I'm mainly looking for fishing techniques. As in, is it productive to burn a rooster tail, or road runner around as many trees as possible until getting bit, and then dangle minnows, etc?
Hey all,
I'm pretty new to crappie fishing. I went today in a cove with a number of cypress trees. I must've dangled a minnow in front of a hundred trees with no luck. Average depth was about 6 or 8 feet.
How do I find fish with so much woody cover around?
Thanks in advance!
I'm mainly looking for fishing techniques. As in, is it productive to burn a rooster tail, or road runner around as many trees as possible until getting bit, and then dangle minnows, etc?
this is what I do but I am no guru either at finding fish . Fish the outside trees, trees on creek or ditches leading to shallow water from trees to bank . Try depths from 1 ft. back out to deeper trees . That's without the use of a side image depth finder. Got that ? just cruise till you see them . Hope this helps and others reply for you also.I mainly single pole jigs 1/16-1/8 unless in very clear water (which must be very deep. 8ft. or better)I then use 1/64 or 1/32 .
I have the transducer on my trolling motor, if I want to know what's going on I will pull right up to the tree and watch the sonar. Care needs to be taken in shallow water, as pulling up that close will probably spook fish.
Again, I'm not expert, but when fishing areas with a lot of timber, trees that are adjacent to a drop off, creek channel, or brush will be most likely to attract fish.
I say the fish were just not there, or they were non aggressive that day.
Thanks for the replies men!
I wondering if dropping pressure may have had thier mouths closed, or chased them out deep?
What was the water temp. Fish probably not spawning yet so not on trees. Was anybody else fishing that way and were they catching any. Look in deeper water until temp reaches 65 degrees
skeetbum LIKED above post
As said they just may not have been there.
I have noticed over the years on some waters as they have aged the fish are using the cypress trees less. They will pull off onto close limbs on the bottom. Like the ice storms...around here storms will break out limbs and sometimes the crappie prefer the small limbs that are close. They break out more in the Tupelos than the cypress.
Back in the heyday of this fishing when there where much larger stands of these trees and the fish really seemed to prefer the knees around them. We fished mostly with small jon boats. Sitting on the front seat with just a cushion if even that. You had a skul paddle in hand and a long pole in the other. No trolling motor, no sonar,careful to be quiet.
You would slowly lower the bait dipping all around the tree . You were trying to put it right in front of them. We always used minnows then. But jigs work.
The more stealth you involve the better it works.
A lot of the swamps I fished 40 years ago or more that were nearly like flooded forest then. Many just have a few trees left. So there is more brush and logs on bottom now then back then. The knees then were key spots.
^^
That could have been the case. I fished hard Friday and only caught a few small ones early. The rest of the day I was seeing good numbers of fish on my Garmin but they flat would not bite. ( In structure where I caught fish on Monday )
Also as suggested move shallower or deeper until you find fish if you can't see them on your sonar. If the water is rising and they are spawning they may be on trees in water 1-2 foot deep.
Not sure on water temp, probably not 65, we've only had a few days of warm weather that hasn't been interrupted by a cold front. I'll.keep at them. I'll be getting some electronics soon. My boat is a 1542 duracraft. It fishes pretty well in the timber, but I've got some improvements to make.
Thanks for the help!