Thread: Brand spankin new to crappie fishing

Thanks for all the advice. Sunday will be the next time I'll be able to get on the river. I'm going to go prepared with minnows and jigs. Still learning how to read the fish on depth finder as well so we shall see what happens. I will post the report once I get home. Wish me luck.

Well between work and the wife I was not able to get on the river this pass weekend. The way its looking I wont be able to fish until Feb 13-14...bummer

Slow for me. 1 yesterday, 1 today. Water in bad shape around me

My advice is try to find a mentor willing to show you the ropes.

Don't give up keep trying it will all come together sooner or later and you will get to catching them. It is like any other sport the more you do it the better you get at doing it. The biggest thing I can tell you is to learn with minnows first as that is the easiest way. Then you can start using all the other artificial baits when you get comfortable catching crappie. If the temperature is warming up there in Florida you may need to try fishing in shallower water,and try using a cork to keep the bait above the crappie because they always look upward for bait and not downward. Just my 2 cents worth. Best of luck.

If I were you I would be longlining down there. Im sure crappie are in pre spawn mode. You can cover alot of water and find the aggressive fish. Look up longlining 101. Curly tail jigs and crappie sliders or bg strollrs.

Originally Posted by jarrod578

Well today was officially the first day I set out to specifically target Crappie and it was a failure. Spent 6 hrs on the Choctawhatchee River (Florida). After about the 3rd hr of not catching anything, I thought about the fishermen's "Stay Positive" mindset, therefore, I pushed on hoping the next cast would land one. Well, once the sun started to ease down and the temp started to drop, I decided to call it a day. I didn't even get a hit and got completely skunked.

Not sure if it was something I was doing or the fish just were not active. I focused a lot of my time on jigging (1/16 oz w/Mr. Crappie shad pole) brush and fallen trees along the bank that went into deeper water. I also threw several types of small crankbaits and a Beatle Spin. I fished on the main river were the water was moving good and also back in sloughs and creeks where the water was barely moving. One thing I did not have were minnows but don't know how well they would of been since I couldn't even locate the fish. On the depth finder there were brush piles, drop offs and deep holes all over the place. I'm not an expert at reading that thing but it didn't appear there was much life in and around them.

Crappie fishing is new to me and believe it or not, I have never caught one...not even by accident. I think that's why I have set out on this mission to learn the ways to catch those so called tasty fish. If my fishing tactics were off for this time of year let me know...based on the results of today any advice would be helpful.

you'll get used to that big zero.....after two years I set my limit to one crappie....dare I say it is a goal/trip.......keep at it...water is cold and as it warms it will get better......

Originally Posted by jarrod578

Well between work and the wife I was not able to get on the river this pass weekend. The way its looking I wont be able to fish until Feb 13-14...bummer

relax.....you go when you can...as there......are things in life that are more important than fishing....just that there is NOTHING more fun than fishing:/