics. But yesterday proved to be a 7' bite using many lure designs - one particular one under a 4 inch float.

    Usually I like using a float and jig when there is a slight chop, but toward evening (6 pm), the water was glassy/ 78 degrees). 1/16 oz jighead with a thin tail grub was perfect to get fish to bite using a slow variable speed retrieve.

    * Most important was using 1/16 oz ball head jig in water over 6' and 1/32 oz in water over 6'. The longer casts with the heavier head allowed more line out but line drag in deeper water created line bow-slack. But in shallow water, the heavier lure moved to fast to be able to stay at the same depth on a horizontal retrieve. In both cases, the slower the better!

    The bite on a hand poured 2.5" thin stick-like worm also got slammed. One thing surprised me - the fish were thin - even the 11" crappie. Runts were plentiful - over 50 caught. The larger the fish, the easier to detect the strike and set the hook, especially for sunfish and yellow perch.

    Berkley Ribbon Tail grubs, my own thin straight tail grubs and 1 3/4" cone tail grubs worked great! Might fish the same lake today and try more options.

    BTW, with no trolling motor and heavy battery to haul around, I did well rowing my small 10' v bottom row boat. My fastest speed was around a #4 Minn Kota speed even over heavy weed sections which prevented trolling motor use. Besides, I needed the exercise!
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    So how many in total did you catch? Sounds like you are dialed into them just perfectly.
    "A voyage in search of knowledge need never abandon the spirit of adventure."

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    Eagle 1's Avatar
    Eagle 1 is offline Crappie.com Legend and Mississippi Moderator * Crappie.com Supporter
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    Finding them and getting a pattern is the real fun and almost as fun as catching them . Good job .

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    shipahoy41 is offline Crappie.com Legend - 2022 Crappie.com Man of the Year * Crappie.com Supporter
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    Glad you dialed them in and had some fun.
    Aquatic Species Removal Engineer.
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    Not too ago I was strictly a bank beater hoping fish would be nearby. The problem was the thick weeds that cover most banks and humps - much worse when the water level is down 2' or more. Even in early spring or late fall when the weeds disappeared, the bite was in the middle of this lake. Plus I only used to cast either curl tail grubs or Sassy Shads which need a certain speed to get the action tail working. The thin tail grub (below) always excels when the bite is tough but still turns fish aggressive when worked near their eyeballs long enough. The chartreuse color in the algae green water may have helped but not necessarily.




    Ribbon Tail attached to a Slider Grub body

    Each of these caught around ten fish, so the use of light or dark colors wasn't much of a factor overall:


    It's possible that the darker lures contrasted with the sky whereas the bright lures contrasted to the green water to the side of fish that bit. Also, the stick type soft worm in the picture is actually a light green pumpkin with black flakes - internal contrast that fish can see when looking up.

    When I got to the lake, bait fish were being attacked on the surface everywhere, but the best bite depth was half way to the bottom in 7' or in the upper third in shallow water. Strike strength varied from a slight slack in the line to a pop in the line or the float taken under waiting for my sweeping, sideways rod hook set.

    Apart from the crappy caught, I got over 15 yellow perch, sunfish and small bass combined - all on the lures pictured and a few not shown.

    Ya can't catch giants all the time and I'll take any bite I can find!
    Thanks all for the kudos. Great bunch of guys on crappie.com !!
    Last edited by Spoonminnow; 06-16-2016 at 08:08 AM.

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    Good detailed post. Thanks.
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    Update

    Fished the same lake today but in the opposite deeper end looking for quality fish. Caught over 30 but again, most were in the 9-10" size range with only a few 11". What did work in 9-14' was rigging the plastics on a 1/8 oz jig with no change in aggressive bites from larger crappie. In general, fish were scattered: catch 3 here, 2 there, one over there, allowing the boat to drift with the wind.

    The 14" pool formed by a ridge of rocks and a long rocky hump was good for a dozen or so crappie - a few 11". Curl tails did okay, but the thin straight tail was king.

    ( Did give this old timer some lures I made rigged on jigheads and a float and then instructed him how to use them. After I had him cast my light action rod and 1/16 oz jig/lure combo, he swore he was going to Walmart tomorrow to pick one up and store his deep sea rod and giant reel. He may never use worms again! )

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