Winter Tips

Hello everyone, I have quite a few questions pertaining to speck fishing that I'm hoping y'all can assist with. First off the lightest setup I currently have is a 6', medium-light, fast action berkley lightning rod paired with a Shimano Stradic 2500, with 15-20lb braid (can't quite remember). I do mainly salt water fishing, so I don't have anything lighter. I will say that I have some 10lb braid laying around somewhere as well as 15-20lb fluoro (enough for leader only). My question is do I need to go out and buy a light/ultra light setup for crappie. I would like to go out to Edward Medard Reservoir or maybe Lake Tarpon this weekend and try my hand at crappie fishing from my Kayak, but don't want to waste my time with too big of a setup. Also, I have a very strong preference for artificial lures, but since i'm a newbie should I just stick with a small jig and minnows for now with the colder weather as it seems i'm gonna need to slow my presentation way down from what i'm used to? From what i've gathered I should be looking for suspended fish near drop offs and underwater cover/brush correct? I have a Raymarine Dragonfly on my yak with down-imaging that i'm planning to use. Leaning towards Edward Medard as its more traversable for me and gets to 24' in some spots with more wind protected areas whereas Tarpon is shallower and far more open. Any advice on any of my questions would be greatly appreciated and feel free to throw in any other advice if you'd like. Kind of feel like i'm getting into crappie fishing at the wrong time, but I figure its worth a shot. Just hope my wife doesn't get mad about me spending more money on fishing equipment haha.

First, welcome to the forum. I’m in the middle of the state and not much help over there. I fish artificials almost exclusively and do pretty well with em. Bobby Garland Baby Shad and a 1/16 and 1/32 jigheads will get you going in fine style. Your current rig is a bit heavy for crappie but not too heavy to use. You might consider an inexpensive reel and spool it up with hi vis 4 or 6 pound line and you would be able to pitch the little jigs we use. Crappie get over a pound and I like having a smooth drag and find a 2000 series reel to be fine. Loosen the drag when you store the less expensive reels and the drag stays smoother for longer, it’s worked for me. Curltail grubs work good also but some days they don’t like activity so between the baby Shad and curl tails youd have a good start. #2 or #4 hooks on the jigheads are common. Slow, steady retrieve or slow drift will produce. I troll between .9 and 1.3 so that will give you an idea, someplace to start. Most important fact I can relay to you, there are no dumb questions. We’ve all asked them already ourselves. Good luck to you.

I use ultra light and light action rods for crappie myself. Some of my dock shooting rods are stiff probably going into the category of medium light. They do not cast jigs very far. I ul rod will load up and then release that energy propelling the jig forward. The main thing is to enjoy your time spent outdoors

Thank y’all for the speedy replies. Gave me a whole lot to consider, but it seems that I’m definitely gonna need to go out and get a new setup for this type of fishing if I really want to do well. And now after looking at these prices I’m not as apprehensive. Thanks again fellas and I’ll report back this weekend with how the trip goes, gonna try and get my hands on an ultra light setup.

If you go with an UL setup, look into an Okuma Celilo and a Shimano Sienna. Both in the mid 30’s for price. Action rating differ from one manufacturer to another so try to feel before you buy.

A Shakespeare Micro series rods canbe had for $20 most anywhere they are sold. They are cork handle rods. Not the best rod you can buy. Possibly the best rod you can buy for $20

I will second on the Okuma Celio. I have 2 off them. They are great casting rods. Good feel in the hand and good sensitivity

I use 7' light and med action rods from Walmart. The Shakespeare Excurtion. The white and blue one and the Micro lite graphite/ blue color rods. They run about $19.00- $22.00. I have Kast King 2000 reels on them. I really like the feel and I can feel the light bites on them really well. The reels are on Amazon and run $26 or so. But any small reel should be fine.
I really like these setups on a budget. I use 4 and 6 lb test hi vis line. I'm originally from NC and just moved to Florida. But think from all I've seen on here this setup is good here too. Hope this helps you in some way.

Sent from my moto z4 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

does anyone use line counter reels for trolling?

Hello again fellas, I’m back with my report. Ordered the Okuma Celilo from Amazon, unfortunately it arrived with a broken tip which was a real bummer. For some reason they put the rod in awkward 5x2 box with no packing paper. Didn’t want to miss out on crappie fishing this weekend, so I took a drive over to Bass Pro and ended up picking up their 7’6 UL Micro Lite series graphite rod. Paired it with my Stradic and 6lb hi-vis braid. Great rod, but I didn’t realize until I was on the water that it didn’t have a hook keeper. Hit the places where I was seeing shad activity, but I had minimal luck. Found exactly three crappie all day with all being in 8-10 feet of water. The majority were caught while I was trolling in between spots (only set the hook on one fish). I was using Bobby garland soft plastics (shad, chartreuse), with 1/32 jig head with spinner, a marabou jig, and crappie nibbles here and there. Largest fish I caught on the new set up was a 2lb striper which was fun. Bent my rod like a limp noodle. After about five or so hours of fishing I decided to call it a day on the crappie as the wind was starting to pick up. Spoke to another fisherman that was using a bobber and minnows and he said he’d caught a few nice ones, but that the bite was real slow. Fished for bass the rest of the day. Gonna keep studying and try for some again this coming weekend, maybe lake Tarpon. Got a feeling I was too impatient and could have caught more fish if I really slowed down. Thanks for all the input/help.
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