Try Down Sizeing for September Crappie

If your Fishing a Shallow lowland water Res Or Oxbow and having problems getting bites on medium or large baits. Get tough on em and try a Small crappie tube or stinger and a cork. Pitch a the bobber and small bait around docks, pads, laydowns. The fish seem to be really relating to shade and cover just off the bank this time of year. Here is a couple of catches from the last couple of days from Conway and a Arkansas River Oxbow. Both catches were made doing the same thing about 18-24 inches deep below a cork or verticle jigging a really small offering. Tight Lines...

Funny thing is the Crappie up here are deep. We are catching limits verticle jiggin umbrella tubes 10 to 12' deep. They are full of larger Shad. My buddies used to fishing shallow oxbows in White River bottoms keep wanting to use tiny baits .But here I try to match the hatch, which is Shad.

most of the oxbows the fish in the fall will act just about like they do in the spring i have found over the years fishing river oxbows. mostly shallow on are around cover.

They been catching em on Nader and Butla with #8 minners, but the water is still in the mid 70's. I caught em on cranks. The only thump I felt was when the pole hit the boat!!!! Woooohoooo. ;-)

were did you find them minners with #s on them,we dont have them here in so.east ar. just sayin ?????????????

Good catch and advice CP!!!

Does this mean I am going to have to buy smaller cranks.DohRofl

CP - last weekend we caught ours in 2 fow but we were trolling with jigs. River oxbow

Well I can just tell ya what i have seen the last two types of lakes I have fished (Both Lowland Res). Tried trolling and verticle jigging my standard sized jigs over deeper water and shallow. But it was'nt till we started finessing small baits shallow around cover and shade that we got bit. Down sizing for one type of lake could be a totally different thing from one lake to another. For instance on Greers if the bite suddenly stops on cranks, I would try longlining or spider rigging, verticle jigging pole timber, 1/8 oz jig of some type, or even a smaller profile live minnow to get bit. The same would hold true for any lake at some point and time. If your bite suddenly gets tough on what ever bigger bait you were using, try downsizing. What do you have to lose, except turning a bad day into a good one. I believe (Big Bait always means Big Crappie) HAHA dont buy into that Myth...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MEATGETTER

were did you find them minners with #s on them,we dont have them here in so.east ar. just sayin ?????????????

---

I had em printed at Kinko's!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by creekslick

Does this mean I am going to have to buy smaller cranks.DohRofl

---

Yeah Creek, your gonna have to buy some of them little Bill Norman's and put ya some weight in front of em!!! LOL

I read this post after I posted my post. Downsizing put meat in the boat for me today. As I posted, I fished a brush pile with only a few of those hard taps that you know all about. After seeing at least a trillion little shad in the water about 1/2 " long, I downsized to my little slab bandits and filled the Ice chest up in a short while.

rtaark, can you post a pic of the little slab bandits or tell me where you get them? After we couldn't do any good on stakebeds today we finally found that no matter how deep of water we were in the crappie were only 2 or 3 feet deep. I finally figured out that they had abandoned all the stakebeds that I fished and were following the million tiny shad on the surface. It was real easy to fish under them if you were not careful.
We found while fishing deep that we were catching fish or getting hits when we were about to lift our jigs out of the water. Thats when we started to figure things out.
Ended up with close to 2 limits all over 10 inches with the last fish of the day over a pound and a quarter.:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by slabbandit

rtaark, can you post a pic of the little slab bandits or tell me where you get them? After we couldn't do any good on stakebeds today we finally found that no matter how deep of water we were in the crappie were only 2 or 3 feet deep. I finally figured out that they had abandoned all the stakebeds that I fished and were following the million tiny shad on the surface. It was real easy to fish under them if you were not careful.
We found while fishing deep that we were catching fish or getting hits when we were about to lift our jigs out of the water. Thats when we started to figure things out.
Ended up with close to 2 limits all over 10 inches with the last fish of the day over a pound and a quarter.:)

---

Sorry for being so late. Here is the address. They are $2.50 for a 20 pack. They are about the same size as the young shad that are so thick on Dardanelle. I use the blueberry pearl and strawberry flash.
Results for PLASTICS
crazy angler is a crappie.com member and a good guy.

Here is the color choices.
SLAB BANDITS WHOLESALE RETAILERS TYING SUPPLIES

that #11 meatgetter jig (mississippi queen) as billy e calls it is a killer when them fish is feeding on little shad, rtark iam coming up there with crappie pro next week so get ready !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looking forward to fishing with you Jerry, Im pretty sure RTARK will Join us. He is a fish locating machine, I hope you enjoy fishing out of my Battleship (The Dark Angel) Crappie fins shiver when she is on the water. (LOL)

Just when I read the Crappie tip for September, it turns October. Just my luck.

HAHA!!! ya lil late on that one RCC try it for Oct...too. Took me almost all of Sept to figure it out.

your october tip !!!!!!! find and follow the shad and catch them on # 11 meatgetter jig. if you dont belive me just ask billy e!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fish ought-ta be biting.......Im back to work next weekDoh