Quote Originally Posted by danrclem View Post
Do any of you crappie experts have any tips for fishing Taylorsville for crappie? I'm am very crappie illiterate. I've been fishing for them at Taylorsville for several years but usually don't get to go that much. I go to Taylorsville because it's only about 15 miles from my house to Settlers Trace and very seldom go anywhere else. I've only had one good year catching crappie at Taylorsville and that was a couple years or so ago. Pappy might have given me a clue about early May because I figured the crappie spawned earllier up there and early May I've usually given up on the crappie.
I was laid off last week and netted one crappie a little less than 12" long in two outings of about 3 hours each. I threw it back because it was the only one that I caught so I don't know if it had eggs or not. We caught a couple cats, a nice bluegill and a 10" bass too. The surface water was a little over 67 degrees. I'm going to be laid off again this week so I think I'll try it again even though I have a long honeydo list.
The best tips I can give, come from many years past ... so I don't know if they're relevant nowadays. In any event, here's how I've had the best success :

Fish the pockets off the main lake, but only if they have at least 10+ fow at the outside, and they have standing tree hulks from front to back. Look for fallen trees coming off the bank, out into those pockets.

Fish ANY fallen tree that sticks out into the water, whether it's on the main lake or in a pocket, or in a creek. Those that are large & stick out into deeper water (>12ft) are better than the shallower ones, normally ... but, don't pass up a chance to try at the tip ends of even the shallower ones.

While there are some fish that can be caught in a couple of feet of water, most of my "spawning" fish were caught around 6-8ft deep ... and almost always relating to wood. Banks that are shaded for the most part of the early part of the day, seemed to always produce better for me than those exposed to direct sunlight from the early morning hours on. This seemed to be the case, even into the Summer months, well after the post spawn period.

Good places (downed trees, brushpiles) come & go, from year to year ... mostly due to the flooding that takes place. This can make T-ville a little bit of a daunting task to pattern. It can also make or break a bank, pocket, or a spot where you've had previous success. Always keep searching for new spots, even while moving from one previously successful spot to another, on your "milk run".

Keep these words in the back of your mind, at all times, when fishing T-ville :

8ft deep (most often found depth of suspended fish, & spawning fish)
wood (standing in 8fow or more, or lying down & sticking out into >15fow)
slow retrieve (self explanatory)

Try Vertical Casting* around standing trees & down into fallen trees ... even if you've cast to these trees without success. Keep track of how deep your jig is, if/when the hit comes ... it'll give you a good idea of the depth the fish are suspending at, whether they're down in the heart of the tree/limbs or suspending above them, and how aggressively they're feeding (what mood they're in).
* Crappie.com - Crappie Fishing Information and Adventure - Vertical Casting

... cp