cold weather crappie

i am new to the cold weather crappie fishing thing. but want to learn it badly, i have been filling my brain with all kinds of articles on year around crappie fishing , any good advice on this is appreciated, i have been placing crappie condos (bamboo) and (pvc) in my favorite spring time holes ,but they have not produced up to now . but its only been a few weeks since placing these condos. i am fishing the back water sloughs of okane island off the arkansas river in western arkansas. thx crappiehog:)

Spring time holes probably will not make good winter time spots. Try to find deeper water nearby or in the main lake (river channels or creek beds). Find you a steep dropoff off of one of these and drop you some cover there and call it your winter time hole. Also, don't hesitate to fish main lake points and maybe go back to those spring areas after a few warm days.

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Originally Posted by Jeepster04

Spring time holes probably will not make good winter time spots. Try to find deeper water nearby or in the main lake (river channels or creek beds). Find you a steep dropoff off of one of these and drop you some cover there and call it your winter time hole. Also, don't hesitate to fish main lake points and maybe go back to those spring areas after a few warm days.

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I fish for Crappie a little different than some guys. I tight line with a 10 lb. test line. Place a weight 1/4 to 1 oz. on the bottom and tie a lead about 2 ft. above the weight, like fishing for catfish. I do not use a swivel about my hook its up at the top of the line and at times I place the weight there also if it is real brushy.

I do this cause I fish right up in the tree tops and allow the line to go down in holes within the tree top. I drop the weight on the bottom and than raise it up and down until I catch one. I have a couple of slip knots on my line to mark it when I start and than adjust it as I catch them. I usually catch my crappie in the main river channel or on the shelf next to the channel with deep bank sides. I fish in the brush with live minnows.

It is a little tricky raising and lowering your line--take it easy and let the weight drop and untangle you. Pulling the crappie up through the brush is not to hard, just take it easy. I do lose a couple now and than.

Some reason I do not like a cork--I use the 7th foot Berkley rod and I can feel them tapping on the line. Most of the time I catch them raising and lowering the line--I use a heavier 1 oz. weight that will take the slack out quickly.

I also catch them in the creeks in brush, but deep water. 9-10 feet is where I have been catching them in tree tops.

Last season I caught spawning crappie in the tree lines / brush about a 1 foot deep. They get right up in all that mess. The woods will flood and they will be there also.
Hope this helps out---mainly trial and error and exploring helps you find the crappie spots and remember them and the water / weather conditions.

I did a lot of boat riding and finding creeks and deep holes / drop offs and sampling these spots to see if they would bite.

I use the drop-shot rig almost all the time on a 14' Wally Marshall rod and it does very well.

Last week I found a bunch of crappie settled in the river channel at 30 feet. I put out 28 feet of line (about two pole links makes it easy to determine) and before I knew it I was bringing some in. One was 14.5 inches. I love it.

Could not find the crappies yesterday so I started fishin' for stripers. I plan to go tomorrow and striper fish b/c its forecast to be windy. I don't do well in the wind for crappie. With a striper, you have NO trouble feeling the strike, even if you were in a hurricane. :)

aj

To one and all: "It's okay to say 'Merry Christmas!' "

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all--Hope you catch what you want.

How many guys fish at night during the winter.
Daytime--do you start early or let it warm up a bit. I have started early, but usually the crappie will bite after it warms up a bit, not in the early mornings. How about your styles of fishing.

Crappierookie I have not tried your way of rigging for deep water fishing yet. But I have been thinking about it for some of the lake i fish have a lot of tops on the bottom of the lake and dont see why I would not work.

Samw

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Originally Posted by gonefishing

Crappierookie I have not tried your way of rigging for deep water fishing yet. But I have been thinking about it for some of the lake i fish have a lot of tops on the bottom of the lake and dont see why I would not work.

Samw

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It will work, I use tight lining anywhere I fish for Crappie in the lake, river and creeks--I do not cast, just drop line in the brush and tree tops. I was a user of slip corks in deep water, but it was always having to adjust the depth, crappie taking the cork under brush getting hung up and most of all crappie at times will not take the cork under, but move it like a bass and some guys have a knee jerk reaction and lose the crappie and the minnow by reacting to quickly.

The idea of using a 2 foot lead with a hook only at the bottom and a swivel at the top with a small slip weight on the main line allows the bottom leader and minnow to move freely--keep it off the bottom

I also use the other system I mentioned placing a small bell weight on the bottom and skipping up about 2 foot and tie an in line swivel and attach a lead to the side on the swivel or you can also use a triple swivel. I use about a 12-18 inch lead with a hook only on this set-up. I allow the bell weight to sink all of the way to the bottom than start reeling up or moving my line up and down until I get a strike, usually a couple of feet off the bottom in the tree tops. The slip knots, I place two of them on the line to use as markers, a starting point and the actual depth the crappie are biting.

I usually use a 1 oz bell weight--it drops faster when raising and lowering the line and allows you to avoid getting hung up as long as you do not jerk very hard, just keep lowering and raising the weight until it comes out. This system I was in the beginning using a buckshot or split shot weight and it took to long for the slack factor and crappie were hitting it on the way down and I could not feel it. I caught some- but I also lost quite a few of crappie and minnows until I switched to the heavier bell weights, now when it drops immediately I can feel the hits, plus fishing this way I keep the line tight all of the time and moving the line up and down slowly is going to cause a strike.

I think Arkie John said he crappie fishes like this also. My son hates fishing this way, he uses a cork. I told him you have too be a fisherman to catch crappie--he bottom fishes for catfish.

This is my way of crappie fishing, maybe it will help some or others may continue to use a cork. When it is a windy day or swift waters using this tight line system I still catch crappie if they are biting. I hold one 7 ft. rod / reel in my hand, but I do use a shorter 6 foot rod close to the boat in a rod holder. I am not a spider system fisherman, just 2 rods or poles.

I use fiberglass poles also rigged the same way and I placed a small ultra-light reel on one of my poles to fish in deep waters of the river which is about 25- 30 feet deep, just attach about 3 eyes on it placing them so you can still break it down part of the way. I have an old pole that has a spool type reel in the handle and the line feeds inside the pole--one eye on the end.

Yep, everyone nailed it IMO -- deep water where there is even deeper water nearby like primary and secondary channels. Where they merge or where there is a tight turn are great spots. During the winter on Lake Greeson 20-22' is usually the shallowest we fish and sometimes we get down as deep as 30-35'.