Post spawn and summer HELP!

I’m a long time lurker on here but first time posting.

I mostly fish out of a 13’ kayak, and mostly for crappie. I’ve really reached a frustration point with summer and post-spawn crappie. I use electronics, and I feel like I understand where fish should be, but I have way too many days after May where I don’t catch much. I don’t really understand it. I use slip floats, match depth, use a variety of sizes and live/artificials.

I’m definitely doing something wrong. My only guess is that with the kayak, I’m moving too much in the wind and not staying over the spots.

Any ideas? I don’t mind trolling but I haven’t had much luck there either. I’m most accustomed to vertically jigging, but I’m open to anything. I’ve got decent skills (ha) but I just don’t think I’m getting the bait to the fish in the right place or time. HELP!

Thanks!!

On my home lake here in NC the water was 81 today. I found fish on rock structure on the points right next to deeper water. All the points were main lake points or creek mouth points. I didn't see any fish on deeper brush piles yet. As far as presentation I just vertical jigged with only wave action moving my jig. A natural fall or completely still worked best.

Welcome aboard Duckhunt1984 glad to have you with us here. I love fishing your home lake but that $85 permit for out of county fisherman along with I-85 traffic has stopped me from going there this year. For your lake and the others around that you may be fishing on the smaller size the only way I fish it after the spawn is shooting docks. Jigs size and color does make a big difference there with the mostly clear water. The electronics does not help me much for that lake, for some reason the crappie like to hold high or right on the bottom. This makes me fish a lot of the docks and the ones with pontoons I spend a little more time shooting. 1/16 oz & 1/32 oz jigs weights are the two I fish there and with shorter tail jigs. I'm trying tied jigs first as I have many to pick from (:rolleyes:) with squirrel tail and short hackle tail jigs working best 90% of the time but I will put on a slider or curly tail on one rod to use. With keeping with the shorter tail the curly tail jigs I use I will cut the body in half which keeps the hook point within the working of the tail which cuts down on short strikes.
When going across the deep water I do pull jigs (longline) or will pull a shaky shad or two in the small or medium sizes as the fish seems to really like them. That's a lot of water to cross in a kayak without fishing it and most of the time will pick up a fish or two. May not be crappie but any are fun to catch in the kayak.
I hope this helps you a little with your time on the water but remember some days the fish are just not biting and we all have those days. Good luck and look forward to reading some reports from your trips.

Stump

Welcome to the forum! While I've never fished from a kayak, I can tell you that I'm finding lots of post spawn crappie in brushpiles in 10-20 ft of water. Sometimes they are high up over the brush, and sometimes near the bottom in the thickest of branches. If you don't have the ability to sink your own (that could get tricky out of a kayak!), spend some time searching for cover off the ends of deep docks and along creek channels. They're out there so keep at it, and good luck!

If you're married now is the time to start dropping hints about buying a boat. Stuff like" it would almost save us money to have a boat so I could put lots of fish in the freezer for the Winter. "

"A nice crappie boat almost pays for itself."

"Boats go on sale actually on super sale at the end of the season"

". If we have kids then we're definitely gonna need a boat!"



Sent from my SM-G965U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Brush in 12 to 20 feet,vertical jig. under docks in 10 to 20 feet.We did good last year on blalock in june on brush and under docks.Next time I go there,I'l try to make a video.Check out my youtube channel, you will see how i fish,
YouTube

I got to learn dock shooting

Its a brush pile you know exactly where it is

Sent from my SM-G965U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Brett, try not to leave any dents in peoples toons and metal buildings! :Rofl

Starting with 1/8 oz
Shouldn't leave a matk

Sent from my SM-G965U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app