Help out newbie

[DEERCHOP]

Guy's i have the crappie bug something bad but I just can not seem to catch them unless they are on the bank jumping in the boat. I went and bought me a nice Humminbird side view and thought maybe that would help me locate them with no such luck. I know where i fish they are there because I caught them really good last spring. I am mainly a jig thrower and that just the way I like to fish. So I have a couple questions for you.

When you are on a lake exactly where do you start looking for them, what is the main thing you are looking for at certain times of the year.

How do you establish a depth to fish for them, sonar?

Just a little help would be appreciated.

[dwightparks]

Water temperature very important as to where fish are located. Crappie will usually seek out warmer water and cover. Because you caught them same place before water could have been warmer and fish in shallow. Keep trying the fish will probably return. Weather has kept water temps below normal due to harsh winter.

[lowe175]

Check the water timp. The kind of fishing your taking about will not get good till the timps get to 60 . Right now look for shallow flats about 6 to 8 ft deep look for shad if the shad are there the crappie will be there . It's best to use a float right now . You will do better trolling right now in creeks but it sounds like that's not you think hope this helps. What lake you fishing this well help use help you.

[liftbite56]

It took us 2 hours to figure out where they were in our creek. plus the water temp came up real fast! it was 50 when we had to stop. pulling jigs under a cork just works! they wanted it at .7 mph. 3' under cork . it was like when we would see bait with fish in them...we could call it...we would count to 10 and a cork would go under! almost all were so big didn't need to measure. we released all the fish that were full of eggs.

[Bob D]

Okay all that being said, another real quick was to find fish is look for all the other boats! There's usually a good reason why all those folks are there in that area. Just saying, it's a quick way to find help on a new lake or a new technique.

[footballcoach]

All the above are true, but experience is the best teacher. Watch what others are doing. Ask others. Most crappie fishermen will talk to you about techniques and locations. There is a lot of knowledge on this site. Ive picked up quite a bit of info from Rees Guide on Mississippi forum. They fish a little differently and some of their techniques have helped me broaden the spectrum a little. For example, I didn't have a clue what a gnat was until Rees told me and Ive been fishing over 50 yrs.

[LarryDavid]

Really the best thing you can do for fishing for crappy is simply keep a journal. These fish seem very finicky, but they do have a rhyme and reason to them that makes them much easier to catch if you spend the extra time documenting your research. For those of you who know me over the years here, I know you're going, "There he goes again!" Sorry, I know I"m like a broken record when it comes to pointing out how important it is to keep a journal.

If you do, you will find these fish do, as you've noticed, return to the exact same places at almost the exact same times, every single year. Right now, most places in Alabama, they are just outside the spawning areas waiting to go in. It gets easier each week now until a couple weeks after the spawn. The journal really comes in handy for the months leading up to the spawn, from say November through February, but I'll point out how it is very important now, too.

Something that is a real problem right now for most of the state is water clarity. You simply have a tough time limiting out when the water is as dingy as it is right now. They are moving up, or just about to move up, in a lot of places, but harder to catch because of this issue.

I kept a very detailed journal for several decades at Guntersville. After awhile, you notice startling things about where they are at certain times of the year. Once you match the time with the temperatures, it's rather easy. I'm surprised people just don't take notes, really on just about everything that matters in life. You'd be amazed at what you find. I'm a sports writer, so I've been doing it all my life. Now, for crappie fishing, I've been doing it so long, I just time stamp areas with photo dates to prove what I already know. The journal should have the date, the times, the water clarity, the water temperature, the lures, the line pound test, the presentation, the results. If it was today, I'd headline it: Guntersville, 3/11/15, water clarity 1 foot or less, water temp 46-48 degrees, then list where I fished and what happened. It doesn't have to be all that long, just a paragraph or two, just meat and potatoes with the info you save.

Check it out the next year if you were successful, and if you go back within a week before or after, it's probably going to be much the same. Once you find these spots and catch them at certain times of the year, they're going to return the next year and the next and the next ... The only thing that is going to stop them is if someone comes in and starts dredging the area up to put in boat docks, or if they start spraying the area with chemicals. In other words, man is the only one who can mess them up! And, boy have I seen that happen several times over the years in some wonderful spots. But for the most part, luckily, once you find them, you can bank on them each and every year.

Simple example: bridges. Surface water temp 52 to 58 in the fall, ==== WIN! You will limit out if you have any basic knowledge of how to catch them. If you add a journal to this basic knowledge, then you really start to hone in on when and where and how. Once you start going away from bridges, obviously, away from their major highways of travel and have to track them to their spawning areas, it starts to get tricky. A journal makes it easy because on their way, they are at places one week, sometimes even just one or two days, then they are gone. If you know about when to check these areas, you can be highly successful and find out that you are all alone wiping them out because nobody else has a clue they are even there!

In months like late January, the fish begin to congregate at certain lake points, ect., and it's much more detailed than it is now. If you know where they spawn, then you really know all you need to know at this moment about being very close to the fish.

Once you catch a fish, stop! I've found that the crappie and bull brim and early bedding shellcrackers, bed right next to each other, but usually, really always, that I've found, not together (crappie and brim). It's almost funny how close they bed sometimes, but never on top of each other. This was the case the last time I went the other day. They were even staging exactly just outside of where they will bed - the exact same spot they bedded last year. Sure, you can realize this just by fishing and remembering a spot(s), but it's the times when you limited out - when was that again? When was it that time they were stacked here on this point? Things like that. Unless you have a photographic memory, and it holds up over the years, you forget the real detail you need to be super successful. That's where the journal kills. That's where that one fisherman is always successful and others are just crap shooting.

One more thing, each time you go, even if you're highly successful, fish some new water. If you spend about an hour or two in new water each time, you add ammo. Use your map to find areas you want to explore and do it. I've been fishing Guntersville for 45 years now. I found my best spot ever for crappie just last year on a scouting mission. I had been meaning to go to this spot for several years, but for some reason just didn't do it. I've found my best spots for bass in the last 10 years. I don't do it as much as I should, but unless you've been fishing a lake as long as I have, you should fish new water each time you go and document it in your journal when you are successful.

[DEERCHOP]

Thanks for the input guys. The journal is a great idea but so far this winter it would be blank pages. Hopefully this warm weather will put them where even I can catch a few. I hope to someday be able to go catch them anytime like some of you but man it gets discouraging some times. Any other tips would be great and I do have a couple cork setups i have been trying. I will put some extra time on them this weekend.

[wartom]

All the above are true, but experience is the best teacher. Watch what others are doing. Ask others. Most crappie fishermen will talk to you about techniques and locations. There is a lot of knowledge on this site. Ive picked up quite a bit of info from Rees Guide on Mississippi forum. They fish a little differently and some of their techniques have helped me broaden the spectrum a little. For example, I didn't have a clue what a gnat was until Rees told me and Ive been fishing over 50 yrs.

What is a gnat? Besides an annoying insect.

[DOFC]

What is a gnat? Besides an annoying insect.

Basically a gnat is a jig without lead. Some folks prefer them on jig hooks, others prefer to just tie them on straight hooks. You may have to copy and paste the link to get it to work.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/-memb...im-jigs-gnats/