Crappie with a fly rod

Anyone ever tried catching crappie on a fly rod.

I have a buddy that catches them on a fly rod pretty consistently. There's not much difference between a crappie jig and a wooly bugger.

It's pretty easy to yo-yo jigs or wooly buggers over brush piles and under docks. We've even tipped them with minnows. Not easy to cast with the minnow. Well, its easy but you lose a lot of minnows.

One of my largest crappies came from Lake Lanier on my fly rod. I was fly-fishing the evening near a dock using a huge minnow imitation I had tied for bass. Since then, I started dabbling in fly fishing for crappies a bit. I've caught them on closets, Norma's Schminnow, nameless minnows I have tied on realistic fish head jigs from walleyesupply.com. They have some of the best, most realistic fish head jigs I have ever seen. It's pretty easy when they're shallow. Lots of fun too! I can't wait to get into some soon! But my favorite way s are a minnow on a jig head under a float, or jigging sexee tail shads. Just something about Crappie fishing I love!

injun joe said:

It's pretty easy to yo-yo jigs or wooly buggers over brush piles and under docks. We've even tipped them with minnows. Not easy to cast with the minnow. Well, its easy but you lose a lot of minnows.

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What size wooly buggers have you used and what color.

Yep.



This one came from what is basically a retention pond fed by a small spring next to a Cobb county park tennis court.

fishndoc said:

Yep.

This one came from what is basically a retention pond fed by a small spring next to a Cobb county park tennis court.

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Nice catch I bet that was fun,what kind of fly did you use.

I fly fish warm water almost exclusively. In 30+ yrs of fly fishing, have caught crappie, catfish, carp, shiners, pickerel.... even a turtle in addition to the typical bass, bream, etc....

The challenge of fly fishing plus the unknown element of what is going to hit, are what excite me. I especially enjoy the ultra light stuff. I have a 00 weight, a 1 weight and two 3 weights. This cat hit a wooly bugger on a
Sage 3 weight. Fought that dude for almost 10 minutes before netting him. Big time fun.

deerpoacher1970 said:

What size wooly buggers have you used and what color.

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You can tie a bugger virtually any color, just as a crappie jig.Or you can fish a crappie jig on your fly rod. Green and yellow (some people call it "John Deere") is one of my favorites. On a 2 wt rod, any crappie is fun.

deerpoacher1970 said:

Nice catch I bet that was fun,what kind of fly did you use.

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Well it really didn't put up a fight. Just drug it in like hooking a wet newspaper; that's actually what I thought it was when I first glimpsed it. Like I said, it was living in basically a retention pond, so probably not the healthiest fish despite its size.

I caught it on a olive Rubber Legged Dragon, but if I'm after crappie I usually use either a white Wooley Bugger or a Schminnow.

WB's, small clouser, and RLDs are hard to beat. My favorite though is a jig fly (I like a #8 jig hook with a 4mm bead) under an indicator is my favorite way to fish for them. Basically a float and fly rig, but you can cast it farther than a spinning rod.

Sounds like

you fish the sluice a bit.

I fly fish warm water almost exclusively. In 30+ yrs of fly fishing, have caught crappie, catfish, carp, shiners, pickerel.... even a turtle in addition to the typical bass, bream, etc....

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I have caught bream, bass, shiners, pickerel, crappie, carp, and yellow perch all in the same day on a good day.
There's some kind of huge shad(ABOUT 2LBS) I never could catch, guess they are plankton eaters?

You are right man. I guess those are American Shad. I can't catch them either. My uncle used to in Augusta on small jigs and beetle spins. I run green submersible lights from a dock up Wahoo Creek on Lanier in the spring and summer occasionally, and schools of those mega shad show up and will at times circle the docks for hours. I have literally thrown everything in the book at them and can never buy a bite. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've thrown worms and jigs and minnows, wet flies, streamers, even like #20 midges and the like, and have never once got a bite. I once even had a sabiki rig in the tackle box tat I use to catch herring for bait, and they wouldn't touch it. They are a mystery to me!

Here is the good slab I caught the year before last I believe. I was fishing a park on Lanier in the evening looking for spots on the fly. My fly was pretty large, pushing 4" long. It was a very bouyant threadfin pattern but I tied even larger than threadfin. It was a fat fly, mostly synthetic, and sat pretty high in the water. It wouldn't float on top, but wouldn't really sink either, just sat high in the water column. Almost a neutral weight I guess. I didn't intend it to be so, it was just experimental tie and it turned out that way. I'm sure I have it laying around here somewhere. I took the fish to my friend's house 1/2 mile away, and filleted it in his driveway, and solicited the use of his oil and pan. This fish and some fries fed the two of us just fine!

Sorry for the poor pic quality, but here are some prove and potential slab killers:

Top to bottom:

Three clousers. Caught my first sea trout on the top clouser minnow. Just a general grey/white, which slabs love. This is a smaller clouser. The next two are a littler larger, and sized for bigger fish, but I have caught slabs on them. Next three down are the Gibby's DT special in a couple different forms. These are light ad need to be allowed to sink. Originally designed for shallow surf snook, but imitate a tiny minnow VERY, VERY well in all waters. The red thread wrap on the original serves as a "hot spot". If you don't tie your own flies, I'd try and find someone to tie these for you with black lead dumbell eyes. They'll sink way faster than these depicted and will have a jigging action, and will kill some slabs. I LOVE these flies! The next down is a "Norm's Schminnow". I had the honor of driving several hundred miles in twelve hours to meet Norm and test his fly in person. It is a snook fly, but I tied it with a twist. Black Dumbbell eyes. I have a lot of the origial versions I tied on hand, but wanted some sinkers too. I have caught slabs on them, and they work wonderfully! My favorite Crappie fly. It jigs, dances, swims. It is made of cheap white marabou, white Chennille, andl ead dumbbell eyes. Catces fish all day long. Super cheap, simple, and reliable. The last two flies on the bottom are random no name flies that I have caught slabs on. They are very light and should only be used in shallow water. My largest fly-slab to date, as pictred above, came on the bottom fly shown in the pic. My choice overall is the Norms Schminnow. Tie it in black/silver/white, all black, black/chartreuse, all white, white/grey / pink/white or whatever. All color combos will work just fine. With dumbbell eyes, it has tons and tons of jigging action, tons of movement, a mix of materials, and is sized just right for a slab to bite. That fly is my pick of the litter.

Buckhead said:

I fly fish warm water almost exclusively. In 30+ yrs of fly fishing, have caught crappie, catfish, carp, shiners, pickerel.... even a turtle in addition to the typical bass, bream, etc....

The challenge of fly fishing plus the unknown element of what is going to hit, are what excite me. I especially enjoy the ultra light stuff. I have a 00 weight, a 1 weight and two 3 weights. This cat hit a wooly bugger on a
Sage 3 weight. Fought that dude for almost 10 minutes before netting him. Big time fun.

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I have a couple ultralights, but only in the 2wt variety. I have caught bass, lots of types of sunfish and trout, and a 2lb channel cat (on a San Juan worm while fishing for citbait for catfish on lake Blue Ridge). I did see where TFO was selling a 5' 0 WT for around $100.00 for a while. I was tempted, but didn't have the cash to fork out on a new rod and reel. Do you use the naught weights on panfish? Can they sling a small popper OK? That sounds like a LOT of fun to me! I'll bet a bluegill on a 0wt feels like a whale!!

@Killer Kyle, the shad that you are seeing on Lanier are not American Shad. American Shad run from the Ocean up river to spawn, and Lanier has no such access because of dams all the way up the Chattahoochee. You are probably seeing really big Gizzard Shad, which are just overgrown bait fish that have naturalized in the lake. But if you want to catch an American shad, head over to Augusta this next month and you can wear them out on a fly!! I caught dozens last year in late march and early april. I think they may come early this year with the warm weather.

I hope to do just that this coming weekend. I have a few streamers and small jigs I'm going to try. We used to wear'em out with a weighted, white muddler minnow, white maribou streamers and small maribou jigs. Use to be we'd tie up a baggie full and loose most of them in the brush piles. But it was always a productive day.

I am tying the newest rage, Mop Flies, to try out on crappie.

tlip89 said:

@Killer Kyle, the shad that you are seeing on Lanier are not American Shad. American Shad run from the Ocean up river to spawn, and Lanier has no such access because of dams all the way up the Chattahoochee. You are probably seeing really big Gizzard Shad, which are just overgrown bait fish that have naturalized in the lake. But if you want to catch an American shad, head over to Augusta this next month and you can wear them out on a fly!! I caught dozens last year in late march and early april. I think they may come early this year with the warm weather.

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Thanks tlip89! I didn't know the difference! All of my family is in Augusta. My dad was the yank that moved up to Narth GA. haha. Might have to make a trip to go visit family and do some shore fishing.