How do you limit non-target fish?? Milford 5-21-15

It's a fun problem, I guess. But I couldn't really stay on the crappie because of everything else pulling my 14 foot rods under the boat. I liked it for a little while, but I was really trying to crappie fish. I was tightlining jigs, tipped with minnows at first. When the cats and wipers kept nailing that...I quickly stopped with the minnows, but no real change. Any ideas? Or GO WITH IT? Still had a lot of fun and caught dozens of fish...just zero keeper crappies. BradAttachment 203866Attachment 203867Attachment 203868Attachment 203869Attachment 203870

Sounds like a good problem to have Brad. We had the same issue last week at Clinton trying for Walleye (couldn't keep the wipers off). The wipers can be fun for awhile but there's a point where you just want to catch target fish. With crappie were you targeting post spawn crappie or crappie still spawning? Could have changed up the tactics and targeted brush pile fish or something. Looks like you were targeting scattered/suspended fish in the pics to me. On the other hand if that's where they are that's where you should be fishing. We found crappie at all depths at Clinton last weekend. Some in 3' and some in 10' and some in 20'. Good luck to you and I've never had a bad day fishing when something was biting!

Variety is the spice of life

Any bite is a good bite IMO.

It's like fishing the dam at Glen Elder this time of year for crappie. The smallmouth will wear you out and beat you up!!

Attachment 204100

Just went end with it yesterday! Missed the storms by 5 minutes, got the boat in and had lunch at Thunderbird Marina with my pal.

Attachment 204240
Finished long weekend strong. Barely any crappie, although caught more than 2 dozen whites, wipers, buddy kept a few.

I feel your pain Brad. Last year prefishing and fishing during the walleye tourney, we couldn't keep our lines in the water without catching the darn whites/wipers/drum/cats, while it is fun, it does absolute get kind of annoying, especially in a tournament. If you find a way, let me know as we sure haven't been able to figure out how to keep everything else off.

Nice problem to have considering the rain this year. I think Crappie hunter15 knows his stuff. The crappie pictured looks like it has eggs but the ragged tail from spawning seems to be healing. Maybe it got pushed off the bank temporarily due to weather?

Thanks! Back on them now. In tight to shore but only at steep (5-10 feet) drop offs right at shoreline. Wife and girls out of town so I'm fishing every afternoon! Brad