Keys to floating a jig and catching Cane Creek crappie

[Lucky]

Location, location, and location. We know they say that 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. I have established for myself that when the crappie are not scatered and active they are in certain very specific locations.

For each location I have learned what and where the structure is. In that, my cast are very specific to the given area. By starting shallow (3ft) above the structure and working my way deeper (8ft) into and around the structure I often find that the Crappie are in one specfic spot. I may catch 15 to 20 crappie from one very specific place. If I can't fish those certain locations I do not catch crappie.

I feel for the bait fish which I can feel when I lift the jig from the dept. Once I know the dept of the shad I set my dept just below them.

When the crappie are not really feeding I feel that how I move my jig is critical. I use a small round bobber that the most sutle movement is to cause the bobber to simply roll 90 degrees onto its side without moving laterally. Sometime this small movement is all that is needed. The most aggressive movement for me is to snap the bobber forward 2 to 3 inches. No matter how I move the jig I only do it once.What I do most often is set a pattern that goes like this. Snap pause snap pause etc. Note: I feel that I can't do the pattern to slow but certainly can do it too fast.

On a recent trip to Cane Creek I fished side by side with two other boats. We all cast to the same location at the same time and started our retreives. Repeatedly my bobber disappeared while the other two fisherman did not get a bite. One man yelled "how the hell do you do that"? I feel it was the movement of the jig.

What I have seen of most of the fisherman that try to do this technique is that they move the jig to much. They move the jig too often and too far ( 1ft to 2 ft). This type of retreive will catch fish but not as many. When the crappie are deep and not active they will not chase the jig. Also if I determine that the crappie are deep and located between two tops I want to stay in the strike zone longer.

I am sharing some of my thought as to why I think Cane Creek is being so productive for me.

[Jerry Blake]

Hey Willie:

It's great to have you on Crappie.com. Thanks for sharing your techniques for success. I can see you are going to be a valuable asset here. Often times it gets right down to the finest of details when it comes to convincing crappie to go for a boat ride. I hope to have the opportunity to meet you in person.

[TJ Adams]

Wow....Thanks Willie, I guess I would fall into the people that retrieve to fast...Thanks for the info! I'll try to slow down...:D

[L.A. stumpjumper]

Hey Lucky, a good write up on your technique. I have slow down a lot, but I notice I was still retreive faster than you. I'll have to work on that.

[gooch]

Wow Willie that was one of the best crappie articals I have read in some time. No sponsors mentioned and a ton of good advice.

One question I did have was what color jig do you like the best on Cane Creek? If I understand corectly its a clear water lake.

[bobberwatcher]

Outstanding article Lucky. Articles like that is what this site is all about. Thanks for taking the time to explain your technique. I think I need to slow my F-16 fighter jet retrieve down to the caterpillar crawl you have described. :D

[Lucky]

Gooch, I had been using orange and chartreuse but noticed the water color became more cloudy back when some were talking about the lake turning over. Thats when I went to solid chartreuse. Hope I spelled that correctly.

[jlaughlin72]

Great article Lucky, that sounds alot like how i fish them with a float, one thing i notice is sometime a real slow retrieve with the jig hanging under a float will catch a few also. Thanks for the post.

[Darryl Morris]

Great post. Casting to get your bait into the spot and suspending the bait under a float to keep it there makes perfect sense to me. And I can see how it keeps from spooking the fish in shallow water. Agreed, slow is key to catching the most finicky of crappie. Without the use of the float, you'd never be able to stop long enough for the crappie to bite. I hope we get to fish together sometime in the near future.

[Slipcork]

Lucky,

That's a great post. That's about how I like to fish a jig. I use a slipcork with a little glass bead. I can work the jig up and down without moving cork very much at all. I can also hear when the bead tap the metal ring in the top of the cork any time the line is tapped by a fish.

The slip cork make it easier to cast and better control for me. Keeps me out of the trees. Well sometimes.

Gonna have to get me a trip to CC this spring. Hope to see you there.