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A General Question About Fishing A Deep Brush Pile.
Would You All Tend To Fish Over The Pile Most Of The Time Or Actually Jig Down Into The Pile. Any Advice Would Be Appreciated And I'm Sure Very Helpful. Would Love To Here Your Opinions And Methods. Thank You
Over, inside, and around all sides but never below! Crapppie usually feed "up" and sometimes use the whole brushpile and other times gather up on just one side.
i normally try to keep my jig just above or barely touching the top of the pile so i dont get hung up as much. today i had problems getting bites so.... i started letting my jig fall into the brush pile. i started jigging it inside the pile. just bumping it up and down inside the pile. i caught 5 fish in just a few minutes. i did break off a few times but it was good to get a few bites.
I'd have to say that, most of the time, I fish over the top. Generally speaking, the more aggressive the fish are, the more likely they are to be suspended above the brush. But, I'll always work my bait around the outsides, too. Then, considering that I'm using weedless jigheads about 95% of the time ... I'll work down into the brush, after having worked over the outsides/top. Casting would be my primary method, unless the brush was well over 15ft deep. In that case, and even when it's not that deep and I've already cast all over it, I will do what I call "Vertical Casting".Quote:
Originally Posted by judd
You can read my article on "Vertical Casting", right here : Crappie.com - Crappie Fishing Information and Adventure - Vertical Casting Give it a read, then give it a try ... ;)
... cp :cool:
Judd,
If the fish are active, then above or around the brush pile will work fine. But if they're inactive you've, lots of times got to get down into the brush. As mentioned you're going to loose some jigs doing this, but then if you don't you aren't really crappie fishing.
I agree with what everyone has said. I fish above if at all possible. Sometime barely nicking the top limbs of the pile. Most times if the crappie are active you will get two or three feeders anyway.
But post cold front (like tomorrow) is another thing. Getting the jig down in the middle sometimes is the only way to get a hit. And then they are often so subtle the only thing you feel is a change in line tension.
Over the years I have tried to go to more stakes than brush for that problem. If you get stuck bad in brush often times you loose the jig. Worse yet in brush is when you have a new fishermen in the boat who gets stuck and decides to start heaving the rod up and down and left and right. He just managed to scatter the crappie buried inside the cover and you might as well pull up and leave for awhile.
Stakes on the other hand are often thicker and tend not to whiplash so bad if someone jerks the rod in frustration. Most times if you don't "drive the hook home" you can either pluck it like a banjo string and back the jig off or go to the backside of the bed and pull it free.