Newbie needs very urgent help on bait, fishfinder, and skills.

Hello everybody,

I am very new to crappie fishing. Yesterday I spent 11 hours and just caught two small crappie. It is very very frustrating. I need your help. Hope you guys do not mind to answer my bothering questions.

1. Fishing bait. I googled many articles online so I bought many plastic bait. You can see all the bait I took yesterday. They are all somehow related to crappie fishing so far as I know from the google searching results. The left part was not used yesterday and I never tried them so far. On the right half are what I tried yesterday. I caught two crappie, one on the very first plastic minnow in the first row, the other on the second white-green grub of the first row. All the rest from the right half gave me nothing outcome. I am using 1/32 and 1/16 from the Jon boat w/ or w/out a small split shot.

Question is, am I using the right bait, right size, right colr, right jig? For this time of the year, when most crappie finished spawing, what shall be good choices? How about other times of the year?

We were at the Gatewood Reservior yesterday. People said there are good amount of crappie out there. The weather is cloudy and a little windy.

2. Fishing skills.
What shall I do with my hands? Like with a 1/16oz jig grub, I throw it, then what to do next? Now I throw it, wait for 5 seconds, then reel it. When I reel it, every two seconds I jerk the spinning rod a little bit. Am I correct? Do I need to change the action wrt the depth of the water?

I know fishing is sometimes unpredictable. But I got like 12 bites yesterday, landed two, missed four which I already saw them(two are almost landed but got off near the boat). I konw crappie are papermouth and I tried to be very gentle. But still I missed four. Is there something wrong with the jig hook? I usually wait for a second or third light bite before I set the hook lightly and I lost almost all of my fish(2 out 12). :((( sad.

BTW. I am using 3lb test flucarbon line with an ultra light spinning rod.

3. Fishfinder. I guess I do need a good fishfinder. Now I am using a $80 very basic fishfinder and it is almost nothing useful.

I live in southwest Virginia and crappie is available around Claytor Lake, Gatewood, and Rural retreat here. I don't know if there are any crappie in the new river but people said there are some crappie down the Claytor lake dam. I never got them.

It has been two months since I started crappie fishing and very bad. I need your help, sincerely.

Thank you guys.

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I would go back to the lake with a couple dozen small minnows and fish them under bobbers. Use a couple rods and put the minnows at various depths under the bobbers from 6 to 12 feet deep. Look for water 8 to 16 feet deep. When you catch fish then lower a minnow down to the same depth. Start with the minnows. Use your depthfinder to find unusual bumps or changes in depth. Move around a lot too until you find fish.

Over the years, I've caught a few crappie, one here, two there, but I wanted to get better. I discovered this website and it helped me tremdously.

I was was a shiner fisherman before. To the point of no minnows, not fishing. Like I said we caught some. Our best days were 15-20 fish, good, but I knew it could be better.

after many days and many hours of reading and taking notes here, I went and purchased what I had seen to be fish catchers. the first few trips I caught a few more fish, but was still working with the minnow mentality. I had to have them on the boat. I was still fishing blind(no fish finder), but I was catching more.

In December I purchased a downscan fish finder for my birthday, and also rebuilt my boat between snowstorms. Our fish trip of the year was around 75 fish, most were a nice size. The difference was I could find lay downs and baitfish. No more rooting for acorns in a field the size of Shea stadium. Fast forward to late April and I caught a 2 pound, 3 ounce crappie. I'm sure it was just a lucky bite, but it was the confirmation that I had done my homework and it was paying off.

Now, I'm no expert but I'll pass along things I feel are important TO ME.

light line, all my set ups are 6 pound test. This means all my jigs of the same weight fall the same speed.

Jigs heads. I like a "minnow head" and a sickle Hook. 1/32 and 1/16 ounce. I use more 1/32 that the other. Color hasn't been a huge factor, most of mine are bare lead. They sink about the same, the heavier head is just for more distance or if the wind is blowing and I can't feel the jig.

All my reels are the same. Diawa sweepfire 1000, they run about $20. Again, this means all jigs are coming back to the boat at the same speed(per combo). I don't have to overthink the gear ratio (fast) streaking the jig back on one rig and the other reel is dredging because it's super slow.

All my rods are the same, Shimano sojourn, 2-6 pound class. (About $30) I'm OCD and like everything to be even, lol)

I don't bounce or jerk the jig at all. I cast it out and let it sink a few seconds (counting 1001,1002,1003) and start a slow retrieve. My jigs with tails sink about the same, 1' per second. When I get a bite, don't set the hook. Just raise the rod tip and wind him in. That wide gap sickle hook will find a good spot to stick into.

Snags. If I'm not getting snagged and loosing jigs, I'm not going to hang around in that spot. Crappie like structure. It can be a pain at times, rerigging after one cast, but it's better than no bites all day.

colors is a hard one to talk about, I've got 2 colors I always throw, but I've caught fish on everything. Bobby garland 824 and "blue ice" are my go toos. For tube tails I like. 1) yellow and white, 2) pink/ white, 3)brown 4) blue/white 5) purple /white. I've yet to get a bite on shad bodies, tadpoles, wasshoppers ect. I know they work for others, but I get discouraged and go back to what I have confidence in (824 and blue ice, lol).

i also "bird dog". I watch a mimick those I see catching around me. They may be cranking faster, or letting it sink deeper. Sometimes it makes a difference in catching a few and having a really good day.

The biggest thing is have confidence in what your doing, and don't get discouraged. If you don't catch them, you didn't fail at catching, you just found was to not catch them. Lol

I hope hope something here helps. Again, I'm no pro, but I try to pay attention. Fake it till you make it...

Just to add to what these gentlemen said call Monk at Monks crappie he sells every bait known to man for crappie lol, and he has a very good knowledge of how to use them to catch fish, and he doesn't mind sharing with his customers, and stick to this forum you will learn from the best.

If you have not read all the DGIF information about Gatewood, do it. Other good sources of information about any fishing hole are the local bait & tackle shops. Apparently, there's a park office/boat livery on site--also an excellent source of first hand information.

There's a great deal of information here on Crappie.com, but most of our discussions relate to lakes at much lower elevations. Gatewood is located at 2,200'. By comparison, all of the Suffolk lakes are at about 25'. Buggs is at 300', and the lakes in Wasabi's area are about 400'. Water temps and seasons at 2,200' should be weeks behind these eastern locations. That means your fish should still be spawning. If so, they are staging at dropoffs near the shallowest water and running up into the shallows to spawn. After the spawning season ends, look for them to move back to beaver huts, any submerged wood, dropoffs near points, and at the edges of grass beds.

You mentioned your desire to replace a low-end "fishfinder" with a better unit. Before spending lots of money on electronics, understand that there's no such thing as a "fishfinder." You are the fishfinder--the electronics simply improve your ability to see what's beneath the water.

Crappie are very sensitive to water temperature, so they move up & down in the water column to reach their sweet spot. Since they also relate to the bottom, water depth is extremely important to crappie fishermen. When I started crappie fishing, I used a knotted string with a sinker. Although crude, this single purpose "depth finder" improved my catch by keeping me out of places that were too shallow or too deep to hold crappie. Now, I have side/down scan, but I still have to decide where to look. The electronics can't make that decision for me. The past two days illustrate this point perfectly. On Sunday, I concentrated on the backs of coves and near this year's grass beds. I found plenty of fish in 13 FOW. If I was over water that was a foot or two shallower or deeper, I caught nothing. Very few of these fish showed up on side or down scan--just my hook! I could have done just as well with your low-end finder or my knotted string. Yesterday, the magic number was 16 FOW. Places that worked on Sunday were dead. By moving off to the slightly deeper water, it was on again.

Knowing that crappie tend to hold at a favorite depth, you can understand why Wasabi recommends floating a few corks. That's my favorite technique, too. Experiment until you find the depth of the day and then set the cork rigs so your baits are suspended to a uniform depth about 24" off the bottom--right in their faces. Some days they can't get enough minnows. Other days, you do better with bare jigs under the corks. Keep at it and you will see improvement in the results!

After you're able to put some fish in the cooler consistently, try different techniques. It takes more effort and skill to cast or troll jigs into the sweet spots, but the rewards can be substantial. Master one technique at a time and don't spread yourself too thin.

For starters I would go with small minnows. Master that, its easy enough. Under corks or with a small split shot. This will give you an idea of how the fish bite feels. Then go to jigs. Bobby Garland baby shad/blue ice is one of my favorites, also the money grub color has produced well for me. Another lure that I'm starting to like is the pin minnow. As far as a fish finder is concerned you can spend lots of money and get all the fancy features but ultimately its just going to tell you the water depth. Thats what is most important as Corker said. If theres a bridge on your lake, fish the pilings. These are probably some of the best structure to find fish on. You have shade,algea for forage fish, and attack points for the crappie to hide around. Next look to boat docks, especially around deep water. Most of my fishing is done in the winter, therefore I'm fishing deep. Mostly on the edge of the channel 10-12 fow,minnows,spider rigged. When I'm jig fishing I keep the line tight as its falling anticipating a strike on the fall, let it go all the way down then a snap to bring it off the bottom 2-3 feet up then back down tight lined as on the original fall. Hi vis line will be of great service to your ability to see strikes that you dont feel and it doesnt seem to spook them. Just a few tips from the woodduck, hope it helps.

one day with a good guide will not only answer all ya questions, but tell ya which questions you should be askin. the biggest secret in fishin is the spot. you can throw the best bait in the world out where there are no crappie, and you will not catch any. You can throw a bare hook out where there are 100's of crappie and one of them will hit it! learnin how to find these spots is more important than technique.