cold weather crappie nips, small bites

[mighty]

:D First off hey yall and may God bless all of u with a healthy and proseperous new yr.

Now I went to the water yesturday and didnt do bad left with 15 but i missed about 15 more.

I was using my slug bogger which is just a cht 3in grub with the tail torn off.

I caught 30 the week before on it. However this time its like they were just nipping it. The bite was very lite and I could not get a hook set. So i figure i'll go to a 2in.

Do you think that will help, or shoould i go to 1.5 tubes. The fish were 3-6ft in less that 10ft of water.

I also thought about the fact that since i was casting from the dock out about at least 30-50 ft that it was hard to set the hook with all that line out, especially with them being so shallow.

Any thoughts advice will be nice

Thanx

[CrappiePappy]

Mighty ... downsizing never hurts to try. A longer rod may be needed, or even braid (with or w/o a leader) .. to get a good hookset from a distance. You might even want to try a Roadrunner in 1/16oz.
They could very well have been "just nipping it" ... they could have recently fed, and just weren't interested in a large bait - but, couldn't pass up a "taste test" . Could have been the Barometric Pressure was higher, too. There's always lots of reasons why they act the way they do ... it's just hard, sometimes, for us to figure out "why". Downsizing never hurts, and is usually effective when they are "just nipping" a larger bait. Even when they are still "just nipping" the smaller bait, it's still more likely that they will have the bait deeper in their mouth ... when you see/feel the strike. You might even want to try a small float, when they're that shallow.

... luck2ya ... cp

[shipahoy41]

Mighty,

They are still hitting off the Warrior down in the Bessemer area. They were fishing 3 feet under their float. Go out 4th ave from Bessemer about 23 miles and bank fish. A couple of pastors were pulling in 2 lb crappies from the bank on 1/32 jigs last week. They each caucht 30 with several of them exceeding 1.75 lbs. (1.5 chartreuse & white tubes) or hair jigs (Chartreuse & blue) Also call "Dave" at "The Bait Shop" 205.425.2056 and tell him I told you to call. He will tell you color, depth and a few other things to put you on crappie. Have New Year bro.
mike