A couple questions- (long read)

[ChoogieChunker]

Well I’m new to crappie fishing at 70 yrs old. I have many questions but these are a few for now.


1- I see most suggest 6 lb line. I’m using 20 lb braid to keep it from digging in the spool under tension and absorb any line twist with a 20-30 ft 8 lb leader. It’s working fine for me functionally. The lake I’m fishing is always stained to some degree, never clear and I occasionally hook a large bass. Last one was 6 3/4. Is lighter line necessary for lure action or is 8 ok with the muddy to stained water?


2- in late September thru October I was finding schools in and over brush in 12-18 ft of water and catching fish. I went yesterday after the rain quit at about daylight. I caught 3 from 13-15” right away and then nothing the rest of the day. It was cloudy when I caught them early then blue sky. I searched many piles and could find no schools. And I spent a few hrs graphing. Bait balls were still 8-15 ft. I fished some brush piles anyway but no fish other than a few 6” bass. I say brush piles but actually logs and limbs on the bottom from before the lake was flooded. It was pretty windy and hard to anchor even with 2 anchors but I managed to stay on spots. Do I need to look at other water or did the post front just get me? No floating docks and the wood post docks aren’t much over 4-5 ft at deepest with the lake down 2 ft. No bridges but there is a power line across it with concrete pillars. I graphed them but saw no fish there. They’re 20-25’ deep. They’ve sprayed and killed most of the pads and hydrilla but the hydrilla is starting to come back. I don’t know much about crappie habits other than what I’ve recently read on here. Oh and I was using minnows and a double jig rig under slip corks from the bottom up to about 6 ft.


Guess that’s enough for now. If anyone has had the patience to read all this I’d appreciate any advice you care to give. Thanks in advance!

[DockShootinJack]

As for the braid I use 8lb that is 1lb diameter or 10lb that is 2lb diameter. I attached straight to the jig. The fish don't seem to mind at all. Water here is stained with visibility to about 3 feet. So your mileage may vary if you are on really clear water.

I shoot docks a lot. They will at some point start utilizing those docks in 4 to 5 feet of water. Pier built docks to me are better than floating docks. Consider them man made flooded timber. If water temps are favorable they will hide in the deep shadows of those docks when it is sunny outside. Sounds like you caught some nice fish

[ChoogieChunker]

I’d forgotten to mention I’d scanned the about 20 docks on about 1/2 mile of shoreline and saw only what looked like small bream or maybe juvenile bass. Water temp was 64 and warmed to 66 (surface) late in the day. I do know you don’t always see fish if they’re in the shadow of objects in the sonar beam. That’s why I fished the bottom wood even though I didn’t see any yesterday. I just remembered I saw what might have been a small loose school on sidescan with what looked like a large bass it it. I went back and they were gone. I figured it was feeding on them and ran them off. But that was early before I caught the 3. That lake has a lot of big bass in it. It has a special reg. All bass over 16” have to be released.

[ChoogieChunker]

Oh, and thanks for the help!

[ChoogieChunker]

I’ll have to try the smaller braid. Maybe crappie don’t pull hard enough to pull it down into the line on the spool like larger bass do. It would be nice to do away with the leader and knot.

[DockShootinJack]

The only time I have trouble with it underwrapping is when I have to break it off or pull the hook free. I then drop the jig at the side of the boat, or cast out then pull it out until it spools off freely. I have some braid that is probably 7 or 8 years old. If it acts like it is twisted I stretch it across the field and then reel it back up under tension with the end free to untwist.

[ChoogieChunker]

I’ve used the 20lb on bass spinning reels for yrs and love it over mono or flouro for them. It’s what I had. I put 8 lb on my list for my next trip to academy along with small bobber stops. Mine are for larger line and don’t stay too well. So far I’ve gotten slab sauce, b&m Russ Bailey rods in 8 and 10.5 ft, jigs and plastics from crappie cove and slabinator, crappie magnet nibbles, 2 20 president reels. I also stole a dobyns 702sf and 30 lews reel from my bass stuff so I guess I’m good for now till I learn more and want something more specialized. Anything else you can think of for learning?

[ChoogieChunker]

Duplicate

[ChoogieChunker]

I haven’t tried the slab sauce yet as we haven’t cooked any since I got it. It must be good as I’ve seen it mentioned here a lot!

[DockShootinJack]

Sounds like you are pretty well equipped. I like those President reels. They are pretty smooth. That Slabsauce should make those fillets extra fishy. The crappie certainly like it. G sauce has the added garlic