Ditto gravel pit

I took my kayak down to the gravel pit west of Ditto landing and Hwy 231. The Crappie were hitting little shad at daylight, looks like there was a huge shad spawn in the last few days.

Attachment 95369 
:yikesHopefully you can see the photo of the shad on top of the water.:yikes

I fished from 5:00AM till around 10:30AM catching well over 200 hundred fish and I can’t imagine how many I missed or lost. I started out trying to drag jigs with 5 rods, but had to drop to three and still had fish on all 3 rods several times. I lipped so many Crappie taking them off the hook that I ended up with both thumbs bleeding. I kept a limit of Crappie all over 10 inches and a dozen bluegill. I’ll take a better photo later this afternoon when I clean fish if I can remember. I left with the fish still hitting, but it was starting to get warm.

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Get on the water, find the baitfish and you’ll find the Crappie. All the Crappie still looked surprisingly health and fat considering the hot weather. This pit doesn’t have any water deeper than 5 feet currently.

Man you make me want one of them kayaks.
Good job, large catch there!

Nice catch there DB. You have! Made me want one. I'm looking and reading up on them now on the Internet. Just don't know what to get. I think I would like a sit on top kayak also one I could stand up in for a few minutes or so, when my back starts to hurt. I need one for a fat man @ 250+

I got them cleaned them before dark and the fireworks, not as colorful after sitting on ice for the day. It sure is a lot easier on me cleaning them after it cools off a bit!

Attachment 95440

Not any slabs, but some good eating!

BamaMan<

I'm thinking my next kayak maybe a Native Ultimate 12

Fly Fishing Kayak - Ultimate 12 Native Kayak, Orvis - YouTube

Can you give some more specifics on your techniques. I understand you fish shallow mostly with multiple rods and jigs. Do you use a float? Are you verticle fishing with the rods in the holders? Do you paddle the kayak or let the wind move you? What lenght rods do you use in your kayak? I really would like to learn more about catching them this time of year. I struggled on Guntersville last week to bring home 15. I'm sure they are shallow because of the shad and they really don't have deep water to go to. I do have a canoe that I fish in the rivers with this time of year but not for crappie. No pole holders sounds like it would hinder me doing anything like you are doing.

He doesn't use a float as far as I have seen. When I have fished with him he had all the rods in the holders so the baits would jig and drift with the kayak, and would occasionally verticle jig around structure. I'll let him go into specifics. It's easy, fun, and extremely lazy.

firefighterhm15,

I’m usually either fishing areas that don’t have water deeper than 10 feet, so all the water is approx the same temperature or I’m fishing in areas that have deep water like Limestone Bay, but I’m catching the early bite when the Crappie have moved up shallow to feed. I’ll try to explain.

Crappie are open water feeders that eat primarily shad. They love vertical structure and when you find the right area the fish will move up and down in the water column, but never very far away. If a lake stratifies (segregates into warm water on top and cold water below) then the secret is always what depth. That’s fairly easy with good electronics because the thermal line and bait fish schools will show up clearly. If the Thermal line is 20 feet deep you’ll get a visible line on your electronic. The temperature difference above and below this line may only be a degree or two, but below it there isn’t any oxygen. The fish will stay as close as possible without going below. This is the perfect setup for summer Crappie fishing, it’s just a matter of finding a way of keeping you bait at the right depth and moving around, because most fish are inactive and are not moving much themselves. Spider rigging is perfect for this because I can present multiple baits in the same small strike zone from the thermal line to maybe two foot above it. Then just troll, paddle, drift slowly covering water.

In areas where there is only shallow water or no thermal line sets up because of current like in rivers or Lake Wheeler above Decatur, ect. You have a unique problem or advantage once you understand it. There’s no advantage to the fish moving very deep, all the water is close to the same temperature. The fish have to scatter out because the oxygen levels are too low to support more than a handful of fish in any one area. This is the reason why you pull up next to this perfect tree, catch a couple of nice Crappie off of it and then nothing. There isn’t enough oxygen to support a school of them.

In the summer more than any other time of the year I look for the baitfish. I don’t worry about the cover or structure as much because there’s not enough oxygen to sustain many fish in any one area anyway. Once I find the baitfish though, I can drag jigs spider rigged at the same depth that my fish finder says the baitfish are at and I can start picking up one here and one there all day. The oxygen levels are too low for the fish to chase a bait so moving slowly is the key.

In Georgia 10 years ago I caught Crappie like crazy in river oxbows during the spring, but once the water warmed up nothing! The old timers said you couldn’t catch Crappie in the summer or that the fish had all moved back into the river. I knew the fish were still there and I occasionally would catch one but never many. This is the technique I stumbled upon and I continue to refine. In the area behind the pump at Rockhouse there’s only 18 to 24 inches of water in a 3 mile long ditch. The Crappie can’t get back into the lake and are trapped. I use this technique, dragging jigs with 5 rods. Each rod has a jig suspended 12 inches down in 24 inches of water. As I move slowly through the area I get an opportunity to show the jig to as many fish as possible. I’ve caught limits of slab Crappie, 12 inches and up, when the water temperature was mid 90’s!

The Crappie don’t vanish, you just have to be very observant. I fished for almost an hour Saturday without a fish, but as the sun came up I say the water shimmering from the schools of small shad. I slowly paddled over to the area and found every fish in the gravel pit was in a 100 yard by 50 yard area feeding on the shad. No cover, no structure and in the direct sunlight.

I'll write more later on my rod/reel and bite combo's.

Great lecture Ditch Basser.
Hope to meet you north AL guys some time.

Rod Holders: I use Scotty rod holders with flush mounts. That allows me to mount four rod holders or take them off and not have any rod holder equipment in the way when I’m doing other types of fishing.

Rods: My rods for spider rigging are 10 foot, Crappie Hunter Spinning Rods, two piece, ultralite. Two notes, these rods are dirt cheap, I pay under $30.00 each for them from amazon.com. Second they are very light action. This is critical when you’ve only got 18 inches of line out. I’ve had these rods bent double with half the rod in the water from a large Crappie, bass or catfish and still gotten the fish in. A stiffer rod for Crappie puts all the give on the reel’s drag.

Reels: It seems I’ve tried everything over several years. The best I have found is the Pfueger Cetina underspin in the 4 pound line size. They cast great and last forever. The most important to me is a smooth, durable and highly adjustable drag. I’ve tightened the drag down right to the breaking point of the line and had a 20 pound blue catfish take the reel to a bear spoon several times, used the say reel several times a week with little or no maintenance and had it work two years later the same as a new right out of the box.

Line: I’m using an old spool of Mr Crappie, 6 pound test, yellow, high visibility. I’ve had it for years and still have half the spool left. I change my line usually twice a year since my rods and reel stay in the back of my vehicle in the sunlight.

My tackle box for spider rigging is the size of your hand, 6 compartments on each side. I’ll start with a 1/16 oz Marabou jig. White if the water is clear, Chartreuse if the water is muddy. I have 1/8 oz if dragging jigs deeper than 10 feet. I also have a couple colors of Bobby Garland and some tubes, but the old marabou is my go too.

I always tip my jig hooks with Berkley PowerBait Crappie Nibbles. If I’m actively jigging a piece of cover then I may not use them since I’m looking for a reaction strike. But when dragging jigs for scattered, inactive fish the Crappie nibbles will increase your number of hits.

I hope this helps, I don’t have any hidden secrets or honey holes. I just try and pay attention to the fish and really slow down in the hot weather. My setup provides for a lot of give between the hook and the reel. With the light drag and flexible poles, I don’t miss many and almost never have a fish pull out. The high visibility line allows me to see if a Crappie picks up my jig without a thump that I can feel.

I’ll fish with anyone interested in fishing; I don’t go for the beer drinking and radio playing crap. If you want to act stupid then go somewhere the sportsman aren’t. I’ll share any fishing spot I have or have found and any ideas that I have on catching them. The only thing I don’t share is when I’m fishing private property. Landowners have enough problems with people trespassing. They don’t need me advertising after being kind enough to allow me the privilege to enter their land.

I better share one more important thing.

The reward!

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Wow! Good info. Can't wait to get my kayak. DS that Native Ultimate 12 does look like something I could fish from. I will have to look into it more. I'm not going to rush out and buy just any kayak. I want to get the right one and be happy with it.

It might require you to drive aways, but find locations that sell kayaks and allow you to rent or test them. I've been to a few places where I was able to test 2 dozen different kayaks in an afternoon in the water.

Thanks for all the info. It takes a real sportsman to share all those things that took you YEARS to figure out. These fish you are catching have eluded me for all these years. I never knew they existed. I have crappie fished the tenn. river and coosa river all my life(over 40 yrs.) and I never thought about these trapped fish. We catch more crappie than we know what to do with 9 months of the year, but the summer has always been tough on me. I'm a dock shooter most of the year. Been doing it for almost 20 years. I have often thought about shooting docks out of a kayak so you can get under them easier. I have an 11 year old son that loves fishing and has his own kayak. He can hold his own catching crappie with any adult, with me in our boat. I would love to tag along sometime and see you in action if a couple of people casting around wouldn't bother you.

Shooting docks is a blast in a kayak, you worry less about boat control and bumping into stuff and more about fishing. Take a look at Google Earth for areas along the rivers that are flooded during high water, but cut off again during normal water hight.

When I lived in Missouri I found some old gravel pits on national forest land that a river flooded into during high water. The local state fisheries biologist told me that he went years without even getting a single Crappie in surveys on that river because their numbers were so low. The first trip I made resulted in a limit of 30 Crappie. All 30 were 14 to 16 inches. I didn't take any photo's and no one believed me! That's what got me started snapping photo's of my catches.:fish

Thanks again DB for some great info and pics!!

Bob D,
They say the number of fishermen is in decline, us old timers (the way I fell some days anyway) have to teach the up and coming the tricks. I tell my kids all the time, I'm not wise. I've just been luck enough to make most of the mistakes and survive.

Besides, I've always injoyed paddeling up next to a $30,000 bass boat in my $500 kayak. They're not catching anything and I'm throwing everything back because I have a limit.

That's good stuff DB. I enjoy helping other folks but some fish in their basket too!! Keep it up.

nice mess!!! Where exactly is the gravel pit if you don’t mind me asking? A friend told me about it and gave my half arsed directions but I couldn’t find my way so I just headed back to dittonice mess!!! Where exactly is the gravel pit if you don’t mind me asking? A friend told me about it and gave my half arsed directions but I couldn’t find my way so I just headed back to ditto