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Trophy King
A 1/4" cast net works for the small shad and ghost minnows. And yes they work well when you can get the small ones.
Slabmaster II
My brother and I fished in our favorite spot at Eufaula one spring morning with medium shiners. We were catching a fish every five minutes or so. I kept seeing a large school of baby shad swimming around the surface. I decided to dip a net and catch a bucket full. Long story short, we got a bite as soon as the bait was dropped in the water. We actually got tired of catching crappie from sore thumbs. If you have an aerator to keep them alive, I'd pick baby shad any day over minnows.
Crappie Wall Hanger
Good to hear, Thanks for the report.Originally Posted by Crappie Hog
Crappie Wall Hanger
I went out with a couple of buddies last night. We fished from 5 to dark. It was a little slower but we managed to take home 34 good ones. We fished brush in the 10 to 15 foot range with minnows. The fish were tight on the brush. The rain hasn't seemed to help the lake level much.
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Wow, good to hear they worked for you so well. I will definitely give it a try next time out.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
I have fished with Minnows and shad. Then I was spider-rigging both baits. It seemed like that we would catch more on the minnows but we would always catch a monster on the shad. A few years ago my brother and I won one of the Crappie USA tournaments on Eufaula with Minnows and Shad. We were Kentucky rigging 18ft deep and he caught a 2.10lb on a thredfin shad. In fact he threw his shad net no more than 75 yards from were he caught that slab. It turned to be a $600 fish. I will also tell you that crappie hit those shad different than a minnow and you can only fish with them for about 5 min then they die. EB
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Put in at Red Bud fished from 9am till 1:30. Fished upto Blue Creek, at one time 7 boats were in sight, none stayed in one place for very long. Saw one fish being released. Boy was it slow, fished with minnow, jigs & jigs with minnows. Brush piles from 10' to 25' caught one keeper and one small crappie nothing else. Can not get much worse than this!
Slabmaster II
i too fished oologah, aka (the dead sea) fished for walleye and crappie and put no fish in the boat at all what so ever, notta, zilch, nothing at all
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Went out yesterday (sat 24th) for a half day, fished minnows and jigs. Minnows did better. Caught about 15, kept 5 biggest. 4 of them were really nice fat 12"-14" fish. Seems that the drop in water temp or that cold front has them moving around in the areas I have been fishing. Did not find concentrations of fish in 10-12 fow like I have been. Had to go deeper and fish above structure that was 20-25 deep. Had to work harder to catch them. Has me thinking, I don't have a clue as to what the fish will do come this fall. Can anybody help me out and tell me what the pattern generally is come fall with its cooling water temps? I just started crappie fishing this year.
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Fisher, the Fall crappie bite will be in the brush piles in 20ft or less, same as it is in the Spring or Summer. There will be the normal cold fronts that will slow the bite and move the fish a little, but when the weather settles out, the crappie will be back to the same brush piles. The huge schools of shad will move back into the creeks where its warmer and the crappie will follow them. The Fall is when you see the largest schools of shad swimming around and you can see them swim right by your boat. The Fall bite is usually really good on Oologah. The crappie act like they haven't been fed in months, as they try to fatten up for winter and it also helps them get a jump start on making eggs for spring. I've had some of my best days in the Fall where the crappie bit all day long and I was able to catch them on jigs rather than minnows. I went out on Sunday and fought that 20 mph wind for 2 hours and caught 6 crappie and called it a day. I'm sure the bite will get better as the water cools down and the weather stabilizes. Just look for them in the same brush piles you normally fish and you should have some great fishing.
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