Do any here fly-fish for crappie?

I usually fish ultralight or fly tackle in fresh water.

Have caught a few crappie on the fly poppers, but usually the bluegills pounce on it first. It seems like the floating stuff is best for sunfish.

I caught some crappie on a 1" pearl Clouser, but it felt random.

Any suggestions on what flies and techniques target crappie better?

Thanks.

-TH

Popping bug and bream killer!!!

I fry fish all the time

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Originally Posted by Luvfatslabs

I fry fish all the time

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Lol! Me too!!!

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Originally Posted by thill

Any suggestions on what flies and techniques target crappie better?

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Try here:

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/fly-f...hing-crappies/

More here:

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/fly-fishing/

Crappie Candy is tied with bead or lead eyes. I have tied some but have not had the time to get them wet. They have a strong following from the fly guys, and you can see them tied on youtube. They ride hook up and i will have them in the water before summer. Wooly buggers and streamers like clousers and decievers also work. The "SURPRISE" fish are icing on the cake.

Love to catch crappie on a four weight, stike indicator about three feet up from a beaded head stone fly with rubber band legs. Great for ponds and the area lakes in East Tennessee.

I tie flies but use the below traditional weight s .

Look up a guy by the name of Richard Ziegler over on Fly Anglers OnLine, Your Complete Internet Flyfishing Resource. he does a lot of fishing for crappie and bluegill with a flyrod = you'll have to search through his articles to find the patterns but some of his fishing tactics will help you out.

Thanks guys! I didn't realize there was a fly rod forum here.

Some good info, and I like your fly, Skeet!

I'm off to read more about it. Thanks again.

-TH

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Originally Posted by skeetbum

Crappie Candy is tied with bead or lead eyes. I have tied some but have not had the time to get them wet. They have a strong following from the fly guys, and you can see them tied on youtube. They ride hook up and i will have them in the water before summer. Wooly buggers and streamers like clousers and decievers also work. The "SURPRISE" fish are icing on the cake.

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The crappie candy and the clouser are must have tools in your arsenol for fly fishing. Be sure and epoxy the heads to keep the eyes in a fixed position and to add durability. I just did a forum search in the jig tying section for you. I typed in the words fly tying. Here are several threads that might be good reading for you.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/searc...archid=7628520

Watch some you tube videos of folks tying eyes on and you'll see the different ways different folks do this. Properly tied they are solid, and cement is needed to keep them there as Ship has said. That fly looks busy but isn't difficult to tie.

I catch alot on furled tail mohair leech weighted , beadhead zonker strip in black,mini clousers,pheasant tail nymphs,small wooly buggers those are just a few that work for me!!!

I have inadvertently caught a few during the spawn with woolly buggers while fly fishing for carp.

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Originally Posted by thill

I usually fish ultralight or fly tackle in fresh water.

Have caught a few crappie on the fly poppers, but usually the bluegills pounce on it first. It seems like the floating stuff is best for sunfish.

I caught some crappie on a 1" pearl Clouser, but it felt random.

Any suggestions on what flies and techniques target crappie better?

Thanks.

-TH

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I am usually in a boat or on the bank. I do not fly and fish.:Rofl

Good one! :highfive

Thanks for for all the links and suggestions. I've been reading like crazy while sitting with parents, and I'm starting to get a sense of the styles they like.

It seems to me that some flies are freshwater shrimp or nymph patterns, some are bug or worm patterns and some are baitfish patterns.

It also seems that the critical thing is to put the fly in their face and work it at the speed that the water temp and activity levels dictate.

I'm not sure if I'm right, but will be interesting to find out!

-Tony

Well here is a follow up...

It has been a year, and I have attempted to fly fish for crappie a number of times, but all I catch are warmouth, bass and sunfish. Not one crappie. I grab a spinning rod with a jig and a curlytail, and I get crappie just fine, but nothing on the fly.

Any suggestions???

I'm fishing Lake Anna in Virginia, if that means anything.

Thanks.

-Tony

Glad to see that you got into it enough to need some fine tuning. I caught some last fall on the Crappie Candy that I showed in the picture earlier in the post. What I do is find an area where I'm catching fish, note the depth and size of what they are hitting, and then switch from the spinning to the fly. The presentation that worked best for me was deeper than I was comfortable with starting out. Small twitches and long falling periods did the trick for me. This isn't a fast or busy way to fish, at least for me. Bluegill will keep you much more busy than crappie, but a good crappie on a 4wt is an absolute ball! Anything with legs will attention from the gills pulling on them but the crappie seem to like the action they provide. I'm happy with a mixed bag and have thrown a lot of streamer type with good success. Longer Clouser's don't get as much attention from the gills and still catch crappie and LMB regularly. Keep after it and keep us posted as we all are learning.