Tooty Fruity Article preview
GET TOOTY FOR FALL TIME CRAPPIE
Professional crappie guide and tournament angler Tim Blackley has been fishing Strike King’s Tooty Fruity Crappie tubes since their storm onto the market in 2009. It was a chartreuse Tooty Fruity tube which helped the Hornbeak, Tenn. guide win the Crappie Masters National Qualifier Tournament on Lake Guntersville in May, 2009.
After the tube was introduced three years ago as a part of Strike King’s slab hammer crappie baits line, Blackley has success with it from the dirty water Alabama lakes to the muddy water Mississippi lakes. Over the past three years, Blackley has found a number successful of ways to fish the Tooty Fruity tube.
“Most of the time we are spider rigging or we are pushing tubes out the front of the boat. Sometimes we cast the tubes to cover on ultra-light equipment,” says Blackley. “Tubes work under any conditions.”
Halls, Tennessee resident Doug Cherry has been fishing Strike King’s Tooty Fruity tubes from Mississippi to Kentucky; Cherry has had success with them everywhere.
“In the fall, we fish several spots on the river channels because the crappie move with the water levels, which determines the mood of the fish along with the clarity of the water.” “We like to fish the Tooty Fruity tube on flats or ledges by structure during the fall.”
Strike King pro-staffers Brent Callicott and his father Lanny Callicott have had success with the Tooty Fruity crappie tubes from Reelfoot Lake to Gibson County Lake along with many lakes in between all by vertical fishing with Strike King’s Tooty Fruity tube.
“We "jig" fish with one pole. We are vertical fishing around stumps and lily pad stems and small peg like wood structure.When we jig fish we are mainly tight liners. Very seldom do we ever use a cork.”
Professional crappie guide Billy Blakely of Union City, Tennessee has been putting his clients on crappie with the Tooty Fruity tube since it came out just three years ago.
“With a cork I fish the tube with a little jerk every three to four seconds. Although, the crappie usually bite best when the bait is falling. In the fall and spring it works even better when you fish it along stumps. When I fish the tube with a cork, it depends on what fish are doing, in the fall most of the time they are about seven feet deep.”
When and where?
When it comes to consistently catching crappie, things like retrieval speed, type of cast, type of cover, and even water clarity, have an impact on how successful of a day you have.
The ideal conditions for throwing the tube are pretty much the same in both the Mississippi lakes and Alabama Lakes.
“It works in any water clarity, from clear to muddy,” says Blackley. “We fish all depths, what depth we fish depends on the time of year.”
“We try to cast to visible cover most of the time, so the distance of our casts very. If the water is really clear we sometime make long casts, maybe up to thirty feet.” “We fish manly wood, brush tops, and stumps. In the fall months we start fishing the 15 to 20 foot range. As the water cools in November, we fish in depths in the five to twelve foot range.”
“Water column is a big subject and we could talk for days about it. Fish are like humans, they want to be comfortable with temperature and oxygen, so they stay in that part of the water column. We fish any depth that we see fish. The deepest I have ever caught a crappie is 33 feet,” says Blackley.
As with every lure out there, Cherry says there are ideal depths and ideal conditions where the Tooty Fruity tube will excel and help you catch more crappie.
“The best all round depths are from three to eight feet for this technique. I have had my best luck with it on the Tennessee River. It will work under any conditions and any water clarity.”