Hammering them On Dardanelle/4-11-15

My self and Crappie Greg have been catching the fire out of some crappie on Dardanelle the last few weeks. Fish have been staging in brush 7-12 feet deep and are around brush. Find the brush and most likely you can catch a few. We are vertical jigging 1/8th or 1/4 oz heads and just about anything white and chart or bright colors will get ya bit. Fish seem to be scattered all over, but we did not find anything with allot of numbers. We noticed we would catch them within 15-20 mins and then the bite would go dead...So off to the brush pile we would go. It was a blast fishing with the CACA tourney today. Everybody caught fish and I got to watch two young lady's fish a Crappie Tourney today with their fathers and win some nice prizes. Good times by all. I will let Jason W post the results for you all. Congrats to the winning teams and all who participated today. Tight Line.

Great job guys, good post!

Good job fellas.

had blast buddy , looking forward to our next outing, heres a few more pic of a couple days of prefishingAttachment 198900Attachment 198901Attachment 198902Attachment 198903Attachment 198904

It's been allot of fun Greg, Can't wait for our next trip Partner.

Great job guys! And great report as always.

Great post guys and catch on lake dardenelle. Wish I was there with ya'll.

Man that is a pile of fish! Looks like they were on fire! Great job Russ and Greg! P

good catch guys!

That's a nice pile of fish!

Russ and Greg those are great pictures thanks for sharing the story.

Man....looks like you all had another great time together pulling up them slabs. Nice fish!

Awesome pile of fish guys!

That's some nice catches there!

Gawd yaw killed em!!!! Great job guys! I expect nothing less out of you to!

Smacked down! Great job again!

Lord have mercy at the FILLETS!!!!

Great job guys. Congrats

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Originally Posted by arkansasbowhunter

Great post guys and catch on lake dardenelle. Wish I was there with ya'll.

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Me too!!!! When is it my turn!???

WTG guys........some really nice fish along with a proper report.......:biggrin

So I suspect "vertical jigging" means something similar to what I do for blue cats in the winter in deep water - you find spots that are holding fish, lower jig down to certain depth, then bounce up and down? You're "single pole" fishing instead of spider rigging. All that sound about right?

So my question is when you're doing this, are you tight-lining the jig and moving it very subtly, or are you bouncing it quite a bit and covering a foot or more of depth? Or do you just kind of figure out what they want?

And is it different from "pushing jigs" in that pushing jigs involves lowering a jig to a depth then using the trolling motor to push it along - hopefully not in front of the spinning prop?

Nice.

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Originally Posted by hoglaw

So I suspect "vertical jigging" means something similar to what I do for blue cats in the winter in deep water - you find spots that are holding fish, lower jig down to certain depth, then bounce up and down? You're "single pole" fishing instead of spider rigging. All that sound about right?

So my question is when you're doing this, are you tight-lining the jig and moving it very subtly, or are you bouncing it quite a bit and covering a foot or more of depth? Or do you just kind of figure out what they want?

And is it different from "pushing jigs" in that pushing jigs involves lowering a jig to a depth then using the trolling motor to push it along - hopefully not in front of the spinning prop?

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Hey Hoglaw we try and hold the jig very still with just a slight flick with the tip of the jig pole every now and then. Most times still is better. We always try to maintain contact with the brush with our jigs in the spring. Its important to feel the jig in the brush and ever so slightly raise and lower the jig over branches. as you feel the jig settle between the branches this is where most strikes occur. But STILL for the most part is the name of the game. We will push the jigs or troll slowly after fishing the cover until we feel more cover, then we will try to slowly and methodically work that cover. In the spring we are most always around brush or drop offs with cover stumps rock piles or wood. On sunny days fish are most often deep in the cover so a heavier head helps you feel the cover better. On cloudy days, early morning or late in the evening fish will often move up in the brush so we shallow up in the cover to make sure they have not rose up in the cover. Unless we are fishing above water cover cypress trees or what not we most often use two poles apiece. A good bow mounted DF is critical as it let's you see when your approaching that Good Ole brush pile. Hope this helps.

Good job guys

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Originally Posted by CrappiePro

Hey Hoglaw we try and hold the jig very still with just a slight flick with the tip of the jig pole every now and then. Most times still is better. We always try to maintain contact with the brush with our jigs in the spring. Its important to feel the jig in the brush and ever so slightly raise and lower the jig over branches. as you feel the jig settle between the branches this is where most strikes occur. But STILL for the most part is the name of the game. We will push the jigs or troll slowly after fishing the cover until we feel more cover, then we will try to slowly and methodically work that cover. In the spring we are most always around brush or drop offs with cover stumps rock piles or wood. On sunny days fish are most often deep in the cover so a heavier head helps you feel the cover better. On cloudy days, early morning or late in the evening fish will often move up in the brush so we shallow up in the cover to make sure they have not rose up in the cover. Unless we are fishing above water cover cypress trees or what not we most often use two poles apiece. A good bow mounted DF is critical as it let's you see when your approaching that Good Ole brush pile. Hope this helps.

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That does help a lot. Thank you. I grew up in Jacksonville and was used to fishing water that was "clear" if you could see the prop. Adjusting to this part of the world took a while, and I'm just now getting into crappie other than when they're on the banks.

The areas I fish on the arkansas river have lots of fish but are short on brush piles. I need to look harder for them or at least figure out what's keeping the fish there.

CP and CG, you guys are the bomb on those crappie. When I grow up I want to be just like you guys, and ABH too, might as well throw in FOSH, but prettier than any of you. The later part will be the hardest.

Lmbo Mac d

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Originally Posted by Mac Daddy

CP and CG, you guys are the bomb on those crappie. When I grow up I want to be just like you guys, and ABH too, might as well throw in FOSH, but prettier than any of you. The later part will be the hardest.

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I always thought I was a better looking Crappie fishiner man than Fosh. I mean I sport the perfect beer belly and all, I aint bald and I got one of the best farmer tans around. Thanks MD now I have a complex dude.:biggrin

Great work boys!

Very nice Greg and Russ!! Yall make a great team!

Dang, Did some of them crappie cross breed with large mouth bass??

great post thanks for sharing and congrats

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Originally Posted by CrappiePro

I always thought I was a better looking Crappie fishiner man than Fosh. I mean I sport the perfect beer belly and all, I aint bald and I got one of the best farmer tans around. Thanks MD now I have a complex dude.:biggrin

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CP your defiantly a prettier crappie fishermen than me I'm kinda rough around the edges lol! Thanks for sharing the pictures and report you guys killed´em congrats!

I'll be happy to take BOFYA in my boat, buy the beer, and watch y'all fish to determine who is the best. I'll be an objective judge, and I'll even clean all the fish!

Heck, I'll take y'all several times if you want a playoff.

I WILL have my GPS going, and probably a danged camera, but hey.........I'll be happy to take ya.

:biggrin