LOSER Tips and Tricks: Taking advantage of a full moon…

[Tony McCall]

This looks like its gonna be an exceptional weekend for fishing. Winter has finally given up the ghost, warm weather is here, and there’s a full moon in the night sky. If you aren’t careful you will accidentally relinquish your LOSER status this weekend.

With that thought in mind I thought it might be helpful to publish a list of tips and tricks to help you in your pursuit of the three-pound ghost crappie…

[Tony McCall]

Tip #1: Big Bobbers are Better – With a full moon in the sky at night, crappie are accustomed to seeing a big bright blob overhead. You can lull them into a sense of false security if you use an exceptionally large bobber. One of those orange and yellow plastic jobs that is as big as a softball is good for this. The crappie will surely seek out your bait when it dangles below one of those jewels.

[Tony McCall]

Tip #2: Brush Piles Produce – Every crappie fisherman knows that these prized fish love brush piles. If you want to load the boat up with big slabs you must locate these brush piles. The best way to do that is to tie on a big heavy jig head and begin to systematically cover the water with it, reeling very slowly, until you finally get hung up.

Once you get hung up you have located the crappie condo. Now, in order to wake the crappie up and entice them to bite, you should shake the brush pile as violently as you can. This is like a dinner bell and alerts all the crappie to be on the look out for free food.

[Tony McCall]

Tip #3: Anchor Dredging Works – Another way to locate fish producing structure is to dredge the bottom of the lake with your anchor until it becomes tangled in the logs and limbs on the bottom. This accomplishes two things. First it allows you to pull the brush pile up to the surface of the water so you can get a good idea of what your target habitat looks like. Secondly it insures that you are anchored over a crappie producing hotspot.

Remember, when employing this method, that patience is the key. The fish may be intimidated by your anchor at first but don’t fret, if you fish here long enough they will finally decide to come out and play.

[Tony McCall]

Tip #4: Speed Troll for Success – The old adage is true, 20% of the fish live in 80% of the water. That means that most of the water in your lake has the potential of holding at least 20% of the fish. You can increase your odds of filling your live well by covering as much of that fish-producing water, as quickly as possible.

The best way to approach this is speed trolling. Lay out a grid pattern in your mind so that you can cover the most water in the most efficient manner possible. You will want to focus on clear water that doesn’t have any logs, trees or other kind of stick-ups to impede your progress. Then bait as many poles as you can muster together with as many different offerings as you can come up with.

Hang them all out in the water from all sides of your boat. You want poles hanging out of every possible place on your boat. Then fire up your big motor and cover every square inch of that highly prized water with your veritable jig buffet – as fast as you can.

Everyone that is in the know already knows that slab crappie can’t resist fast food. Now you know too!

[Tony McCall]

Tip #5: Early Mornings are Overrated – Go ahead and sleep in, the crappie like a lazy morning just as well as the next guy. It’s a little known and well kept secret among us LOSERs that the bite is always best in the middle of the day. Go ahead and hit the snooze button, roll over and catch another hour of sleep then get up and enjoy a big breakfast with the wife – the fishing will keep.

There are several benefits to this. First of all, you will feel better. Fishing is hard work. You need your rest. Secondly, by going mid-day you will catch the crappie during a productive but not widely known of noon feeding frenzy. Finally you won’t have to deal with as much traffic on the boat ramp and the lake won’t be quiet as crowded in the hottest part of the day.

[Tony McCall]

Tip #6: Make Waves – With all the bad weather that we have had this spring the fish are very accustomed to violent waves. It is well known, among LOSERs, that a calm day, with little or no wind is very likely to shut down the bite all together!

You may not realize this but your boat produces a wake. In case you haven’t noticed, there is little difference between wakes and waves, especially from a fish’s point of view.

If you want to increase your fishing odds, locate a likely fishing hole then rev up your big motor and run your boat in circles around it, producing as many waves as possible. This will excite the fish and snap them from the slumber that the calm water has lulled them into.

You can repeat this as many times as necessary…

[Tony McCall]

Tip #7: Big Minners are Best – Minners are kind of like bobbers, bigger is better. Forget those little stealth mode minners, I recommend rice slicks! They are brightly colord like a crappie jig, they are much more lively, they live much longer after you hook them, and, when the fishing gets slow, you can always pretend that you are catching them instead of fishing with them.

Want to increase your odds of catching a three-pound ghost crappie?!?!? Increase your minner size. Want to virtually guarantee good results?!?!?!? SUPERSIZE your miners! Rice slicks are the bomb!

[blackfish]

Thats good advice. I really like no.7 LMAO.

[Zipperjack]

Hey I've tried theses tricks. I thought I was making mistakes but now I know I was just born with great crappie knowledge !!!