• Fishin with Dad

    Memorial Day Weekend, 1999
    Tom and his son Tommy went fishing over Memorial Day weekend in Upper Wisconsin. They fished a small lake near Crivitz Wisconsin. In fact the lake is so small, in the photo below you see the far end of the lake.
    This is what they were in search of.
    Irv was proud of Tommy’s catch. Tommy brought in four of these nice fish on the stringer. All these fish were caught in less than two hours on the water. Tommy had to go potty otherwise there would certainly be more nice Crappie on the stringer.


    Over the years I have found no better fun than catching crappie in shallow water. Most of the time this is only in the spring of the year when the water temperature is cool or the crappie are getting ready to spawn. There are several ways to catch the crappie this time of the year and here is one of the best ways that I have found.
    One of my personal favorites is using ultra light gear. By this I mean a small spinning real with no heavier than 4lb. test line and a 5 1/2’ to 6’ long ultra light rod. With this setup I like to tie a 1/32oz. Jig in either hot pink or chartreuse with black eyes on them. I tip this jig with a 2" or 2 1/2" Mister Twister "Sassy Shad" in a neutral color. You could tip it with a live minnow as well, but I have found that crappies like a lot of movement and live minnows are only good for a short time after they have been on the hook awhile. This could be a problem when you are trying to locate them. "Sassy shads" on the other hand take very little jigging to get them moving a lot. To complete the rigging I use a stand up bobber placed about a foot and a half to two feet above the jig.
    Now that you are set up, all you have to do is find them…. Sometimes easier said than done. The best place to find crappie is in 4’ to 5’ of water with weed growth like Cabbage Weed. It does not have to be all the way up on the surface but you would like to see it within a foot of the surface. Once you have found the right conditions you will be ready to fish. You can handle locating the fish in different ways. One would be to cast into the area jig a little and then stop reeling up the slack then jigging a little again. The other way is to cast out behind your boat and using a slow troll go through the area and see if you get any takers. This is where the stand up bobber works well because if your trolling and the bobber is standing up you are trolling to fast. It should lay flat on the surface when you are moving at the right speed. Be sure that trolling is legal on the lake before trying this. Remember crappie like a lot of movement and by using a slow troll you will pick up the more aggressive fish. Normally if you pick up a fish trolling through the area you can drop your anchor and cast into the same area and pick up more fish. I have boated many fish using this method and have had many a good fish fry. Try using this the next time you go out crappie fishing and I’m sure you will have the same results. Remember to practice Catch and Release on the bigger Crappies so you will have good Crappie fishing for years to come and teach a Kid to fish.
    "Good Luck on the water" Tom J.
    Comments 1 Comment
    1. bee's Avatar
      bee -
      I have been haveing a ggod time in the eveing catching them shallow. I use a slip bobber or a slow retreive with a roadrunner. fishing about 4 ft. water. Its been real good to me latley.
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