How would you fish this???

[Darryl Morris]

The thing I would look for is something "different". What I mean by that is if the water you are in is mostly stickups, and you can find a good brush top, most of the time, there will be fish there. I don't know why this works, but it has for me in the past.

You're right PSTONE. I didn't mention it before and should have. Sometimes we'll sink a flat bamboo mat style brushpile in the middle of a stump field. There could be crappie scattered all through the stump field but most every time they will be congregated around the brushpile. Sometimes fishing something that can't be seen from the surface is better than what you can see above it.

[gooch]

You're right PSTONE. I didn't mention it before and should have. Sometimes we'll sink a flat bamboo mat style brushpile in the middle of a stump field. There could be crappie scattered all through the stump field but most every time they will be congregated around the brushpile. Sometimes fishing something that can't be seen from the surface is better than what you can see above it.

Darryl that might be my answer to all the stick ups on Ouachita. Instead of fishing the vertical cover I need to make some thats horizontal or at least different. The only thing is how do you do that?

[Darryl Morris]

Darryl that might be my answer to all the stick ups on Ouachita. Instead of fishing the vertical cover I need to make some thats horizontal or at least different. The only thing is how do you do that?

The flat bamboo mat -- two concrete block tied perpendicular together on top of each other, 20-30 pieces of long bamboo stuck in the holes in all directions. It makes a big "X" or cross with four heads and gaps betweem them. The whole piles will be nearly 30ft. in diameter.

[pstone]

"Sometimes fishing something that can't be seen from the surface is better than what you can see above it."

You Nailed that one Daryl! Thus the reason polarized glasses are a must. Sometimes you can barely see something in the water and start "feeling" and it be a whole pile.

Darryl, you got any pictures of the horizontal mats that you are talking about?

[Darryl Morris]

"Sometimes fishing something that can't be seen from the surface is better than what you can see above it."

You Nailed that one Daryl! Thus the reason polarized glasses are a must. Sometimes you can barely see something in the water and start "feeling" and it be a whole pile.

Darryl, you got any pictures of the horizontal mats that you are talking about?

Page 16 of this thread if it doesn't go straight to it -- http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/showth...t=Crappie+Camp

or this one is the original one Jerry wrote about the mat style -- http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/showth...=Crappie+condo

[CrappiePappy]

The thing I would look for is something "different". What I mean by that is if the water you are in is mostly stickups, and you can find a good brush top, most of the time, there will be fish there. I don't know why this works, but it has for me in the past.

in a local lake I fish .... this is the scene you encounter in most every creek, and even some sections of the "main lake" :



and, yes ... you CAN catch Crappie off those "stickups" -- sometimes.

But, what I key on most often is barely shown in this picture :



Slightly left of center, in this picture, you'll see a dark tree trunk, barely sticking out of the water ... it's standing in about 20ft of water. On the shoreline directly in front of this tree, you see a forked tree limb lying on the bank ... and just to the left of it is a white spot ... just below that, and right on the water's edge, is a tree trunk (root wad end) of a "blowdown". That "blowdown" nearly reaches out to the dark tree trunk that I first mentioned. With ALL those standing tree hulks on that bank (both pics are of the same bank/area) ... the fish seem to prefer this fallen tree ... aka "something different" !! As a matter of fact, the Crappie I catch from this particular lake, come mostly from these "something different" blowdowns.
On certain occasions, at certain times of the year, you'll catch Crappie out of the Cedar hulks (which are numerous in certain places on the lake) ... at other times, you'll do better on the large hardwoods. BUT ... even during THOSE times, you're just as likely (if not more so) to find them on these blowdowns. They offer more shade, and more branches to hide among ... and they offer these thru a greater range of depth.

Something different can even be more subtle than this .... it could be a Cedar tree, among a stand of hardwoods ... or vice versa. It could be several tree trunks, in a "bunch", among a stand of isolated single tree trunks .... or it could be a single tree, by itself, off a distance from an area full of tree trunks.

Whenever I encounter an area that "looks fishy" ... the first thing I do, before I start fishing, or start second guessing myself (about where the fish could be, in all this "fishy looking" area) ....... is to look for the "oddball" spot. There's definitely "something" about "something different", that seems to draw fish to it. Step one, in "catching" fish, is "finding" fish ..... IMHO. .... cp

[pstone]

Thanks Darryl!

Page 16 of this thread if it doesn't go straight to it -- http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/showth...t=Crappie+Camp

or this one is the original one Jerry wrote about the mat style -- http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/showth...=Crappie+condo

[DHanis_Dude]

That lake is pretty. I miss trees.

I spent 5 years of my youth in Alabama fishing the Alabama river. We just don't have those good looking trees down here like Alabama and your area has.

Oaks and mesquite...and cedar....

East Texas has pines. Very pretty.

[crappie lover ken]

crappie pappy what years is that merc in the pic and what size i may have a few questions for you. i've got a 65 horse that i'm having some problems with. it's an older motor.

[crappie lover ken]

do u have a good fish finder ? i have a bottom line and i can tell the difference in fish species by the sie and number of fish on the display. if you can do this it should be easy just scout the lake until u find the fish. there's a lot of cover there so look for a nice drop off. the crappie are probably right on the edge of a nice drop off with good cover. of course you got to know what there are eating on too. i would start with live bait minows and make sure they're a live i've found that unless the crappie are really aggressive they won't hit a dead minow just my 2 cents good luck