Thread: 1st long lining attempt

Ps
Oldfish showed up
Scooped up all the fish

what are all the different ways to fish for Crappie?
I hear flat lining, long lining, drifting, trolling.
I'm new at this so I want to learn all I can.
Thanks for any pointers.

Originally Posted by FisherFore

what are all the different ways to fish for Crappie?
I hear flat lining, long lining, drifting, trolling.
I'm new at this so I want to learn all I can.
Thanks for any pointers.

You will here different setups called different names. To make is easy on you it goes like this & hope this will help you.

1. tight lining (spider rigging) mostly fished from the front of the boat. long rods used and 1/4 oz up weights to keep the lines vertical and fished at a slow speed. This is the way to fish when you want to control jig depth. When the fish are on big flats this is a great way to troll around the flat. Speeds will run from almost stopped up to 1.5 mph

2. Longlining, rods used out the back of the boat with the boat never stopping(most of the time but can be done from front also) you use different length rods to spread out the lines behind the boat. You can use jigs of all sizes but most will pull 1/16 oz jigs. You control the depth of your jigs by the speed of your boat. You have to speed time on flats to see how the jigs run and need to take notes of 1. amount of line out 2. size jighead + type of jigs used 3. speed of the boat. the way to learn this is to pull on different depth flats from 4' deep to 10' deep. Put the lines out the back while running at a fast speed and slow down until your jigs start to hit the bottom, make notes of your speed and the depth of the flat. If it is a 4' flat you now know how to get your jigs down to 4'. Do this on a few flats and you will have a very good starting point.

3. night stalking, anchored fishing with tight lines with light weights.

4. dock shooting, shooting jigs under docks to reach the fish in the shades of the docks or boats.

5. Jigging, using a long rod with a jig dropping down beside any and everything in the water that may be holding crappie

6. single rod fishing. Old style of throwing out a jig or minnow with or without a float.

This covers most of the ways we fish for crappie.

Brett it sounds like you had a good start for your longlining.

Thank you Stump Hunter.
This will help me alot to learn these new ways to me to
Hopefully find more fish.
Thank you again.

Biggest thing for me while long lining is putting the line out the same distance every time. For instance- Outside rods=50', next inside rod 40' third rod 30'. That's how I start if I'm in 15feet or less of water. I can adjust my lengths to what the fish prefer that day. More line=deeper jig. Less line=shallower jig.

brett ,I think you were the one scooping up the fish. I caught 18 crappie and only kept 10. Got a mess of perch for catfish bait. You were doing well from what I could see. Practice and did I say practice. Then come teach me how. Good to see ya. Come on out Sat and show us how it is done.

That's a nice start Brett. Keep moving around and trust your electronics and you'll be catching more and more.

Originally Posted by FisherFore

Thank you Stump Hunter.
This will help me alot to learn these new ways to me to
Hopefully find more fish.
Thank you again.

Do some searches on this forum for the different styles of fishing and read all you can. Decide which method you want to work on and get it mastered and move to the next best style. Once you get set up and start fishing come back and ask PLENTY of questions. That is how you learn.