Thread: Crappie report, 4/24-7/20.

I turned 82 years old in June, but I am still going strong as long as the Lord lets me. Unbelievable numbers for post spawn crappie. I did very little fishing for crappie during the spawn and focused on tailwater fishing for Stripers, Walleyes, White Bass, Smallmouth, and of course my occasional pet Drum. Grin. I know you guys were not interested in tailwater fishing and I got out of the habit of making posts.

Breakdown of the numbers. 548 keepers total from April. 87 in April, 12 trips. 235 keepers in May, 13 trips, 1 TARP, 175 keepers in June, 13 trips, 5 TARPS, 51 so far in July, 5 trips, 1 TARP.

We fish from 6 am until 9 am and stop because I don’t want to fish any longer and I want to beat the heat and most everyone else. If the weather is cool enough and the bite hot enough, I will fish 4 hours. That is it. My fishing partners know this and are satisfied with our catches mostly. We have an occasional bad day. But I pick the best times to go usually, but we have had exceptional catches on days when the solunar tables say is bad. The fish don’t read those tables. Grin.

Post spawn crappie for me means deep water structure and that is where I shine as far as success is concerned. I fish deep bluffs when the crappie show up there, and community holes with deep water and lots of crappie. Most everyone knows where this spot is, so take a number when you want this spot. But a word about this spot. The fishing isn’t very good there right now. It was hot in May and has tapered off.

Offshore structure is where we are currently fishing and the fish finally showed up on this spot last week and again this morning. Before that, the fish were not there. My advice for Joe is to fish early, find several different spots and spend just a little fishing time scouting each trip if you can. That way you will know when the fish show up on your favorite spot.

My biggest crappie this year is a 15.0” beautiful crappie. I think that Candi post a pic of that one. Phil has two and Gary, aka Biofisher has one.

Jig sizes for us this year depends on current flow and depth of water. One day we routinely caught them in over 30 feet of water. I have developed a technique that works very well on bluffs. 3/32, 1/8, 3/16 are the size jigs we use.

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Hey drumking, as far as I'm concerned, feel free to include those tail water stories. I'm still awaiting the knee surgery and not getting out to fish, so pretty much getting mine in from all you all. I have appointment Tues. to get the ball rolling again, but can't do it till sometime First of Sept. due to Ms. Joyces two Cataract surgeries in Aug. Then hoping to be bank/dock fishing by Dec./Jan.