King.Of.Anglers.Jeremiah
Fishing ? Instructor!
Moving on from the first section in this series where I talk about crappie as a species, their habits and feeding preferences, here in part 2, I'm going to get into actually fishing for crappie in as many methods as I can, or at least willing to type. Each method will get a general overview and not do much of an in depth seminar with specifics because honestly, each one could have their own standalone thread. In Part 3, I'll cover presentation and real fishing situations to consistently find and catch crappies year round and give a season by season breakdown of where to find and how to catch them in common scenarios. Moving forward.....
The most important thing to remember when crappie fishing, is to understand that crappies feed UP. They have upturned mouths and large eyeballs toward the top of their heads to aid them in this. It is an absolute MUST to present baits at the level of the fish, or slightly higher. The old saying when it comes to crappie is "it's better to be a foot too high, than an inch too low". This is paramount for these fish. A bass, a catfish, and even a striper will swim down and grab a bait on the bottom or that just sank beneath them - not the case for a crappie. Now that we have established that, I'll take a moment to briefly discuss different methods for crappie fishing and then give some breakdowns on the more common and effective crappie baits and lures.
BOBBER FISHING
Spring fishing for many anglers normally means being lined up shoulder to shoulder with other anglers young and old down the bank with a simple bobber rig and a bucket looking for early spring papermouths. This is just plain and simple fishing at it's core and brings back memories of youth how we all got started. This is not very sophisticated fishing and can be done with a cane pole, a cheap spinning rod, even just some line tied to a stick. The rig is simple : your choice of bobber, a split shot or "pinch on" weight, and either a hook to be baited, or a jig of some type. What can be described in detail however, is the specifics of each rigging component in this setup.
Bobbers/Floats: Your choice of bobber makes a few differences in how your presentation goes for the crappie. Shape and size are the two most important factors, with material being the third. Ideally, you'll want a bobber anywhere from an inch to 4 inches long in a cylinder or cigar style float, or an inch or two in diameter for a round float. A larger bobber does increase buoyancy, but may scare the fish and fail to detect lighter bites. Round floats are also harder to take down than thinner "pencil" floats for crappie. On the other hand, thin floats are great at detecting bites, but don't handle too much weight. Lastly, the most underrated and underutilized style is the quill float. This one detects even the very lightest strikes possible, but don't cast very far at all due to their thinness and lightness, and handle the least weight. Whether you choose a clip on, weighted, unweighted, or slip float all directly affect overall performance here. When fishing clip floats, beware of any damage they do to your line, as they must have it wrapped around them to hold depth. They are the best at holding your bait in the perfect depth zone with the most consistency and don't require much adjustment. These are best for fishing shallow. When using slip floats, be sure to keep your bobber stop from slipping and make sure there are no burrs or rough edges on the inside of the tube you feed your line through to damage your line. These are best for fishing deep as they are easily adjustable and can be fished at depths up to 15 feet because the bobber stop can be reeled through the guides of the rod and sit in the spool. When using quill floats, they normally have no hole and only come with bands on the top and bottom to run your line through and attach to the float. Remember, they can't handle much weight, so they work best with the tiniest baits for finicky, light biting crappies. Many times you'll get a "lift bite" where the crappie doesn't take the float under, but grabs the bait and moves up in the water column and the float simply falls over on its side. These work best in shallow areas with the tiniest jigs and baits. Consider weighted floats if you don't want to interrupt the drop speed or action of your bait by adding a split shot or other sinker. These are also great for gaining casting distance, but they are less sensitive than other floats.
Sinkers/Weights : not much to cover here, these are just simple split shot sinkers. The clam shell "pinch" style weights and some drop shot sinkers are about all you'll ever need for crappie fishing unless you troll, in which case you may use the occasional light trolling sinker. Tungsten sinkers are smaller, but more dense than traditional lead sinkers, so if you're fishing light line in a situation where the fish are picky and easily spooked, that may be an option for you.
Hooks: hooks for crappie fishing are just about all long shank, Aberdeen style hooks and baitholder hooks. Use long shank hooks whenever possible to avoid gut hooking fish, and pinch barbs to make removal easier. If the fish are fussy, using a short shank mosquito hook can often get fish to bite. A word about color hooks for a moment - some people believe that UV enhanced hooks work better on crappie than standard bronze. This may be true, but experiment with different color hooks sometimes. Gold, red, and chartreuse hooks are used often with great results on crappie. A size 8 to size 2 are most commonly used for crappie.
POLE FISHING:
Another method of crappie fishing is with a long rod or "pole". These are specialized crappie fishing rods specifically designed to dip a bait into tight spots where crappies hold and pull them straight out. These rods can be anywhere from 8 to 15 feet long, with the most common sizes being 10-12ft. There's normally no bobber or added weight, just line and a bait or jig suspended perfectly vertical into small openings in shoreline brush piles or docks and such. Drop the bait right into that small opening, set the hook when you get a bite and lift the fish straight out of there. Pole fishing is done with bright lines most times to detect light strikes. Oftentimes heavier lines are used so that when you snag, you can straighten the hook out and get your jig back with some pressure. Bend it back in shape, make sure it's still sharp and keep fishing.
DOCK SHOOTING:
Shooting docks has quickly gained popularity over the years with crappie fishermen, and it's done normally with short rods about 5 feet or so in length. Like skip casting docks to reach bass hanging under them, dock shooting reaches hidden crappie using the shade to escape the sun. It's normally done with jigs, not live bait or other lures, but it's not impossible, considering that your aim is good and you have enough clearance. What you do is you line up to the dock and choose your target area, grab the bend of the hook, open the bail on your reel, holding the line in place with your trigger finger just like if you were making a cast. Then you pull back on the jig putting a bend in the rod loading it up like a bow and arrow. Get low to the water, aim at your target and release the jig and your trigger finger from your line at the same time, and you'll actually "shoot" your jig far back under the dock and you can now fish beneath it, watching your line for strikes as you swim it back out.
DRIFTING:
Drifting for crappie in rivers and streams is an effective technique when crappie are holding in logjams, spillways and shoreline brush. Cast upstream with a bobber rig and let it drift past the fish.
TROLLING:
Many anglers enjoy trolling for crappie from boats and kayaks. Jigs, live baits, crankbaits, and even slow trolling with bobber rigs is effective. Throwing baits out behind the boat and slowly dragging them around the lake is a great way to locate crappies and find where they're holding before coming back and using another method like jigging to catch them. When trolling, nothing is more important than speed and depth control. You must be able to fish at the level of the fish at a slow enough rate of speed to interest them. Crappie don't chase down food often, preferring to slowly swim up to it and slurp it in, as they aren't exactly the most aggressive fish.
VERTICAL JIGGING:
Easily one of the most popular ways to fish crappie, is to find a big school of them holding in open water and drop a bait right down on top of them. This can be done with any jig or live bait. Double and even triple hook rigs are even used and provide a quick limit when crappie are active. Good boat electronics are a must to do this in order to find the brush piles and cover the fish are holding to, decide how deep they're holding and how deep to fish the jig, and how to dissect the mood of the fish and present the bait appropriately - more on that later.
SPIDER RIGGING:
Spider rigging is just several rods being fished at once. Many veteran crappie fishermen have rod holders all over their boats and fish as many as 8-10 rods all at one time. Many are set at different depths and have different color jigs or bait combinations to see what crappie are hitting best on that day. The boat is drifted, trolled, or suspend on a group of fish and the fish are located and caught based on the results of the day.
FLY FISHING:
Crappies can be taken by fly, and there are even specific streamers and dry fly patterns that were designed for them. The advantage of a fly for crappie is a fly can deliver presentations too small or light to fish by other methods. During an insect hatch, fly fishing will produce when other methods fail. A 4-6wt setup with a light tippet is ideal. Tiny streamers that imitate baitfish tend to produce the best.
CRANKING:
You can fish crankbaits for crappies, almost exactly like bass fishing when you find them suspended or if you're searching for them. Crappies suspended on points and over humps love to grab a tiny 2 inch crankbait. There are many designed just for this purpose and come in many crappie attracting colors vs the normal largemouth patterns and smallmouth colors we're used to and are normally bright and vibrant. Spinning gear is best for this and produces many fish. Sometimes they prefer this faster approach over the slow dangle of a jig. There are also crappie spinnerbaits that work well for locating fish, but they're more for shallow water and around wood and weed cover.
TOPWATER:
YES, you read that right. You can topwater fish for crappie. You'll need them to be shallow and active, but they will not hesitate to grab a little popper or floater - diver plug or minnowbait. Normally early and late in the day, active spring time crappies sit just below the surface or shallow enough to rise to the top and eat a floating bait.
The most important thing to remember when crappie fishing, is to understand that crappies feed UP. They have upturned mouths and large eyeballs toward the top of their heads to aid them in this. It is an absolute MUST to present baits at the level of the fish, or slightly higher. The old saying when it comes to crappie is "it's better to be a foot too high, than an inch too low". This is paramount for these fish. A bass, a catfish, and even a striper will swim down and grab a bait on the bottom or that just sank beneath them - not the case for a crappie. Now that we have established that, I'll take a moment to briefly discuss different methods for crappie fishing and then give some breakdowns on the more common and effective crappie baits and lures.
BOBBER FISHING
Spring fishing for many anglers normally means being lined up shoulder to shoulder with other anglers young and old down the bank with a simple bobber rig and a bucket looking for early spring papermouths. This is just plain and simple fishing at it's core and brings back memories of youth how we all got started. This is not very sophisticated fishing and can be done with a cane pole, a cheap spinning rod, even just some line tied to a stick. The rig is simple : your choice of bobber, a split shot or "pinch on" weight, and either a hook to be baited, or a jig of some type. What can be described in detail however, is the specifics of each rigging component in this setup.
Bobbers/Floats: Your choice of bobber makes a few differences in how your presentation goes for the crappie. Shape and size are the two most important factors, with material being the third. Ideally, you'll want a bobber anywhere from an inch to 4 inches long in a cylinder or cigar style float, or an inch or two in diameter for a round float. A larger bobber does increase buoyancy, but may scare the fish and fail to detect lighter bites. Round floats are also harder to take down than thinner "pencil" floats for crappie. On the other hand, thin floats are great at detecting bites, but don't handle too much weight. Lastly, the most underrated and underutilized style is the quill float. This one detects even the very lightest strikes possible, but don't cast very far at all due to their thinness and lightness, and handle the least weight. Whether you choose a clip on, weighted, unweighted, or slip float all directly affect overall performance here. When fishing clip floats, beware of any damage they do to your line, as they must have it wrapped around them to hold depth. They are the best at holding your bait in the perfect depth zone with the most consistency and don't require much adjustment. These are best for fishing shallow. When using slip floats, be sure to keep your bobber stop from slipping and make sure there are no burrs or rough edges on the inside of the tube you feed your line through to damage your line. These are best for fishing deep as they are easily adjustable and can be fished at depths up to 15 feet because the bobber stop can be reeled through the guides of the rod and sit in the spool. When using quill floats, they normally have no hole and only come with bands on the top and bottom to run your line through and attach to the float. Remember, they can't handle much weight, so they work best with the tiniest baits for finicky, light biting crappies. Many times you'll get a "lift bite" where the crappie doesn't take the float under, but grabs the bait and moves up in the water column and the float simply falls over on its side. These work best in shallow areas with the tiniest jigs and baits. Consider weighted floats if you don't want to interrupt the drop speed or action of your bait by adding a split shot or other sinker. These are also great for gaining casting distance, but they are less sensitive than other floats.
Sinkers/Weights : not much to cover here, these are just simple split shot sinkers. The clam shell "pinch" style weights and some drop shot sinkers are about all you'll ever need for crappie fishing unless you troll, in which case you may use the occasional light trolling sinker. Tungsten sinkers are smaller, but more dense than traditional lead sinkers, so if you're fishing light line in a situation where the fish are picky and easily spooked, that may be an option for you.
Hooks: hooks for crappie fishing are just about all long shank, Aberdeen style hooks and baitholder hooks. Use long shank hooks whenever possible to avoid gut hooking fish, and pinch barbs to make removal easier. If the fish are fussy, using a short shank mosquito hook can often get fish to bite. A word about color hooks for a moment - some people believe that UV enhanced hooks work better on crappie than standard bronze. This may be true, but experiment with different color hooks sometimes. Gold, red, and chartreuse hooks are used often with great results on crappie. A size 8 to size 2 are most commonly used for crappie.
POLE FISHING:
Another method of crappie fishing is with a long rod or "pole". These are specialized crappie fishing rods specifically designed to dip a bait into tight spots where crappies hold and pull them straight out. These rods can be anywhere from 8 to 15 feet long, with the most common sizes being 10-12ft. There's normally no bobber or added weight, just line and a bait or jig suspended perfectly vertical into small openings in shoreline brush piles or docks and such. Drop the bait right into that small opening, set the hook when you get a bite and lift the fish straight out of there. Pole fishing is done with bright lines most times to detect light strikes. Oftentimes heavier lines are used so that when you snag, you can straighten the hook out and get your jig back with some pressure. Bend it back in shape, make sure it's still sharp and keep fishing.
DOCK SHOOTING:
Shooting docks has quickly gained popularity over the years with crappie fishermen, and it's done normally with short rods about 5 feet or so in length. Like skip casting docks to reach bass hanging under them, dock shooting reaches hidden crappie using the shade to escape the sun. It's normally done with jigs, not live bait or other lures, but it's not impossible, considering that your aim is good and you have enough clearance. What you do is you line up to the dock and choose your target area, grab the bend of the hook, open the bail on your reel, holding the line in place with your trigger finger just like if you were making a cast. Then you pull back on the jig putting a bend in the rod loading it up like a bow and arrow. Get low to the water, aim at your target and release the jig and your trigger finger from your line at the same time, and you'll actually "shoot" your jig far back under the dock and you can now fish beneath it, watching your line for strikes as you swim it back out.
DRIFTING:
Drifting for crappie in rivers and streams is an effective technique when crappie are holding in logjams, spillways and shoreline brush. Cast upstream with a bobber rig and let it drift past the fish.
TROLLING:
Many anglers enjoy trolling for crappie from boats and kayaks. Jigs, live baits, crankbaits, and even slow trolling with bobber rigs is effective. Throwing baits out behind the boat and slowly dragging them around the lake is a great way to locate crappies and find where they're holding before coming back and using another method like jigging to catch them. When trolling, nothing is more important than speed and depth control. You must be able to fish at the level of the fish at a slow enough rate of speed to interest them. Crappie don't chase down food often, preferring to slowly swim up to it and slurp it in, as they aren't exactly the most aggressive fish.
VERTICAL JIGGING:
Easily one of the most popular ways to fish crappie, is to find a big school of them holding in open water and drop a bait right down on top of them. This can be done with any jig or live bait. Double and even triple hook rigs are even used and provide a quick limit when crappie are active. Good boat electronics are a must to do this in order to find the brush piles and cover the fish are holding to, decide how deep they're holding and how deep to fish the jig, and how to dissect the mood of the fish and present the bait appropriately - more on that later.
SPIDER RIGGING:
Spider rigging is just several rods being fished at once. Many veteran crappie fishermen have rod holders all over their boats and fish as many as 8-10 rods all at one time. Many are set at different depths and have different color jigs or bait combinations to see what crappie are hitting best on that day. The boat is drifted, trolled, or suspend on a group of fish and the fish are located and caught based on the results of the day.
FLY FISHING:
Crappies can be taken by fly, and there are even specific streamers and dry fly patterns that were designed for them. The advantage of a fly for crappie is a fly can deliver presentations too small or light to fish by other methods. During an insect hatch, fly fishing will produce when other methods fail. A 4-6wt setup with a light tippet is ideal. Tiny streamers that imitate baitfish tend to produce the best.
CRANKING:
You can fish crankbaits for crappies, almost exactly like bass fishing when you find them suspended or if you're searching for them. Crappies suspended on points and over humps love to grab a tiny 2 inch crankbait. There are many designed just for this purpose and come in many crappie attracting colors vs the normal largemouth patterns and smallmouth colors we're used to and are normally bright and vibrant. Spinning gear is best for this and produces many fish. Sometimes they prefer this faster approach over the slow dangle of a jig. There are also crappie spinnerbaits that work well for locating fish, but they're more for shallow water and around wood and weed cover.
TOPWATER:
YES, you read that right. You can topwater fish for crappie. You'll need them to be shallow and active, but they will not hesitate to grab a little popper or floater - diver plug or minnowbait. Normally early and late in the day, active spring time crappies sit just below the surface or shallow enough to rise to the top and eat a floating bait.
