Cappie flies, maybe?

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ppieflies1.jpg

These are some flies I tied up a while ago and I wanted some input as to weather they should work for crappie or not. They are one a size 10 Eagle Claw fly hook. I used the beads to give them a little weight without making them too hard to throw on a 5wt rod. That and it is rarely ever calm here so a little weight always help with throwing them more than 10 feet.

Let me know and if you have flies you use, please post some more ideas. I have tons of trout flies but I don't know which ones will work, well will work best for crappie anyway.

I like the first 2 alot. Those should catch you some crappie. I have just started talking to a long time fly fisherman who was telling me about a mealworm fly he used to use aslot for crappie. I haven't seen what he's talking about yet - pretty much just told me a mealworm with a red head and yellow body - but when he does I will post it up, he is a pretty smart fly-fisher for panfish.

Other than that, #6 to #10 nymphs (like the one in the "dubbing" thread) out fished any other w. buggers, streamers or clousers I fished this season. In other words, bug patterns did way better than minnow patterns.

I think they are called green/red meenies but I am not sure. Have to see if I can find the pattern and if I have any of them. I have probably 100x as many flies as I do jigs so I may have one somewhere.

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Originally Posted by fish_4_all

Let me know and if you have flies you use, please post some more ideas.

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I don't target crappie with flies. If I did, I'd just use a fly similar to a basic marabou & chenille jig. In other words, I'd tie up a woolly bugger without the hackle.

A very light jig would also work well -- say, 1/80 to 1/128 oz.

Rick Zieger has posted a bunch of his favorite crappie flies over at FAOL. Click on "Features", then on "Panfish", and you'll find tons of his articles.

I was thinking of clouser minnows with sz. 10 hooks, gonna try them in the Spring. And also to Deathb4 why wouldn't you just use a Wooly Bugger?

Dennis

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Originally Posted by dvuks

And also to Deathb4 why wouldn't you just use a Wooly Bugger?

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A WB would be fine. I just think the hackle is unnecessary. I mean, look at your basic marabou & chenille jig. I've been catching crappie with those for over 30 years -- with no hackle.

It is called a Wooly Worm. Definately have a lot of them tied up. Trout love them, just have to get a crappie to hit one. Will have to dig my fly box out of them and make sure I have a good color variety. Pretty easy to simply tie a fly instead of a jig.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...l/Clouser2.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...Goodies1-1.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...Goodies1-2.jpg
I found these, they should get something to hit them on a fly rod.

Dvuks - I don't use too many #10, I use those more for gill nymphs and dries. That is getting pretty small and would guess a clouser would be tough to put on one of them, but truely don't know, never tried a clouser that small. For panfish clousers I use light wire #8 or #6 aberdeen hooks and just bend the eye down to keep the hook point up. You at least have a little more hook shank to work with at that size and I like the thin wire instead of heavy hooks.... they are alot cheaper than true fly hooks also.

F4A - Are you fishing pretty deep? I have never liked those hour-glass eyes unless I'm fishing current for smallmouth or something else. I just use bead chain, you can work the fly alot slower without the added weight..... don't know, maybe that is just my preference. But is you need them deep, not much else you can do. BTW: that pink flash fly looks pretty cool, almost like a tube jig.

I actually tied all of these for steelhead and trout, but mainly steelhead. Some are heavy but fast water makes it necessary. Is just ideas right now. I have tried the basic flies for crappie and didn't even get a nibble. Figured I needed to ask what works so maybe I can get one to bite this year. Especially when they are shallow and I can see them snub my normal flies. And they will completely ignore any jig or bait I put to them.

Maybe I need to go smaller, maybe lighter, maybe bigger or whatever but now is the time to do it instead of after I start hearing that the bite is on and I am 3 days late.

I've tied a few clousers with the 10 hooks, they look ok, might miss hits becuase of hook size. Im gonna try #6 aberdeens.
Fish 4 all Ilike the 2 flies on top, what are the bodies made of? Also the pink on under the clouser looks real good, did you try that for the crappie?

The bodies are glas beads in a black irridescent oil color, don't remember the name.
The other ones has the tiny pony beads for the body.

Ithrew over 40 different patterns of flies this year for crappie and have yet to hook anything but a couple 4 inches on them. I did have a bass follow one similar to the pink one but wouldn't hit it. A couple perch took the some wooly buggers but no keeper crappie as of yet. I even tried those curved worm patterns for them and nothing would take them. Really frustrating when I can see them and they are taking whatever close to the surface and won't hit my flies, or anything else I throw at them.

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Originally Posted by fish_4_all

Ithrew over 40 different patterns of flies this year for crappie and have yet to hook anything but a couple 4 inches on them.

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Again, I would suggest checking out Rick Zieger's articles at FAOL. He's been writing a weekly column over there for several years. All of his articles are in the archives. He's been very successful at catching crappie on flies.

Yep, been reading them off and on since you gave me the link. Might actually put me on fish this next year. Thank you.

Best crappie flies for me have been the old coachman streamer, black nose dance, and the hornberg. Tied very sparse and no weight. Hope this helps you some.

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Originally Posted by slipbobber

Best crappie flies for me have been the old coachman streamer, black nose dance, and the hornberg. Tied very sparse and no weight. Hope this helps you some.

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Which black nosed dance/dace are you referring to? I found a couple hundred different ones. I assume it is the one with the tinsel body, white and brown wing and red tail, right?

That's the one, but have been known to change things around a little. Sometimes change the tail to something with a little chartreuse and sometimes a little blue. Probably is the best is the coachman, real simple and really catches fish. But you will probably catch a lot of bass and in the smaller sizes big blugill like it too. Dang the luck! But if I'm catching something on the flyrod I'm happy! Good luck hope they work for you.

Can't argue with that, maybe I have to tie a few and add them to the other ones just to see if it makes a difference.

If those don't work try my secret weapon. I tie a staple on the back of a light wire hook leave the leg of the staple extended out, bend forward and trim to length. This makes a wire keeper on a regular hook much like what is on cast jigheads but holds much better. Now slide a crappie tube of choice on the hook just like you would with a regular cast jighead, that wire keeper will hold the tube well enough even for a flyrod. Make some up for 1 inch, 1.5 in. and maybe some for 2 in. tubes and if needed add some beads or lead eyes for weight, if you are fishing shallow you really don't need any weight just the weight of the hook and tube will allow for a nice slow fall rate. Easy, fast to make, and the combinations are endless. Not exactly traditional but guaranteed to catch fish or your money back.

F4A I noticed something the couple of times I was in crappie waters this summer at Potholes. The crappie seemed to like pink and bright green like an insect green and red, white and blue (light turquoise this is the actual marabou name I think) jigs compared to all others. I was using a jig pole and just bouncing it up and down fishing in about 25 or feet of water and only going down about 8 feet. I didn't slay them but I did ok I would have had better luck if I was using a rod that I could have gotten deeper with but I had a fixed line. I noticed the crappie here just don't seem to like natural stuff compared to bright stuff. I have a lot more experimenting to do but that has been my experience crappie fishing in WA (which is limited to just this past summer). I will definitely be hitting harder this spring and summer, especially summer since I won't be in school this summer like I was this past one so I will be able to experiment a lot more as well.

I experienced the same thing on as with the crappie turning up their nose to everything I threw at them in a little pond outside of Yakima they would look at it but they would check it out and turn away no matter what I put in found of them. I will be trying to fly fish this year for them as well I found a nice little area that is fed by the Columbia that I am planning to check out this coming year as well that looks like a haven for crappie so I will see what I can figure out there I will be taking my pontoon and floating the area to see what I can come up with.

Hit me up with a PM with your email and maybe we can come up with some ideas to work on together and if you get the urge you can head this way sometime and we can see what we can figure out on some known crappie waters.

I wish I was on the East Side for fishing lakes and ponds. Lived there for a while when I was young I loved Potholes Reservoir. Nothing would keep the fish off the line once you found them. I was young and only used nightcrawlers and pieces of perch for bait but we never went home empty handed, always had enough for a fish fry for the family and friends. Potholes, potholes reservoir, upper reaches of the Columbia just below the dam and in lake Roosevelt and everywhere you turn another farm pond from 2 acres up to and larger than 400 acres that has fish just starving to take a bait. The canals are even better at times. Do they still allow bow hunting for carp in the upper canal in Potholes reservoir, aka Mardon, just off the camp grounds on the west side of the lake, I think west side anyway?

Fishing over here is so much different and harder when it comes to perch, crappie, blue gill, bass and other panfish. Water just never gets warm enough to really turn on a heavy bite. We have some nice deep water here but through the entire summer it stays cold, even on the warmest summers it never gets warm enough to really swim in and not eventually freeze your buns.

I have tried brighter stuff but even the die hard crappie guys here don't do well with anything bright. Their go to jig is a red body white tail jig, not very bright at all and we all know red vanished quickly.

I guess it wouldn't be so bad but they won't even hit nightcrawlers for me in Duck Lake. Maybe I need to use live leeches; just have to find them as my wife won't allow me to have them in the house.

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Originally Posted by fish_4_all

nightcrawlers...pieces of perch...live leeches...

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Can't you buy or catch small minnows? Here in the mid-Atlantic, they're hard to beat. We drift them on bare Aberdeen hooks (#1 - #6) or tip jigs with them.

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Originally Posted by Corker

Can't you buy or catch small minnows? Here in the mid-Atlantic, they're hard to beat. We drift them on bare Aberdeen hooks (#1 - #6) or tip jigs with them.

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No not in this state the closest thing we can use is cut bait, no live fish for bait in freshwater. :(

In Washington you can not use any fish of any kind alive for any type of freshwater fishing. Not tomention if you want to use crawdads you have to catch them in the body of water you will be using them in, transporting and using in a different body is illegal.

Doesn't make much difference though, not using live bait makes us work a little harder to catch our fish. Artificial cover is also illegal along with a lot of stuff that other states take for granted, like chumming and feeding. Yoiu can get a ticket here if an wildlife officer thinks you have thrown too much used bait in the water and use the same thing to catch fish in the same general area, on the same day or weeks later.

Bob Clouser is going to be at the Fly Tying festival in Houston this year. I always say I am going but never make it.