More dinkin around

Lately the crappies have been few and far between. Sunnies we found, nothing big but enough 7 and 8 inchers to make a nice set of fillets had we kept any of them. Some nice bass, too. When we fish here in the Metro we release everything; there are more than enough others who harvest, far more than enough IMO, although few catch full limits, and we outcatch far too many to add our numbers.

So tonight we decided to shoot for some numbers on the docks. The first one yielded a few bluegills, a handful in the 7-8 inch size, but only one crappie. One big queen of a muskie took up residence under that dock and the bite, what there was of it in the first place went completely south.

The real story was the second dock. The second one was also quiet until we worked it out. Tonight's color was pearl, a few came on the old faithful red and chartreuse inch and a half tube. Size was also important; the inch and a half white tube and the inch and a quarter luv nub took most of the fish. Presentation was pretty much a straight right over the edge jig with a very tiny bit of lateral motion. Fish came from right on the bottom at maybe 8-10 fow up to just at the edge of visibility, which was four or five feet just at the outside weed line and out over the shallow edge of the flat outside of it.

My buddy released 20 crappies and I released 10. We also put back about 10 baby walleyes and a handful of perch in some 2 hours or so on the second dock. All were dinks anyway with maybe only 5 or 6 crappies out of the thirty actually making 8", the walleyes were especially tiny, but while we were there we saw nobody else on that dock catch anything. The crappie bite was very soft as it generally is on the little plastics, but the little walleyes popped it good when they hit. We could have come up just about a scratch meal, if we had been so inclined, but that would have been about it.

It is interesting to note the progression of species through places like that. The sunnies are normally out all day, until about dark, but generally very small, since the real bulls are still on the beds. In the afternoon first it is the perch, often followed by baby stocked walleyes, both on the bottom. Along with the walleyes the crappies start and take over, often first on the bottom and proceeding to come up as they work up to the weedline, which is what happened this evening. At times better walleyes show up at or just after full dark often accompanied by much larger crappies if there are any. On this particular lake I doubt there are many. We didn't stay until dark tonight anyway.

One other interesting thing. Pearl colored plastics took by far and away the most fish and the baits couldn't be too big, but those that hit the red and chartreuse tube took that bait much deeper for some reason.

I sorta got to smile at those who come out on a fishing dock and then cast away from it. The dock itself is one of the most important pieces of the local structure, forming a very obvious path from deep to shallow, if it is placed correctly and stretches out pass the outside weed line. Yet a whole bunch of folks march right out to the end of it and then cast even farther away from it. For the most part they then just stand around and wait, and wait, and wait until they finally pack it in. From some of the deeper docks they actually cast out and through the thermocline, all they get for that is dead minnows.

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I sorta got to smile at those who come out on a fishing dock and then cast away from it. The dock itself is one of the most important pieces of the local structure, forming a very obvious path from deep to shallow, if it is placed correctly and stretches out pass the outside weed line. Yet a whole bunch of folks march right out to the end of it and then cast even farther away from it. For the most part they then just stand around and wait, and wait, and wait until they finally pack it in. From some of the deeper docks they actually cast out and through the thermocline, all they get for that is dead minnows.

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One of these days I'll take a photo of me straining and stretched out in a long cast off the front of a dock with "To Thermocline and Beyond!" as the caption to drive your point home.

Father's Day was a "Quest for a Good Dock" at a number of Three Rivers Park lakes out west.

The first we visited was a local favorite catch & release lake, that sported a dock full of sucker soakers, and no real shore fishing or wading opportunities.

The second had an accessible section that although nice bass habitat close to the shoreline in one section, it was thicker towards the lake and the motorist weren't feeling brave with their Minnkotas. Since my son wanted to get into the water and fish that day, we did so. His eyes about popped out of his head when a 3.5-4.0 pound bass launched itself completely out of the water to get first dibs on his Super Frog.

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A little paranoid about taking photos with my phone while in the water, and a slowing of the bite after while, we dried off, and were off to investigate another potential spot.

Our third lake had a dock the wasn't placed well at all [well, not in regards to providing much for fishing opportunity with how the weed growth was, and it's access underneath or around it from the beginning to the end of it.] That, and the fact that it started raining hard, had us heading off, looking for another "Spot La Hot."

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Our final spot [before having to go home for a baseball game that had a 95% chance of being rained out], ended up having a nice placement and some big bluegills, random bass and pike, and a crappie every cast. We didn't find any crappies over 7", but it was pretty entertaining for the little guy. We headed back out after the game was called, with a sandwich in our bellies, to see if something a little larger would move in as the day came to a close. We pulled in to find the dock inhabited by a bunch of teenagers being teenagers [calling it fishing would be stretching it a little], and a family who's Dad had more stories and opinions than both of my Grandfathers put together. Nice enough, but "Oh Brother," There are only so many 3lb crappie stories I can handle : )

We didn't seen any bigger Crappie move in to this area before we had to head in. I am always amazed at the iridescence on these fish though. Yes, it not bright and flashy like a dolphin fish or tuna, but I enjoy the color display non the less.

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Maybe we can get out Thursday and find something a little larger, but having a full day of fishing in and out of the water, ending with a couple bedtime stories from "Chicken Soup for the Fisherman's Soul," left the little guy with a big smile, even with the small crappies.

Good on you to get the little guy into one of those crappie on every cast deals. Not everybody ever gets on one of those, and very few can do it with any frequency. That is the best hook one can provide a young person to addict them to fishing there is.

Hmmm...the attached photos of my post seemed to have been scrambled, and my time window to edit it, gone. Let's try that again...



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Great pictures. Keep those reeds in mind for next crappie spawning season, they are the first things I look for when looking for spawning beds.

Got out for a little more dinking around last evening. Not much doing for the crappies, but we did manage a few nice bluegills. The breeding colors in the males are starting to fade, but we took one nice one that was almost black. We don't see them that dark up here very often. I had three biguns of some kind pick up my little panfish jigs. Never saw them and they just took off for the next country when they felt the hook. I had all of them on for a good 60 to 70 feet, but there was no way to turn any of them. One wrapped in the weeds pulling out the hook, another came unbuttoned from the size 8 I was throwing and the third broke off the 2# line I had to go to to fool the sunnies. I would have liked to have seen any one of them but they never got close enough to give me a look. Those were all on 1.25" plastic tails, too. You just never know what is going to pick up those little plastics next.

Nice. They were still pretty colored in the west suburb lakes we were at this weekend. They bluegills wanted slower, while the crappies seemed to want a little more movement, but not much. Are you dropping the tubes below a float then?

"In any sport, the anticipation of what might happen is almost as important as what actually happens." -Bob Costas

Almost never use a float. Not enough sensitivity is left to detect the soft bite that the little plastics often draw. Also cannot feel whether one is getting attention from the tap tap tap of sunnies or just missing the one-tunks or the simple added weight of the soft pickup more characteristic of crappies. They do bite differently and what kind of attention one gets helps to work out the pattern. Floats usually mask too much necessary feel for my taste.

Thanks for that. I was just trying to visualize in my mind what you were describing earlier, and the minimal lateral movement comment had me wondering. I prefer jig fishing, and although a little extra work, I've become a fan of bright yellow solar line with a clear "tippet" if you will, going to the morsel of choice. Sometimes I "see it" before I feel it, which has been helpful, especially when I'm fishing walleyes, but that would be for another forum. ; )

Best.

We see crappie takes before we feel them easily 30-50% of the time. That may be unexpected line movement like unexpected slack, but it as often is simply a bit more weight against the rod tip than there should be. Bobbers, even very small and sensitive ones seldom are sensitive enough to show the softest takes.

On productive fishing docks that stretch out beyond the weed line, I nearly always start at the outside weed edge, and work first right over the side of the dock, from the bottom up very slowly. I want an "unencumbered" line that shows the settle and the bottom contact and then I will work up from there in a couple of ways. One is a slow long draw (as much as 3 or 4') followed by a natural settle, pause, reel in a little and repeat upwards to the surface, and the other is a very slow steady reel in up to the surface. Both worked last evening. Sort of a vertical cast and a couple of types of vertical slow retrieves, very much like one would when ice fishing, except that one can work along a dock edge like that from the outside weedline out to the cross walk at the end. I want to find the various breaklines between those points, because one of them is normally where I will make contact, if there are any crappies around at all.

We were out from about 7 to about 9:30 last evening and found crappies of various sizes all along the dock edge out to the cross walk, but nothing fast, and all through out the water column from surface to at the bottom in 25' of water. While the crappies were pretty obviously scattered they were also of a number of schools, with the larger fish later in the evening at the deeper end and at or close to the bottom there.

It looks to me like different year classes use that structure at somewhat different times. We did not stay after full dark to see if the true slabs came in even later, although I have seen that on that particular dock before. The park closes at 10:00 pm and that is just not late enough at this time of the year. The two of us ended up having the dock to ourselves towards the end besides the strolling tourists who show up quite a bit around there. We put back between 45 and 50 crappies and quite a number of sunnies. We had to work for all of them, not really fast fishing, but real satisfying for catch and release on real light tackle. The largest came latest but only reached a bit over 8 inches. The weather was pleasant, too. It was a real nice after supper trip.

I cannot emphasize enough working out the breaks along a fishing dock. The solid, floating fishing docks the DNR puts out here in Minnesota are a very good structure all by themselves even if overhead. I have yet to see where crappies, if present at all, do not use them. They very often follow the overhead shade and pause at those breaklines. Many times in fact the dinks will be resident and often shallower and the larger year classes will move in deep as light fades with the dinks clearing out to make room for the larger fish as they come up the structure.

See also the Website Front page article by CrappiePappy titled Vertical Casting.
For crappies one of the keys is if you think you are slow enough, you probably still need to reduce your speed. And don't forget the pauses.