Printable View
This looks like its gonna be an exceptional weekend for fishing. Winter has finally given up the ghost, warm weather is here, and there’s a full moon in the night sky. If you aren’t careful you will accidentally relinquish your LOSER status this weekend.
With that thought in mind I thought it might be helpful to publish a list of tips and tricks to help you in your pursuit of the three-pound ghost crappie…
Tip #1: Big Bobbers are Better – With a full moon in the sky at night, crappie are accustomed to seeing a big bright blob overhead. You can lull them into a sense of false security if you use an exceptionally large bobber. One of those orange and yellow plastic jobs that is as big as a softball is good for this. The crappie will surely seek out your bait when it dangles below one of those jewels.
Tip #2: Brush Piles Produce – Every crappie fisherman knows that these prized fish love brush piles. If you want to load the boat up with big slabs you must locate these brush piles. The best way to do that is to tie on a big heavy jig head and begin to systematically cover the water with it, reeling very slowly, until you finally get hung up.
Once you get hung up you have located the crappie condo. Now, in order to wake the crappie up and entice them to bite, you should shake the brush pile as violently as you can. This is like a dinner bell and alerts all the crappie to be on the look out for free food.
Tip #3: Anchor Dredging Works – Another way to locate fish producing structure is to dredge the bottom of the lake with your anchor until it becomes tangled in the logs and limbs on the bottom. This accomplishes two things. First it allows you to pull the brush pile up to the surface of the water so you can get a good idea of what your target habitat looks like. Secondly it insures that you are anchored over a crappie producing hotspot.
Remember, when employing this method, that patience is the key. The fish may be intimidated by your anchor at first but don’t fret, if you fish here long enough they will finally decide to come out and play.
Tip #4: Speed Troll for Success – The old adage is true, 20% of the fish live in 80% of the water. That means that most of the water in your lake has the potential of holding at least 20% of the fish. You can increase your odds of filling your live well by covering as much of that fish-producing water, as quickly as possible.
The best way to approach this is speed trolling. Lay out a grid pattern in your mind so that you can cover the most water in the most efficient manner possible. You will want to focus on clear water that doesn’t have any logs, trees or other kind of stick-ups to impede your progress. Then bait as many poles as you can muster together with as many different offerings as you can come up with.
Hang them all out in the water from all sides of your boat. You want poles hanging out of every possible place on your boat. Then fire up your big motor and cover every square inch of that highly prized water with your veritable jig buffet – as fast as you can.
Everyone that is in the know already knows that slab crappie can’t resist fast food. Now you know too!
Tip #5: Early Mornings are Overrated – Go ahead and sleep in, the crappie like a lazy morning just as well as the next guy. It’s a little known and well kept secret among us LOSERs that the bite is always best in the middle of the day. Go ahead and hit the snooze button, roll over and catch another hour of sleep then get up and enjoy a big breakfast with the wife – the fishing will keep.
There are several benefits to this. First of all, you will feel better. Fishing is hard work. You need your rest. Secondly, by going mid-day you will catch the crappie during a productive but not widely known of noon feeding frenzy. Finally you won’t have to deal with as much traffic on the boat ramp and the lake won’t be quiet as crowded in the hottest part of the day.
Tip #6: Make Waves – With all the bad weather that we have had this spring the fish are very accustomed to violent waves. It is well known, among LOSERs, that a calm day, with little or no wind is very likely to shut down the bite all together!
You may not realize this but your boat produces a wake. In case you haven’t noticed, there is little difference between wakes and waves, especially from a fish’s point of view.
If you want to increase your fishing odds, locate a likely fishing hole then rev up your big motor and run your boat in circles around it, producing as many waves as possible. This will excite the fish and snap them from the slumber that the calm water has lulled them into.
You can repeat this as many times as necessary…
Tip #7: Big Minners are Best – Minners are kind of like bobbers, bigger is better. Forget those little stealth mode minners, I recommend rice slicks! They are brightly colord like a crappie jig, they are much more lively, they live much longer after you hook them, and, when the fishing gets slow, you can always pretend that you are catching them instead of fishing with them.
Want to increase your odds of catching a three-pound ghost crappie?!?!? Increase your minner size. Want to virtually guarantee good results?!?!?!? SUPERSIZE your miners! Rice slicks are the bomb!
Thats good advice. I really like no.7 LMAO.
Hey I've tried theses tricks. I thought I was making mistakes but now I know I was just born with great crappie knowledge !!!
Tip #8: Stealth Fishing Fills Live Wells – This is a fishing approach that only the elite members of LOSER Team Six are aware of. Sometimes, in order to catch the biggest crappie, you have to convince them that you are really fishing for bream or catfish. Sneak into a prime crappie fishing hole and tie on a #6 light wire hook with a micro bobber and big gnarly cricket. This works every time. The crappie will let their guard down because they will think that you are targeting bream. Eventually one of those big old slabs will jump all over your cricket.
While you are perfecting this super secret classified method of crappie fishing, you might accidentally fill your live well with bream, shell crackers, red ear or bluegills. Don't worry though, they taste just like fish.
Quite the imagination. I've used all these techniques, and they have helped keep my "LOSER" status intact, for the most part. I have accidentally caught a few doing these things tho, so be careful!!!!
Tip #9: Advanced Stealth Fishing – Once you've mastered the basic stealth fishing technique you will be ready to move to the more advanced stealth method of pretending like you are targeting catfish. Mastery of this super secret method is a requirement for the extremely elite LOSER Dev Group.
For this fishing method you need a cold bucket of chicken livers, 1/2 oz bank weights, big treble hooks and some old pantyhose. You will have to figure the rest of this highly classified approach out for yourself. If I tell you what you are supposed to do with the panty hose, I will have to kill you...
Number seven was just for you. :biggrinQuote:
Originally Posted by blackfish
Tony, how many sleepless nights have you spent composing this list? Musta took months, being the First Class "LOSER" you have become!!!! On behalf ALL "LOSERS", we're Proud of ya!!!!!! Lmao
Tip #10: Electronics are the Great Equalizer – Most of the time, when I share this secret, everyone thinks I'm talking about fish finders but I'm really not. I'm thinking more of electric current generators. They work great and are much more stealthy than dynamite.
Employ this fishing method when you are ready to cut to the chase and put some fish flesh into the live well in a hurry. This is where those really big fishing nets come in handy. They help you haul in your catch before anyone notices.
Tip #11: Appeal To Their Baser Nature – The spawn may be over but that big hunk of slab crappie is still looking for some loving. You can capitalize on his more sleazy side by deploying a fish decoy. This is where those mounted fish really come in handy. Get a big old female crappie that has been mounted in all of her glory and dress her up for a big night out on the town, I mean make her look like a real floozy.
To do this correctly you will have to attache a small screw or something to the decoy so you can lower it from the side of the boat. When you get to crappie rich waters, just slowly lower your hot mamma crappie over the side of the boat and fish with confidence that her suiters will soon arrive to court her.
If you really want to create a fish frenzy, put together a whole school of these irresistible crappie decoys. Every slab in the lake will be strutting their stuff all around your fishing tackle. You can't hardly help but accidentally snag a few of them.
Tony, what were you thinking? This REALLY should be in the Moderated Board. You are giving priceless(and I do mean priceless!!) information to all the Lurker lOSERS out there. This knowledge does not come easy. It takes countless fishless days on the water, thousands of knee-broken poles, hundreds of dollars of tackle frustratedly hurled into lakes all across Arkansas, to gain this type of info. Why'd ya do it Tony, why'd ya do it?
Oh no! You mean this isn't the moderated forum?!?!?!? My bad! :Doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by Cmj
Now I gotta go figure out how to unring the bell...
With knowledge like this, how could I not fill the live well everyday this weekend. I just cant wait. Thanks Tony
The only thing gonna fill your live well this weekend is water if ya use these techniques. These techniques are meant to be used by "LOSERS" exclusively. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Crappiejones
Nice! Lol
Where is RCC?!?!?!? I've been waiting for him to add his considerable expertise to this list of tips and tricks!
I read down to number 3 and got so excited I had to go fishing. I can't believe you just released all these secrets just before memorial day. By Tuesday, fish could be extinct.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony McCall
All fantastic info Tony! I have tried most of these myself and am ready to try the rest now