transitioning from all bass all the time

[Dave and Lynn]

my wife and I mainly slip bobber fish. The most important thing with it is to have good quality slip bobbers. Bass pro shop has very good ones .
Bass Pro Shops® Premium Pencil Slip Float | Bass Pro Shops

We very rarely lose them even if we snag up. So the expense is minimal as I have some that are over 10 years old. The 1/2 diameter ones will hold a 1/8 ounce jig up no problem. For lighter jigs you may need to add a few split shot to the line to get it down faster.They are sensetive enough where they lay over if the crappie come up and they go down real easy so the fish doesnt feel the bobber as much. Fishing out of a kayak you may have trouble determining dept of water without a depthfinder of some kind. Use your pole to set the depth of the knot. By pulling out the length of line same lenght as you pole lets say 5 foot you know your are five foot deep. Move it another lenght and your ten. We have caught fish with jigs, minnows, or combination of the two. I personaly like just and eagle claw gold hook with a minnow. The gold hook adds flash and will bend in snags. Sometimes the fish will bite just leaving it set and other times you have to move it. Just a short pull at a time. Fish over the tops of bruschpiles and blow downs and you are sure to fined some sooner or later. You ultralights are the way to go here plus you will get bass and walleye or this rig to. A five pound largemouth will give you all you want on 6#test and your ultra light pole. Just about anything will hit a jig or minnow set at the right depth. Hope this helps and welcome to crappie.com

[skiptomylu]

From Texas!

Crappie are kind of an addiction. I use to be first and foremost a Bass guy as well except for a little crappie fishing at times and the 11 years I lived down near Corpus and that was all time every time salt water bay fishing which was great, especially the red fish which are so much fun because of the long runs you get in shallow water. Once my body got to the point I just couldn't stand on the front deck of that bass boat casting al day long any more I just changed direction and went full time crappie with a little case fishing thrown in every once in a while.

I was luck in the fact I had done enough crappie fishing along the way that it was a pretty easy move for me, but can see where if someone as not fished for crappie a good bit the change may be a lot harder because it;s a good bit different for sure.

First know sometimes crappie don't want the jig even moving at all and sometimes I can do great trolling with my troll motor especially in spring and fall, but summer and pre spawn are different and each different than the other. Sometimes when the water is still a bit cool for them to go to the bank a kip tail jig will do better than a feather tail jig and in summer sometimes the method has to change again.

So just work your way through all the different ways to catch them and no mostly slow or no movement. They are a finicky fish to be sure, but so much fun to catch!

Lots of articles here on crappie.com and reading some of them should help a lot. ALso don't leave out night fishing as it's very good as well!

Good luck,

Skip

[bennylt]

Thanks, I'm going to check out the kayak forum today. I have my eye on a small fish finder that would work on my kayak. but I am hesitant still. I know how much it would help find structure. I rely on it to find depth changes in the bigger boat. But I still don't want to complicate things and/or rely on equipment. I'm kind of on a pure-fishing kick right now. I'm sure it will change, but i think i'm going to try to get through my first season or so without electronics. That will make me pay greater attention to conditions, and visible structure. Maybe i'll be a better fisherman, then adding electronics will be icing on the cake. Or i'll decide I don;t need to spend the money.

My lake is only 44 acres and it is a steady drop from like 2' where the stream enters down to 20' at the dam. so in the middle is approximately 10', half way from midde to the dam is about 15' and so on. I think i'll post a description of the lake and see what you all think.

[Dave and Lynn]

If you have a dam on you little lake then you will have a creek channel running through it. I fished a small lake much like this in Illinois when I lived there. Was sillted on the upper end and deeper on the lower. Surronded by houses. No motors allowed. Never did have a fish finder but could tell where the creek channel ran for the most part. Caught a good number of fish out of that little lake as I rowed around in a little row boat. Knowing where the creek channel is will help out.

[joejv4]

I stopped targeting bass long ago and ended up catching my PB LMB while crappie fishing. Now, I only fish for bass when I can't buy a crappy bite - just to keep the skunk out of the boat.
I've moved on to crappie and walley now, both present challenges that bass do not.

I only use jigs, with soft plastics, and a couple natural color 1/8 oz bucktails I tie. For the most part it's soft plastics, tubes and the baby shad.

Some things to think about:
time of year/water temps
like bass, crappie hang out in different spots during different times of year. Pre-spawn, you'll find them in deeper water near spawning areas. During the spawn, you'll find them shallow, if you can find submerged wood, you'll usually find crappy near it in the spring.
Come post spawn, they'll still be near the spawning areas for a bit, then as the water works its way to summer temps, they'll go deeper. where you'll find them in the summer depends on the lake. Some guys fish man-made lakes down south and talk about catching them 20-30 feet down. I fish small natural lakes in the north, that only get 10-11 feet deep. Different tactics for dofferent waters.

For your little lake, you'll want to pattern the crappie. the quickest way to find them without electronics, for me, has been slow trolling 2 rods. if your YAK has a couple rod holders, you can do this easily by running two rods at different depths behind you and paddling very slowly (or drifting if there is a breeze). Once you get one, make a mental note as to your location and how much line was out on the rod that caught the fish. That will give you a starting point. After that it's time to starte refining your presentation. You can cast to that area again and slowly retreive through it. You may want to try different color plastics (I start with chartreuse). crappie can be very finicky, likeing one color for an hour or two then turn off until you change to a differnt color.

Jig size:
Spring and late fall, downsize. summer and early fall upsize. A big crappie jig is 1/8 oz. for spring and late fall, I like 1/32 internal tube heads.

Good luck!!!

[brushnjigs]

sent ya a pm

[bennylt]

I stopped targeting bass long ago and ended up catching my PB LMB while crappie fishing. Now, I only fish for bass when I can't buy a crappy bite - just to keep the skunk out of the boat.
I've moved on to crappie and walley now, both present challenges that bass do not.

I only use jigs, with soft plastics, and a couple natural color 1/8 oz bucktails I tie. For the most part it's soft plastics, tubes and the baby shad.

Some things to think about:
time of year/water temps
like bass, crappie hang out in different spots during different times of year. Pre-spawn, you'll find them in deeper water near spawning areas. During the spawn, you'll find them shallow, if you can find submerged wood, you'll usually find crappy near it in the spring.
Come post spawn, they'll still be near the spawning areas for a bit, then as the water works its way to summer temps, they'll go deeper. where you'll find them in the summer depends on the lake. Some guys fish man-made lakes down south and talk about catching them 20-30 feet down. I fish small natural lakes in the north, that only get 10-11 feet deep. Different tactics for dofferent waters.

For your little lake, you'll want to pattern the crappie. the quickest way to find them without electronics, for me, has been slow trolling 2 rods. if your YAK has a couple rod holders, you can do this easily by running two rods at different depths behind you and paddling very slowly (or drifting if there is a breeze). Once you get one, make a mental note as to your location and how much line was out on the rod that caught the fish. That will give you a starting point. After that it's time to starte refining your presentation. You can cast to that area again and slowly retreive through it. You may want to try different color plastics (I start with chartreuse). crappie can be very finicky, likeing one color for an hour or two then turn off until you change to a differnt color.

Jig size:
Spring and late fall, downsize. summer and early fall upsize. A big crappie jig is 1/8 oz. for spring and late fall, I like 1/32 internal tube heads.

Good luck!!!

that sounds like a good plan. my kayak will troll 2 rods well. do you just troll a jig?

I have 3 of my buddies meeting at my place early tomorrow morning and were all taking the kayaks to hit that lake. none of them have ever been on it before. But i think 4 kayaks and 4 different styles will give us a pretty good shot at finding them. We already told our lovely wives that were fishing all day, and don't expect us back until supper time. ha ha. Hopefully someone will figure the fish out and we can all do what they are doing while they bite. Were having a fish fry at my place, so we had better come back with something worth eating! Otherwise they might not believe that we were fishing. ha ha.

[CharlieL]

You folks are awesome! thanks for all the replies. Im glad to hear others have had the same change of mind set. I love being in the kayak, (Im a fitness nut also) and with a wife and 18 mo time is short for hobbies. So fishing should be fun and relaxing, not work like it was. anyway. i'll work on slowing things down. that makes sense. I'll concentrate on jigging for now since that is what I'm most comfortable with. I'll search around for more tips on the slip bobbering.

Shawman, amen to that i catch all kinds of nice bass on the little jigs. and lots of other stuff too!

bkabina - I'm in Huntingdon county, so were practically neighbors, at least to PA standards we are. I mainly fish in Canoe Creek Lake, which is in Holidaysburg, in Blair County and on the Juniata and susquehanna rivers.

Have you got a fish fider from your bass days? Try hooking it up in the yak and see whats under you . A lot of the guys that fish from yaks use FF quite well, ends all the dead water fishin

[Jig'n4Crappie]

bennylt, I know where you are coming from. I started out as a young kid cane pole crappie fishing with my grandfather and family. Shortly after high school I got started bass fishing which led to many tournaments over the past 25 years. I also spent lots of money in gas/oil, tournament fees, motel rooms, eating out, buying tackle, etc. I have now came full circle and am back to crappie fishing. It's really been refreshing as it is a much more relaxing and enjoyable way to fish as well as more economical. There is just something about the simplicity of it...especially slip cork fishing. Since the style of bass fishing is still in my blood, I mostly cast jigs with an ultralite and 4# test. I'm having a great time with the white bass and small largemouth schooling as well as spotted bass(now that's awesome)....even catch a nice largemouth from time to time. That's big fun with an ultralite. I'm planning on doing some tightline fishing for crappie this winter, but will have to learn some of the tricks and get my boat rigged. I'm planning on learning how to hand tie some crapie jigs and have made a powder paint fluid bed for painting jig heads. All in all this transition has been very refreshing...but I'm still having a problem removing the 16 boxes of bass tackle in my 2 rear compartments of the boat. I also find it hard to pull the boat out of the driveway without atleast one bass rod...lol. It's just hard to ignore the thought of that 10.83# largemouth I caught years back in a tournament...I know they are swimming around out out there. Hopefully I will settle into a nice balance between the two as I know you will to. CATCH 'EM BIG!