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does anyone have a clue what is up with the crappie on oconee, why are they so scattered,why is the bite so slow, what is up. is this normal. this is my first year fishing here and i am confused.i have tried every technic i have used all my life at other lakes.from wisconsin to mississippi and i cant find a consistent bite on this lake. am i the only one. any help would be great
I can't seem to get a handle on it consistently. Unless wood is involved, I spend a lot of time searching. I know a lot of people do well there all the time. I just haven't pieced it together yet. When I do, it is awesome. The spring is easier. I know of two boats that went last Saturday. One limited & one had only a handful from the same area doing the same thing with the same baits. The boat with only a handful is usually the one limited out & headed home early. Stay after it. Just gotta keep trying different areas. .
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You are not the only one brother. I went this past sunday and didn't even get a bite. The whole month of october and half of november was great for me but now its like they just wont bite. I have schools of fish show up on my fish finder in the stumps and I can tightline right to them and I get nothing. I just don't get it. Its like they are not hungry. Do they go deeper as the water gets colder? I remember going this October around the end of the month and the wife and I tied the boat up to a big stump in sugar creek and caught about 25 fish in about 2 hours by that one stump dropping minnow tipped jiffy jigs to 10ft and holding it there until we got a bite. Caught a good many dinks and 10 inchers but brought home about a dozen fish that were all 12-14 inches. Go back when I ran into you that day and only brought 2 home. Weird.
Does moon phases have much of an impact on what they are doing? Been researching a little about it. Seems when the moon set and moon rise happens is when they are more active.
Move up in the creek arms, water temp is in the mid 50's the crappie are stacking up following the shad on their way towards the back of the arms on all Georgia lakes right now. Met a fellow crappie.com member on Monday. This front was approaching and between the two of us we absolutely murdered them. Took the first two hours to figure out what the heck the pattern was and it was on like a chicken bone. The fish were on a feeding frenzy, no kidding. Had six on at one time. When it was over it was over, like someone switched off a light switch. Tip, if you are long lining now quit it. Pull out your spider rigging poles. I did both hardly nothing at all long lining. Changed to spider rigging and blasted them. We had well over 60 fish and kept 33 super nice slabs. Crappie trolling season has officially begun. Now until April it is time to get after it.
P.S. All of the ramps are fine. Oconee on Monday was only down 1.5 ft.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Countrytime
Great report. Got to be versatile. Thanks.
Which way is it?Spider rig--or trolling????
spider he said
He said spider,then says trolling season has begun,confussion has set in.
Just a generic term I meant to include both, some how I knew that would cause some confusion whille typing that term. Seen people catch them long lining in the low 50's before. It just didn't get it done the other day. To me when the water drops say below 58 degrees I will be switching to spider rigging. Some even catch them long lining in the high 40's. Just my preference is when it gets colder go slower. If one doesn't work then switch hit. Both techniques are great. Do what ever it takes to pull the slabs over the side of the boat. Longlining will pulverize spider rigging when the water is warmer and to me spider rigging wil pulverize long lining when the water is colder. Also if it takes a Mtn. Man tightlining with pole in hand then that's what we must do . When water gets in the low 40's that is the best way to go for sure. We blasted fish last year at 44 degrees spider rigging, below this and pole probably needs to be in hand according to most. February two years ago I seen this play out to a tee in Sugar creek, there were excellent long liners fishing besides us. The water was cold say around 48-52. They were catching a few, we caught 115 that day and culled back to the biggest 60. They may had 10-15 at best. This is what I mean. This however was the best day I ever had on Oconee by far. We even had 7 big channel cats and one nice hybrid to boot. Someone got mad and had the man waiting on us at the ramp. He had no luck we were legit.The flip side is I have seen good long liners put the natural born hurt on me when the water was warmer. I stuck to spider rigging and got spanked. You don't have to be all Chevy or either all Ford. You can like both. Hope this clarifies things. Sorry.
A mazing the stuff you can learn on here.
I wanted to try spider rigging this winter on Talquin. I briefly tried last winter when the long lining slowed but got discouraged. Any advice for a nubbie on this technique?
Turn the sensitivity up on your fishfinder and scan the deeper channels looking for the thermocline and baitfish. Tightline minnows or push jig tipped minnows in this area. Forget longlining and dockshooting til the water begins warming. Slower the better. Open water is usually best in the winter, not flooded timber. I like the Richland arm and up near the interstate bridge this time of year.
I wouldn't want to try it too much at talquin...not sure why but it just doesn't seem to work well on that lake...for instance watch the way longliners catch fish on all sides of the guys sitting and drowning minnows....another thing is that some of the nations best fisherman never could beat the guys longlining down there when the tournament trail was coming around...just my thoughts
I have tried spider rigging a few times on Talquin also, but I have never had much success with it...I just figured that I didn't know enough about it or maybe I just have not tried it enough...Either way, I am just a hardcore longliner no matter what time of the year it is!!!...I have had much success longlining from Oct-June....July-Sept is too hot for me so I stay in the A/C cheers
Country Time is telling the truth! I was out there Killin em...Took a guy from work...we cleaned 50 ...at least half of the ones i ran the elect filet knife through were well over a pound. Had a few that went 2lbs....I'd love to post some pics of the trip...If this damn **% U%$&*) computer would cooperate!!!! I go to upload my jpeg images and the thing locks up!!!!! Frustrating! Enjoyed meeting you at the store Country Time...send me a pm and we'll go jump on em again soon!!!
Some nice slabs from Monday...Ya like my stupid bucket hat????
I am bringing my boat home from Talquin after the first of the year for some minor repairs and a good cleaning..Maybe I can hit Oconee, Blackshear and/or Eufaula before I take it back to Talquin in Mid February.
My boat is set up to do every method there is, to catch these critters, it's my hard head that gets in the way sometimes banghead , bash !!!!1
Yea, same here...............that's my problem too.:(Quote:
Originally Posted by Outlaw1&2
In January or February when you have trouble catching longliing, give me a call. I love to longline, but when cold fronts hit I can catch them still spiderrigging. Spent many days watching longliners pass struggling, while I was still catching. Tournaments are won with only 7 fish, I am fine with catching a limit of 12-14 inchers. Not saying spiderrigging over shadows pulling jigs on Talquin, but it can be a very effective tactic. Be versatile!Quote:
Originally Posted by AUTiger
I longline most of the time, all year long except when I work in some dock shooting mostly in the summer and early fall. At this time Oconee crappie are still holding to structure. If you get down to them they will bite, not fast and furious but steady. You got to lose some jigs to the under water Christmas trees. We had a great day last tuesday. Kept 54 good uns. Going back tomorrow.
i have spent most of my time in sugar creek. i have trolled, spider rigged, shot docks and tight lined in the timber. i have tried all depths.and all times of the day.when i go i usualy get on the water about daylight and stay till about 530 .so maybe its just me i see a bunch of posts of people killing them. but i am not having much luck.i have been using 1/16th jigs of all kinds and colors and tipping them with a minnow.if im trolling i put on a splitshot about a foot above the jig to get it down to the depth they are showing on my sonar. when i do get a few it doesnt seem to matter what color i use.i also use a grub on the jig head.a twister tail or something similar.if anyone has a better tchnic i would love to hear it.cause one thing is for sure i will stay at it no matter what.cause lets face it a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work anyday of the week
I'm Spider rigging now and I'd look at the following items:
How long are my rods and is the bait getting there before the boat?
What kind of knot am I tying? Loop knots give the bait 100% better presentation!
What about my leader? Don't use one? I'd suggest starting and use a 3-4 ft fluorocarbon one below my weight so the bait will "float" up and down with the slightest movement of the boat...
How slow or fast am I going? I "bump around" at best...keep in their face for as long as possible....I sometimes get reactionary strikes by simply "bumping" the TM right , left, forward....
Run your bait 1-2 ft above the cover...or at least where the fish are holding...You know crappie bite "up" nearly all the time....
I too am tipping with live bait....just improves your odds.....
Hope these things help....If you can see em on the graph and your time of day is right....you should catch em.....but i'm a real firm believer in presentation!!!! It better look lively and "good enough to eat!"
i use 10 12 and 14 ft crappie maxx rods with a small spinning reel and 4 lb test.when i spider rig i dont add any extra wieght just the 1/16th jug tipped with a winnow. i do go slow and keep them out front. i am marking lots of fish sometimes suspended and sometimes closer to the bottom.i use six rods and stagger them from the depth i see the fish to a few feet above. i buy the crappie minnows. is it better to try small shad or is there something im missing. thanks for the advice i will try the loop knot and leader idea i can see how it might make for a better and livelier presentation
Sounds like ur dead on! The only thing I forgot to mention was that Ive been using 1/32 oz jig heads on that floro leader. Below my egg sinker,bead,and swivel. Once again makes the bait "swim" better. But I know what you mean,,,,I,ve fished sinclair with the graph loaded and felt like i couldn't buy a bite! Even at oconee lately....fish are active and want to eat....move 100 yds and no bites.....cover....fish on graph....?????go figure....after all we are after game...we can't see!!!!!! Fishing is good.....I like catching better!
Oconne has become hit or miss for me in the last 5 years or so. 10-15 years back I had alot more hits than misses. Just a tough lake with good fish. Years ago all I had to do was long line troll and would find em. Now I'm having to try different techniques to get em in the boat. Like said b4.. If your not catching em one way try something else. One other thing I've noticed is over cast days are the best on Oconne. A blue bird sky will kill a day unless you can shoot docks and my dock shooting is sub par at best...lol