Thread: Crappie Monday 4/09/2018

Finally a crappie 1/2 day trip. I made it out on the water very close to noon and finished up at 4:30 PM. Since I haven't been crappie fishing in nearly a month, I had to re-train myself. I had reports that the crappie were scattered and I didn't really find anything that would refute that info. I had several things in mind that I wanted to check out and see just what/where/why/when and how to locate and catch these speckled fish that we all love so much.

I started off in a very shallow cove near the boat ramp and only had one bite in there on a floater and jig, but I really didn't think that the fish would be in there with the cold nights that we have had the past couple of days, plus we are not in the best moon phase and fish tend to be picky eaters when we are at 1/2 moon phase. Then I moved to check out docks and I know from experience that we are too early for good dock shooting. The spawn needs to be over before the docks will get red hot. No bites on docks, so I moved off to another spot.

I wanted to check out my favorite spawning bank and see if any fish at all were in there. I figured that they might be backed off in 10 feet of water, but I had to try my floater and jig in the shallow water and I did manage to catch two nice male black crappie. Biggest one almost 12". While I was there, my hero, Richard Simms, owner of Scenic City Guide trips sneaked over to my boat to say hello. Since I'm deaf in my left ear, and that is the direction that he came from, I didn't have a clue that anyone was near. We had a good chat and while we fished and chatted, I caught another keeper and missed a couple. Richard missed a couple under floaters too. Pink/white tube jig with a 1/32 oz jig inserted was what I caught the floater fish on.

Then I moved to an entirely different part of the lake to check on a deep water hump and a deep roadbed and when I scanned them, I saw nothing but a blank screen in places where the fish usually stack up. The hump is a great pre-spawn spot, but the deep roadbed is post spawn/summer type spot to fish. So, I didn't even wet a line in those spots but continued on to a brush pile that I know was in 12-14 feet of water. I have this spot marked on my graph and when I eased over the spot, voila, a big school of crappie bunched up.

Out went the marker buoy and I eased around into position and had a ball for a little while. I landed 7 more keepers and about 1/2 dozen short crappie before they got tired of me. I had to downsize my lure to get them to bite. I went with a Southern Pro Stinger in pearl color on a 1/32 or 1/48 oz jig head. I'm almost sure that it was 1/32 oz. The fish ate that little jig up like popcorn. I had powder painted the head hot orange and the fish seemed to like it. They tore up a couple of my little jigs.

I finished up my short trip by checking another dock and caught one of Richard's slimers about 4 pounds. It destroyed my little jig. Bummer. I need to go buy some more of these before I run out. I called my wife and asked her to bring the trailer back to Tyner Lane and that I would be there in 10 minutes to load the boat up. How convenient is that! Love that woman that can back up a trailer and doesn't mind launching me and then coming back to pick me up. Last time that I parked the truck at Tyner Lane, I had gasoline stolen from my truck. I can't stand a thief.

Nice report

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