"free-lining?"

[skiptomylu]

I know that technique is use offshore quite a bit when fishing for red snapper. The party boats (meaning usually lots of people on these boats) they will fish off the back of the boat using free line technique and they usually catch bigger fish like that.

I have never tried it with crappie and I am not sure how long it would take to get the minnow deep enough. Then there is the bite from crappie that lifts the bait and I don't know how long it would take for you to know ones on.

Actually though I have started using drop shot rig and then lip hooking the minnow to make him look as natural as possible. Not to mention with that rig the crappie can't move any direction without you feeling him or feeling the lack of weight if he lifts up with the minnow.

Now the last few times night fishing I always see the little yellow bass come up and pop the water, but I have also seen what I believe to be crappie coming up near the top of the water far enough away from the light to be hard to see. I have been thinking of a better way to try and catch some of them. I have decided to try using a cork and minnow about 2' down and placed just in the dark outside the lighted area.

You may even be able to free fish them out like that using hi vis line so you would be line watching for the twitch. I may give that a try.

[skiptomylu]

SteveJ that is some gar in that picture. I was raised on the gulf coast and we use to go around in the channels, intercoastal. bayous and river around SE TX and we use to see 10' long gar from time to time. Even use to go to the local Boat basin and shoot them with bow and arrow at night.

However, another good pull we use to get at times was in a refuge near there where you could pull your boat over this levy and catch bass and blue gill. Sometime things would be really slow in the mid day sun so this place was also fill of alligators mostly small ones up to about 4' long. We would pick out a top water bait we didn't care if it didn't come back or not and cast it right in front of a sunning gator in thee water and they would always take it. Clearly thee fight was on, but had to cut the line when it was over for thee obvious reason of not being able to deal with a gator in thee boat, LOL!

Heck of a way to get your line stretched!

[KARL]

I know that technique is use offshore quite a bit when fishing for red snapper. The party boats (meaning usually lots of people on these boats) they will fish off the back of the boat using free line technique and they usually catch bigger fish like that.

I have never tried it with crappie and I am not sure how long it would take to get the minnow deep enough. Then there is the bite from crappie that lifts the bait and I don't know how long it would take for you to know ones on.

Actually though I have started using drop shot rig and then lip hooking the minnow to make him look as natural as possible. Not to mention with that rig the crappie can't move any direction without you feeling him or feeling the lack of weight if he lifts up with the minnow.

Now the last few times night fishing I always see the little yellow bass come up and pop the water, but I have also seen what I believe to be crappie coming up near the top of the water far enough away from the light to be hard to see. I have been thinking of a better way to try and catch some of them. I have decided to try using a cork and minnow about 2' down and placed just in the dark outside the lighted area.

You may even be able to free fish them out like that using hi vis line so you would be line watching for the twitch. I may give that a try.

...that works for me...put enough split shot under cork to balance in water and sling it just past light around boat....pick-up some nice ones that way.....I notice that mostly they just go sideways with cork...not up or down...I also use drop-shot at night...very deadly....poor crappie..LOL.. :p