Float n Fly

[shillins24]

In my area recently the crappie have come shallow, and Iv hadnt had much luck. Iv been using a 1/64 shad dart tipped with a waxworm under a float. I only seem to catch bluegills. Im looking for some new ideas and different baits to use. Any info would be great. Thanks

[Barnacle Bill]

In my area recently the crappie have come shallow, and Iv hadnt had much luck. Iv been using a 1/64 shad dart tipped with a waxworm under a float. I only seem to catch bluegills. Im looking for some new ideas and different baits to use. Any info would be great. Thanks

It would help if you update your "user CP" so we would know what area you are talking about. Meanwhile, try a small minnow with the jig instead of the waxworm.

[shillins24]

Im from southeastern pa

[Moose1am]

If you are catching bluegills then maybe you might need to move to a different spot. Stay in shallow water but find out where the bluegills are not located and there are more crappie.


1/64oz is pretty small. Might try a search lure and cast to the crappie. This will help you locate them faster if they are in the shallow water. You can cover a lot of shallow water territiory by casting. You can do this also with a slip float setup to cast. By shallow I must assume you mean less then 5ft deep. Shallow is a relative term. I suspect that your water is not very clear if they are coming up shallower than 5ft deep.

You might try using a little larger bait to stop the bluegills from attacking the bait so fast.

I have a warmouth sunfish in my aquarium with two crappie (one black and one White) and then a 4" long Yellow Bullhead Catifsh. When I put fresh minnows in the aquarium the warmouth is the first to attack them. The White Crappie will sit in his favority locations on the bottom right under the water fall coming out of the filter system. The WC waits for the minnows to swim close to her then she inhales them in one fell swoop by opening her gills first then her mouth which sucks anything within 4" into her mouth including lots of pea gravel from the bottom of the aquaium.

The Black crappie will actually move more to get to the minnows. She is the second fish in the tank to usually get to the minnows.

The poor catfish has tiny beady little eyes and can't see very well from what I can tell. This catfish can smell and sense the minnows and actively swims around the tank trying to catch a minnow but in systematic way. He feels his way around the tank and only when he accidently bumbs into a minnow will he try to suck it in. He often will fail and continue to swim around blindly trying to feel for a minnow. He often takes the longest to feed but eventually he gets lucky and captures a minnow. I call him a bulldog as he is very persistant and doen't not stop his search until he has eaten about three minnows. His little stomach gets so distended.

Why do I go though all this? Well the larger the bait the more likley that the smaller fish will leave it along. That way only the bigger crappie will try to eat your larger bait.

Give it a try and see what happens. Small bait will catch lots of crappie but it also will catch those pesky bluegill. If your bluegills are really small then that could mean that there is an overpopulation of bluegills in your lake. This happens a lot. Take a few home and throw them on the garden for fertilizer. Or throw a few up on the bank for the birds and racoons to eat. You will be helping to feed somethings and also taking a few fish out of the lake so that the others will have less competion for their limited food supply. This way the bluegills that are left may grow larger as they will have more food for them to eat. Might put some of the big bass back into the lake if you catch them. They help control the sunfish populations and are there to balance the ecosystem.

[infishman]

Moosey - Introducing fish into a lake is illegal most places. shillins24 - check with your DNR before doing somethimg like that!!

[CrappiePappy]

problem, when fishing for Crappie with small jigs. I've had them kill or injure or steal minnows right off the jig or hook ... chew the tails off tube jig bodies ... repeatedly hit a jig (causing a premature hookset). And, I normally use a 1/16oz jighead/1.5" tube !
IBNFSHN has a point - and so does Moose ... forget the waxworm, and use a larger lure. You can still use the FnF method ... especially if you know the current depth the Crappie are holding. And, it's also a good method for open water areas; sparsely covered weedy areas; or around docks ... especially if the water is still in the 40's, but warming.
Infishman is correct, to a point, in that introducing foreign species into a body of water is illegal. But, I don't see where Moose, or anyone else advocates doing so. If the referrence is to "minnows" - I'm sure you are aware of any restrictions, and follow them.
If I'm not mistaken - you're still using "ice fishing" bait. Upsize your jig to a 1/16oz sized jighead/1.5-2" tube, or a 1/16oz marabou jig with your FnF setup. If the Crappie are in <6ft of water - these should produce. If the Crappie are in >6ft of water ... leave off the float and just cast the jig alone ... with a slow, steady retrieve. .........luck2ya ...........cp

[fishin3]

We used a similar set up in Canada for crappie. We used a marabuo jig under a small pear shaped float and only clipped the float to the line with the bottom clip of the float.

I use a lot of waxmorw like the way you are right now when the gills are on the beds or floating around docks. So like the others said leave them off for something else.

[Crapbie]

Its hard to believe they are shallow there. More then likely they are still deepish atleast. Maybe getting ready to spawn? Here in central Florida we're still awaiting the spawn. Hopefully this friday will kick off a huge spawn. 2 females I caught last week were very fat with eggs. Ones egg sack looked like a smallish peach. If you had perfect weather at and around the last fullmoon then maybe they could have spawned but apart from some rain the weather never got that bad here. Just a guess though