I'm a one-trick pony... and getting bored with it

[skeetbum]

Also, look for schools of shad and troll through them. Lots of fish around those. And why not troll through the bridge?

[Roy]

I see you live on Lake Anna. I know it has ALLOT of boat docks! You ought to give shooting docks a try, it's very addictive and you don't need allot of new equipment. Find some of the deeper water docks, shot that jig in the darkest, shady spota, work the bait slowly out and wait for the "thump". You'll be hooked! A side image depth finder would help you find fish under the docks once you ve seen if you like this style fishing. Get a good medium light rod with a fast tip, spool it with 4lb test line as the water there is very clear, then tie on a 1/16 oz stinger type jig and your ready to go. It's a good idea to practice shooting jigs in your driveway into a bucket before you get to the lake. Never have heard of too many people in VA being very successful trolling cranks for crappie. Most lakes here have only black crappie, heard of better sucess in lakes with mainly white crappie in them. Not saying you can't catch some. Look at youtube for more dock shooting videos.

[Atimm693]

I'm the opposite, about all I have luck with this time of year is trolling.

You can take a minimalist approach, I only run two rods at a time, and those can be a handful at times.

Two rod holders mid boat, my boat is small enough that a small transom mount TM will troll for quite a while at 1-2mph off of a group 29 battery. I also have a foot control on the bow, but I prefer to use the transom motor for trolling.

I only have a basic 2d sonar, and the Navionics app on my phone (9.99). I don't often use the app though, since I mostly follow the shoreline.

Metered braid is a lower cost alternative to line counters, and allows you to use the same rods and reels that you use now. Although I have caught a lot of fish using normal mono and braid, just judging the amount of line that I have out by what's left on the spool.

I normally pull 7 and 9cm flicker shads around 15-20ft deep, I'll be going deeper as the water warms.

I have caught a lot of crappie this way, and pretty much every other species in the lake.

Trolling is not for everyone, I'll be the first to admit that I much prefer jigging for crappie, it's the fact that I may (and have before) hook into a 4lb+ walleye that keeps me coming back.

[Spoonminnow]

Agree with most of the replies about location, location, location being the first consideration. That said, finding those locations is hit or miss without sonar along a few good lures. Lowrance has a color finder for $88 / free s/h on one site and the info is just as accurate as any costing hundreds more. Of course a finder with GPS tracking memory is better yet and doesn't cost that much more, allowing you to track where you caught fish exactly.

Small plastic grubs rigged on 1/16 oz ball head jigs are a no brainer when it comes to catching most fish species - including crappie. In fact, the lure shown caught 7 species in two days on the same lake:


There are over two dozen I could have used yesterday, but why bother when one design always gets bit. (I carry at least 6 others for variety.)

I don't know what vegetation Ana has or the bottom topography, but basically speaking, fishing pads and other weeds in shallow water seems a start. My partner and I blasted crappie in shallow water adjacent to a rock wall that ran parallel to shore. The school didn't shut down for over 30 minutes after which we searched some flats with weeds and caught more. Midlake humps held no fish seeing as how post spawn crappie are still shallow along with other egg laying fish - seasonally typical this time of year.

In short:
Use sonar
use light lures on light leaders (6lb test fluorocarbon)
fish different depths with those lures - especially shallow water weeds, rock walls and flat areas with some vegetation
and fan cast around the boat covering a lot of water to increase your chances of connecting.

Sometimes steep banks shaded by trees that drop fast into deeper water hold fish along with points and humps - two other good spot post spawn areas.

We've found large crappie schools in one lake, but small groups scattered here and there in another. Your best time would have been during the spawn and pre-spawn in shallow water, but regardless, IMO slow retrieve lures are best any time of year.

[thill]

Gentlemen,
First... Thank you so much, everyone, for the encouragement, and great suggestions. I have a few questions:

My first burning question is for you, Atimm693:
How on earth do you get a jig to troll 15-20' deep??? How much weight are you using? This would be perfect, as most of the fish I'm catching are around 20' deep, so you are exactly right, Skeetbum. I would troll the bridges in a flash, if I could get it down that deep! They are definitely there.

Roy,
I learned how to shoot docks a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed getting good at it. But ALL I catch are millions of those angry little warmouth perch, with a few bluegills and occasional bass. Got discouraging after awhile, since I was looking for crappie, so back to jigging pilings. I was fishing docks with 6-15' of water, next to deeper water, as everyone told me, but that is what I caught. Any further suggestions, to target crappie under the docks?

Spoonminnow,
I fished three times this past week, despite all the storms coming through, and I followed most of what you described. I caught bass while trolling, but DID manage a couple of crappie just outside the reed beds in about 5' of water on my fav crappie tails on 1/16 ounce jigs. Eventually, we caught nothing, so I took my guest to the bridges to jig as I usually do, and we got our fish there, slowly, but steadily.

Could not complain at all about the catching we did on Friday. We fished hard from 6 am until 3 PM, and only caught 35 crappie or so between us, with lots of throwbacks, but we got 6-7 over 12", which is my best day ever for "bigger" fish. My guest, Phil, is used to catching mostly big fish in the rivers, so he was only okay with our fishing, but I'm thrilled to catch 12" fish! Here are a couple of pics. He is in the middle pic, I'm in the third pic. I must say, having someone with me who also likes crappie fishing made it more enjoyable. I think I'm going to do this more often.



I think you are right, Halibut4me, I think it is turning around, mainly because of the help from everyone here.

I'm going to keep working at it. I'm starting to get a handle on using the side imaging on the Garmin 94SV I just installed that I bought on sale over the winter, thanks to the guys on the electronics forums here. Hopefully, this will all start to come together, but if I even do as well as we did Friday, I would be happy.

-Tony

[Spoonminnow]

Nice catch - congrats! Knowing a water takes time; relearning a water every year we fish it is more necessary than many are willing to acknowledge. Fish aren't in a bowl and relocate at the drop of a hat. You found them and that's 95% of catching them.

BTW, love 12" crappie bending my ultralight rod!

[CrappiePappy]

Thill .... I mostly catch Warmouth & Green Sunfish "if" I get my jig too close to the shoreline (<2fow). Crappie are usually suspended in the darkest shade under a dock (or pontoon parked under/by the dock & in the water) ... sometimes high in the water column & sometimes close to the bottom, but usually around one of the posts (if it's a stationary dock) or around brush/trees that are under the dock or hanging from it. I generally shoot the dock from several different angles, first ... and try and cover as much of the water column as conditions allow, then finish fishing the dock by Vertical Casting the outer, deep water posts. Vertical Casting also works very well on bridge pillars. Here's my article on "Vertical Casting" - Crappie Pappy Article

I don't slow troll jigs, I Push them .... and if I need to get the jig down to the 15-20ft depths, I'll use whatever amount of weight it takes to keep my lines at a 45deg angle at whatever speed I need to go. That may be 1/2oz or as much as 1.5oz of weight & my speed may be 0.5mph to over 1mph. I do that because I know how deep my jig is by multiplying the length of line I have out (below the surface) by 0.6 "IF" my line is at a 45deg angle. So, if I have 20ft of line below the surface & the line is at a 45deg angle, the jig is about 12ft deep (20x0.6=12). If I needed the jig to be in the 15-20ft depths, I'd let out 25-30ft of line below the surface to get to 15-18ft deep (25x0.6=15) (30x0.6=18)

[Atimm693]

Gentlemen,
First... Thank you so much, everyone, for the encouragement, and great suggestions. I have a few questions:

My first burning question is for you, Atimm693:
How on earth do you get a jig to troll 15-20' deep??? How much weight are you using? This would be perfect, as most of the fish I'm catching are around 20' deep, so you are exactly right, Skeetbum. I would troll the bridges in a flash, if I could get it down that deep! They are definitely there.

-Tony

I pull deep diving cranks, not jigs.

There are ways to troll a jig that deep, Pappy outlined it well.

[Slab]

Friends,
Thank you for the encouragement and good advice! For some reason, people here don't share info about crappie fishing. I think because it's pretty limited.

Again, I really appreciate all the advice and the encouragement!

Now, I need to find some Bandit 300's, and more rod holders....

Don't forget to look to some of our sponsors that support the site.

PICO Crank baits work absolutely great. And their little dimples will hold the SLABSAUCE better than those smooth body cranks baits.


Driftmaster makes some great rod holders, and Dave Baynard, the owner will customize just about anything to fit your needs.



Sorry for the plug but seriously we really do only accept the best products as sponsors.

Support those that support us.

[Roy]

Do what Pappy said about fishing docks. It sounds like he said, your fishing too shallow and too close to shore. Since you have a side scan depth finder you should be able to spot some crappie under the docks. Keep idling along the outside edge of some of the deeper docks until you can see fish like in this image. Turn around, drop the trolling motor in the water, line up your shot to the darkest area on the dock, shoot and start counting you jig down to various depths until you start catching fish. Repeat as needed. 😊