So for some reason lately I've been on this Crappie kick. I've never really targeted them before. Once about 30 years ago I went ice fishing for Crappie with a neighbor, but outside of that I might have caught one or 2 accidentally while fishing for other species. I fish constantly. Mostly fly fishing. Been fly fishing for about 25 years.
I think it's the challenge of crappie that's drawing me in. I've tried a few times to target them, but of course, I missed the spring thing, and now we're in the lull before fall. Usually in spring I have other species on my mind (trout) so I forget about Crappie. For that reason I've never actually fished the spring pre-spawn. Next year I will for sure.
I live in Bedford, so I'm not really near the "big crappie" lakes. That said, the 3 nearest lakes to me all hold crappie, and I know there are some big ones. Lately I've been focusing on mapping the 3 lakes near me with electronics with crappie in mind. Looking for likely structure for em. I know I've marked towers of crappie and I've tried like hell to catch them with no luck. I've been throwing sexeee shad in multiple colors. For now, I'm really limited on crappie specific gear, but I'm starting to look at expanding my arsenal. I'm looking at ultralight gear and downsizing everything basically. Right now I'm using a fast action 6'6" spinning rod. I'm looking for suggestions on a good rod setup. Lately I have been using 1/4 oz jig heads in pink, thinking the baitfish are bigger now. I need to get an assortment of smaller jig heads. Never tried live minnows. There's basically one place about 30 minutes from me (that I'm aware of) that has baitfish, and they have horrible hours (banker hours).
One of the things that's driving me crazy is how different the lake temps are around here vs all the stuff you read about for crappie fishing. I've read about where to look based on lake temps, but they're talking about lakes that get in the 90's. I was on a local lake yesterday (8.25) and the surface temp was 76. That's like post spawn temps on most of the articles I've read. So I'm having a hard time translating what I'm reading to where to look. Yesterday was horrible, but I'm certain it was a weather thing. I talked to about 6 other guys who were out and nobody caught anything. As in nothing. I caught one LM bass. So that was just a bad day. Another lake I fish a lot where I know I've marked crappie but couldn't catch them, I end up catching a TON of perch where I would think the crappie would be (creek channel drop offs etc.). I know it will get better as we move into fall, and this year I'm planning on fishing for crappie a lot.
Anyway, is there anyone on here in my general area? I've read about sayers, but that's about a 1-1/2 hour drive. Not that it's impossible, it's just that I tend to not like hauling the boat that far. I'm not looking for specific hot spots or anything. Just any pointers for my/our area? PM if you don't want the info public etc. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I know this is a ton of generic stuff, but I'm trying to give some back story and basically I'm a complete crappie newbie, so anything would help. Trying to read as much as possible too, but again, a lot of the material I've read is for down south etc. and a lot of it probably doesn't apply.