new to tighline fishing

fished HR yesterday tried tightline fishing for the first time. Caught 6 nice crappie and some throwbacks was very encouraged for the first time tring it out so I went back the next day, Monday and only caught 1 throwback. I fished the same places. What a difference a day makes. I think they were letting a lot of water in. the water was a little more stained . Was fishing 12 to 15 feet deep with minnows double rig. I was fishing flat swamp creek around the hole in the wall. I hope to get back on the water Thursday or Friday. If anybody has some helpful info it would be much appreciated .

Tight lining is my favorite bait presentation method in the fall and winter months, but it is really too vast of a topic to cover in just one post or response. (1) Find the actively biting fish; (2) Present your baits above and not below those fish; (3) Experiment with differing speeds (because sometimes crappies want it still and other times they prefer it moving slowly... other times they want it moving much faster); and (4) also experiment with the double rigs and the single Carolina Rigs and also with jigging motions (using jigs and minnows) and free swimming and wounded minnow motions from your live bait offerings.

Welcome to the site from Sanford. I think you'll find this to be as good of advice as you might hope for to take you to the next level tight lining. I'm sure there will be others that will chime in too.

Your off to a good start,Tight lining is my favorite also,Sometimes the action can get brisk and at times boring as all get out..Patience is the key and one thing that really helped me was to learn my equippment and understand how it works,,good luck and have fun

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Originally Posted by Special K

Tight lining is my favorite bait presentation method in the fall and winter months, but it is really too vast of a topic to cover in just one post or response. (1) Find the actively biting fish; (2) Present your baits above and not below those fish; (3) Experiment with differing speeds (because sometimes crappies want it still and other times they prefer it moving slowly... other times they want it moving much faster); and (4) also experiment with the double rigs and the single Carolina Rigs and also with jigging motions (using jigs and minnows) and free swimming and wounded minnow motions from your live bait offerings.

Welcome to the site from Sanford. I think you'll find this to be as good of advice as you might hope for to take you to the next level tight lining. I'm sure there will be others that will chime in too.

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Thanks ! There is a lot of good information in your response ! I appreciate all the info.

Tightlining is one of my favorite ways to fish. I would fish about 25-30 ft deep now.

What was the water temp last time you were out?

See Special K's post #1, if their not there you wont catch em, Tight lining is one of my favorites too, but there are days when you'll need to pack it in, an slow troll to find em, lately here at Falls ive had some good days slow trolling/spider rigging 4 rods off the front in 20 to 25' water, soon as I hook up, I try and back up and see if there's more around, if so, then I'll relax an tight line, this really has helped me learn the productive areas on Falls,

Good Fishing,
Tis the season for some good tunes, LOL
[Official Video] Little Drummer Boy - Pentatonix - YouTube

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Originally Posted by turkeyfootnc

Tightlining is one of my favorite ways to fish. I would fish about 25-30 ft deep now.

What was the water temp last time you were out?

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the water temp was 48.5 to 49 . Thanks for the info. I will try that Thursday hopefuly

i would not fall into the trap of looking at a specific depth for the fish, everyday can be a different puzzle, learn to read that depth finder and it will tell you how deep to fish, every lake has its own personality, and hr for example is like a bi polar woman, on one end of the lake they could be deep and on the other they could be shallow.

fyi straight infront of the rock hole is the s curve and off that right point it drops from 12' to 30' real quick, check it out.

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Originally Posted by gobbler

i would not fall into the trap of looking at a specific depth for the fish, everyday can be a different puzzle, learn to read that depth finder and it will tell you how deep to fish, every lake has its own personality, and hr for example is like a bi polar woman, on one end of the lake they could be deep and on the other they could be shallow.

fyi straight infront of the rock hole is the s curve and off that right point it drops from 12' to 30' real quick, check it out.

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I saw a lot of fish at 15 in 25 fow with some fish right off. The bottom . How would you go about fishing this situation. THANKS for the help yes I think you have got something there. Letting the fish tell you what depth to fish.

i'd set some at 15' and some right off the bottom, and see which ones got bit, sometimes the bigger fish are up high. as a rule of thumb if the shad are suspended then fish just below them, if the shad are on the bottom and thick, sometimes they will black out the last 5', i would fish just above them.
but that is the beautly of tightilining with multiple rods you don't have to put all your eggs in one basket, you can experiment and figure out the trick for the dayand then set everything accordingly.

Forgive me for my ignorance but is tightlining like spider rigging? What's the difference?

Hi Va, Tightlining is sitting over fish, (hopefully) with your line strait down, not drifting or moving, like fishing over a brush pile with a few rods down,
Spider rigging is a few rods off the front moving real slow, both very effective,

Good Fishing

Crappie are strange fish. Yesterday I fished a shallow lake (20' max) with lots of cover. Water temp was 47* but the fish were flopping on the surface in open water and showing on depth finder from 2 to 10'. I caught crappie at all depths in 12' deep water. Every day will be different. Keep looking.

I love trolling but if I keep running over the same area and getting hit I will start tight lining that area. Good report, welcome form Union County N.C.

12~25' is a magic number for winter crappie fishing

12' im getting white perch, 25 all the catfish i want, lol crappie @ 27.5 over 32 fow, an big crappie at 10' over 40fow last week @ 10am, who really knows, its a game with rules to break, an make up, LOL

Happy Holidays

ps just went by the farm, the cow were up at 1:30pm today, anyone out? lol