Thread: Had some beginner’s success catching crappie.

I went fishing Saturday. Took my bass gear and also my crappie gear. Figured I’d try for both. I was successful catching both as well. I started out bass fishing with a crankbait, and caught a couple but then the bite dried up. Moved locations and caught one more and then nothing again. So I ran the boat up the lake and came upon a cove where the fish finder showed what looked like hundreds of fish moving into the cove. I figured they may be a lot of baitfish, and I know it is still prespawn where I’m at so I also figured these baitfish are attracting bass and crappie both that are feeding up in advance of spawning. So I spent the rest of my day here. I wanted to try targeting crappie specifically so I tied on a Fin Spin and began fan casting it just probing the shoreline and also letting it sink deep and just combing water with it. I got two more bass on the Fin Spin, and then got a crappie on it. Once I found crappie I figured it might be a school, and I wanted to slow down and try fishing a jig in the school like Richard Gene showed to do.

The fish finder showed the wated depth in the cove to be 10 feet deep and most of the fish holding at 6-10 foot depths. Water was very murky with only about one foot of visibility, and 66° to 68°. So I tied on a bright orange 1/16 oz ballhead jig and put a white 1 inch curly tail grub on it. I rigged it sideways and trimmed the C shaped curl off the tail, leaving only enough of the tail to resemble the beaver tailed baits Richard Gene uses. Then I casted it out and counted it down until I thought it was at the right depth. Then started reeling it back in super slow. I felt my rod tip jump and I lightly set the hook and hauled in a 9” crappie. Not too big but definitely bigger than most crappie I’ve ever caught on accident while bass fishing. This gives me a lot of encouragement that the techniques I have watched Richard use will work for me also.

I also experimented with a slip float and tried to use 12 pound line to tie a bobber stop onto my 4 pound main line. This worked but I discovered that tying two overhand knots makes it too large to pass through the guides on my new crappie rod. The last 4 guides are micro guides and the stop knot kept getting hung up and slipping on the line. So while I was fiddling with the knot my jig was in the water laying on the bottom, and when I fixed my line I reeled it in and it had a crappie hooked on it too. I don’t know when that one took the bait. Could have been on the drop, or while it was laying there, or as I reeled it back in. But it caught a crappie without even being twitched.

I also continued using the Fin Spin and got two more crappie on it, but not as big. Only about the size of my hand. Then I got it hung up and lost it. Not a big deal, I have 15 more in different colors. Yeah I’ve already bought a lot of crappie stuff for someone who is just getting started. But I’m stoked to have gotten a few. I caught 6 bass and only 5 crappie, but the crappie fishing was my favorite part of the day. These are small but here’s a couple of the pics. The first one is the crappie that hit the jig as I wound it back in. It’s on the Bass Pro Shops Crappie Maxx Quick Tip rod, the one with 4 pound line and micro guides in the orange tip section. The second pic is of one that hit the Fin Spin on my St. Croix Premier medium light with 8 pound mono.

Beats work any day of the week!