Originally Posted by
CrappieWhisperer
You really know you're addicted to crappie fishing when you fish for them year around. Without a doubt fishing during the summer is the most predictable for me. The way I look at is, how does the weather affect me while I fish. The winter has deadly conditions and is by far the worst conditions that affect how well I can fish. On the other hand the summer is tough too but I can always fish from daylight till noon and be off the water before it gets too hot and I'm totally comfortable while fishing. It's also a lot easier to jump in the water and cool off if I need to. The crappie are really predictable in the summer time too. The crappie want shade and they get that from brush piles and standing timber. I know where my best brush piles or standing timber are and I know they will be there. There are several methods that almost always work and all I have to do is find out what they like best or do several of them at the same time. On a normal summer day I will try to get to my brush pile before the sun comes up. I'll position my boat 10 to 15 yards away from the brush pile and I'll cast a 1/16oz weedless jig past the brush pile and drag the jig as slow as I can back through the pile. I can usually catch the biggest fish off the pile casting because the big crappie rule the pile. Casting usually works for the first 30 minutes to an hour after sunrise. After that I'll move in a little closer and pitch a jig with 10 to 12ft of line out and let it pendulum back to vertical straight under the rod. When the early jig bit slows I'll go to minnows. I set up 3 or 4 rods with a splitshot a foot up from a minnow hook and start at a depth of 8/10ft and fish those straight down. After I have those rigged and in the water I use another rod to drop shot another minnow. I use a small bell sinker and a hook on a 2/3" loop knot 18/24" above the bell sinker. I cast this rig all around the pile and slowly drag it along bottom and let it set for 15 to 30 seconds after each drag. I try to leave enough slack in the line to not spook the fish when they pick it up. Usually during the summer I find it very difficult to fish with this rig because I'm catching so many fish off the other 3 or 4 rods. I usually go through a half a pound of minnows before noon and a normal day would be 30/50 keeper crappie on any given summer day on Oologah. That's why I say the summer is the most predictable time to catch crappie. A rule of thumb I use on my minnow rods set straight down is to change the depth deeper when I haven't had a bite in 15/20 minutes. Dropping the hook down another 2/4" works almost every time. I immediately start getting bites again. The fish move deeper into the pile as the day gets hotter. Fishing with minnows is not as fun as jigs, but at least you can usually catch some on jigs really early in the morning. Also, If you can be lucky enough to be there when a thunderstorm blows in, things can get downright outstanding.
