Thread: Hartford county newbeeie

Crappie can be tough no doubt. Spent years in NJ knocking them dead in the spring and then trying to figure out the summer pattern. The spring is easy, watch water temps and when it hits 50 start looking in protected shallows 4 or 5 feet deep near a drop off. As the temp continues to rise fish fall downs even shallower. In the summer the only real luck I have had was drifting drop offs at varying depths with twister tail jigs. I'm now working on figuring out tidal rivers in the winter and having fun. Told a few saltwater friends that I was still fishing and they asked for what? I said crappie and they laughed like I was joking. I bet them that if they were set out on the river in winter they would have a hell of a time catching even one. It takes work and experience just like anything else.

Thanks Zippy, as soon as all this ice is gone I'm going to start my crappie nose to the grind stone endeavor. I live on the upper bay and the rivers I fish avg. 6 feet of depth with the deeper waters of 12-14 feet in the main channels. I have caught crappies in the boat yards around pilings and piers while fishing for yellow perch in the early spring. Here you also have tides to contend with and I leave scratching my head most days. I was thinking conowingo res. May be a place that holds good crappie fishing? No one around here really bothers with them but I know they are here. I worked for a commercial fisherman in my teens and remember catching huge crappies in pound nets and drifting gill nets for perch and always getting these huge crappies that were promptly taken by my boss for his own . I live and fish out of the bush river and I know the fish are there I just can't figure it out. Jigs on a slip bobber or minnows on a drop shot? I can't win. Thanks for the reply, have a great day. Kurt

I'll bet those areas you caught some crappie along with the yellows have fish near them now. Dock shooting for crappie in winter can be productive in tidal creeks. Some of the areas I fish the water around the docks is around 6 ft. Find the ones close to deeper water. I have fished dozens of docks only to find one or two productive ones. The next day they weren't there so we had to start over and find them. These fish spook easy, so I don't get too close to the dock. It will take some time to zero in on them. I prefer a jig and bobber in these areas in winter. It keeps the bait in the strike zone longer. I don't know how deep the water is at the train bridge, but that might also hold fish. It will take some time to find them let alone get them to bite. The bobber might only twitch indicting a strike since they engulf the bait and don't move. You can also find schools in bends and other areas of the creek channel such as rip rap.
Conowingo has a good crappie population, but when I fished that area we were focused more on walleye. Either way you are going to have to search them out, but once you find them it will be well worth it.

Mike

That's good to hear....I will give that a try in the boat yard and target peirs and pilings closest to the outlet to the main channel, the water is around 6 feet deep in the slips so I guess I would use a slip bobber with adj. Bobber stop and try different depths until I find at what level the fish are? Would be nice if one of my boys could go too and he try one depth and myself another , that may help cut down on finding them. No one in harford county sells minnows any longer so do you suggest anything special jig or body wise to be productive? Thanks again....Kurt

Excellent advice from Mikeguard01 there......Broad Creek on Conowingo holds crappie all year. Try Bowleys for minnows.

Some of those reservoirs have huge untapped crappie fisheries. I used to fish Spruce Run Resevoir in NJ and nobody fished for crappies. Every spring while fishing for hybrid stripers you would catch a gigantic crappie, and if you were lucky a ton of them and by big I mean mutant fat 14 - 16 inch fish. I found man made lakes really difficult and other than just happening on the fish I was never able to find them again except by accident or drifting over drop offs. To get to the best of the crappies you would need a boat and a sonar especially after the spawn. I fish tubes and twister tails exclusively and am finding really small ones no bigger than 1/32 oz are the key to winter fishing in tidal rivers. At least that's the only size that I am consistently catching on.

I am going to cabelas in del. On sat and plan on getting a boat load of of 1/32 gigs. I have two boats a 20' Carolina skiff and a 19 ' Lowe big Jon. Both have lowerance sonars of fair quality. Thinking the Jon boat for now and as soon as the ice clears out I will hit broad creek, I did have my truck broken into at broad creek landing about ten yes ago , I hope its safer now cause I am going to become a crappie fisherman come hell or high water!

Get ready for a light bite. I'm sure 90 % of the people who fish in the winter are either fishing too fast or not prepared for the gentle lifting bite. This was me a couple of months ago before I figured out what I was doing wrong. Once I started fishing like I was on ice I started catching fish again, straight down and slooowwww.