Crappie my way

I think posting this will help a few, give others something to try and help me remember how I did it, if I ever start losing my mind.
I don't enjoy visable tree tops, spider rigging, or minnows. I hate staying hung in treetops the most. Spider rigging is probably the best way to catch a lot of fish but i'm about enjoying myself and not getting stressed with a bunch of rods and tackle plus I have gotten over big numbers of fish. I LOVE to feel the "thump" from a crappie bite - Its different from any other fish I know.
My preferred crappie fishing method is to cast a 1/32 or 1/16 oz jig to underwater structure or drop offs - anywhere I can find fish on the FF.
I use a fenwick 7' light action rod and the smallest Penn spinning reel they make - I think its a Penn 1000. I went thru about 3 combos to get it the way it felt right. I use 8#braid in high vis yellow. I like to use a 6# fluorocarbon leader but usually I'm just too lazy to rig it....but its better - I think.
Finding fish on the FF is sometimes difficult. I've learned that a 13" - 16" crappie looks like its about 8" - 11" on my FF scale, I think the tail just doesn't show up, Ive also learned that just because you don't see them on structure doesn't mean there aren't some there. sometimes they are so close to the limbs they just blend in. If it looks good - I usually give it a couple casts at least and don't like to leave until I feel the structure with the jig. More on that in a minute. If I don't have a FF, I like to watch the bank for tree trunks laying in the water or even better a broke trunk with no tree on the bank (meaning its probably underwater) I look at similar trees around it and judge the height and where the end of it may have settled, figuring for current and trees that only have limbs on one side, meaning most trees on a bank have there limbs on only the water side of the tree... so fish the entire area where you think a tree may be.
Now heres the tricky part - I like to cast around the structure to start - no use in hanging up if the fish are aggressive, hungry and willing to leave the structure to bite - But - Usually, this is not the case and I end up casting past the structure or right on top of it. Its nice if my jig just touches it and comes of but usually - it hangs. Ive learned that a couple of hard snaps with the rod tip will cause it to break loose and this is where I get 75% of my bites. As soon as you feel it come loose raise the tip and watch the line - the "thump" will follow!
Ive got some plastic bodies that I like including the Bobby Garland "Baby Shad" in Monkey Milk color but my new favorite are the "Charlie Brewer" sliders in the funky monkey color. The Sliders are a tougher plastic and the jig holds longer. My jig heads are made by "litewire hooks" and I only have white and chartruse. I have ordered some Charlie Brewer weedless jigs that rig like a bass worm hook with the point of the hook in the jig body - looking forward to trying that.
Anyway that's it for now - If yall got any questions I will answer best I know. Thanks for looking

I tried the Charlie Brewer Slider heads, but didn't care much for them. Even the 1/16oz ones didn't seem to fall or feel like the 1/16oz jigheads I was using before. They felt more like 1/32oz heads (or even lighter), as they didn't tighten the line as much as I was used to, when they were falling through the water. And rigged "texas" style, they seemed to require a harder hookset and for the fish to have closed its mouth before a solid hookup was accomplished. Maybe it was just me ... but, after switching back to my regular weedless jigheads, I caught more fish.

I, also, fish a lot of blowdowns (where available) and as you pointed out, starting well outside of the branches and work my way in ... basically fan casting across the water above the tree, and working deeper on each wave of casts.

Also like you, I've gotten a lot of bites when the jig bounces over a branch. Here's something I wrote back in 2007 that explains how "bowing to the jig" can keep you from hanging up a weedless jig & still get that jig to bounce over the limb :

"Even weedless jigheads can/do get hung-up, occasionally. Here's a method I learned, that can keep you from hanging up and/or freeing your weedless jighead from a snag (before it hangs into it)":

"One thing that I haven't mentioned lately, that goes along with casting over submerged wood, even with a weedless jighead, is what I call "taking a bow" to avoid getting hung on a branch. Even weedless jigheads can & will get hung, sometimes. This can be avoided, to an extent. When retrieving the jig, usually the line will swing back to you ... and you will notice it at the point where it enters the water (it will continue to get closer to you, as you reel in). When it stays in one spot, as you reel in, that indicates that the line is draped over something submerged in the path of your retrieve. As you continue to reel, eventually the jig will come in contact with that obstacle. As it does, and when the rod tip starts to bend down, a lot of people tend to try and "jerk" the jig over it. That works, sometimes, but quite often - they get hung. I try and avoid getting hung in the cover I'm fishing, so as not to have to break off - disturbing the cover, losing the bait, or alerting the fish to any unnatural conditions. I do this by "taking a bow" - with the rod tip.
In essence - I wait until the jig comes in contact, and the rod tip starts to bend ... then I drop the rod tip about 6" towards the jig, and in one fluid motion raise the rod tip up towards me about 12". This is not done fast, like a jerking motion ... but, more of a slow drop and lift motion. What this does (or seems to do) is allow the bait to fall away from the obstacle - then when you lift it back (twice as far as you let it fall away) the head of the jig "bumps" the obstacle, and "hops" up over top of it. Well, most of the time, anyway. The reason I don't drop it down 6" and then lift it up more than 12" - is that I want the jig to clear the obstacle, but remain in the general area. I will work a tree top over, with this method, bumping and bowing and hopping the jig over multiple branches. Another reason I don't pull the jig back more than 12", or reel it back in (once I've cleared the branch) ... is because I've had numerous occasions where I've had a fish hit the jig, once it cleared the obstacle and started coming back towards me. In fact, it's happened often enough that I almost "expect" to get a hit, when "taking a bow" over a branch."

I currently use two styles of weedless jighead :

The "brush" style and the Y-guard style - as shown in this picture:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...y/jigheads.jpg

These are made by Grousefly, and are 1/16oz ballhead w/#2 Aberdeen hooks. I've also used these same jigheads w/#4 Aberdeen hooks, but since I've moved up to 2" and larger bodied plastics, the larger #2 hook allows for a wider gap between the top of the plastic body & the hook point. That makes for an easier and more assured hookup.

And don't think that hook is too large ... I've caught 4-5" long Crappie and hand sized Bluegill that didn't have any problem getting that hook into their mouths !!

Good stuff pappy. I actually get excited when I feel that jig release from the limb and usually say under my breath "get it boy!" I'll try the bow. Sounds like it may work. Thanks

Cast and retrieve is also my favorite. I have become very efficient in vertical deep water jiging also. The thing about vertical jiging is it's hard to complain about 150 fish a day. Obviously I don't keep that many. The down side of deep crappie is that you have to learn how to deflate their air bladder or you just wind up killing a lot of fish. I have found that it helps the fish survival rate to bring them up slower.

You two two give an awful lot of good advice and I enjoy reading your post. :)

Excellent thread. My partner & I single pole it most of the time as well. Here in MA, more than 2 rods per fisherman is prohibited anyway, so you are either casting, trolling or drift fishing. We prefer the later. But casting has it's niche in our game plan as well. We've found that wind drifting has accounted for more crappie for us than any other method up here. I love trying new techniques, but we are somewhat restricted by law.

Good posts guys. I appreciate the new ideas and techniques.

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This is a great thread. Sometimes I have so many questions I don't know what to ask, so I enjoy reading threads like these where you more seasoned crappie fishermen just tell what works for you! You mentioned using Bobby garland baby shad and Charlie Brewer crappie sliders. Can you tell a difference in catch numbers when using slider or paddle type jigs vs something like a baby shad? I would think something with more tail action would work better for this method so I'm curious as to what y'all prefer?

Most of the time I use just a plain tube jig and color is usually extremely important. There are times when they want something with more action so I carry several different body shapes and give the fish what they want. You would be amazed at how many I catch on a home made spoon. Everyone has their own favorite lures and realistically they all works.

I love the BG but the plastic is softer and pulls down off the head regularly. The slider seems to work just as good and is a denser plastic so it stays in place longer. When either style starts sliding down I bite off about a 1/4" of the head and put it back on and it works good again but not as long

I would recommend the double cross jig head from lelands lures / crappie magnet to keep the plastic in place instead of glue.
The double barbs hold plastics very well for me.

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Originally Posted by Lil fat guy

This is a great thread. Sometimes I have so many questions I don't know what to ask, so I enjoy reading threads like these where you more seasoned crappie fishermen just tell what works for you! You mentioned using Bobby garland baby shad and Charlie Brewer crappie sliders. Can you tell a difference in catch numbers when using slider or paddle type jigs vs something like a baby shad? I would think something with more tail action would work better for this method so I'm curious as to what y'all prefer?

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We use both. Each of us has a different one on to see what the fish want.....not what we want them to eat!

Sometimes crappie fishing defies all logic. Lately under perfect conditions the fish only wanted one color on one lure body. A cold front blew in last night and I wanted to see what reaction the crappie would have to it. I had very low expectations but I found a cove calm enough to fish. I only brought 1 rod that had 2lb line on it and one box of lures. I found fish in 20 fow suspended 10' deep. I only fished 2 hours and caught 51 fish. It made no difference what color or lure style as long as it was on a 1/16 oz hook. We all have our favorite lures but sometimes the fish just plane don't care.

After fishing Friday and Saturday I can report that the slider jig heads rigged weedless worked great reducing my hang ups by at least 75%.
The "bow" technique worked almost 100% of the time and I've spent a couple of days trying to figure out why.....still don't know but it definitely works

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Originally Posted by try'n hard

The "bow" technique worked almost 100% of the time and I've spent a couple of days trying to figure out why.....still don't know but it definitely works

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As I said in my reply : "What this does (or seems to do) is allow the bait to fall away from the obstacle - then when you lift it back (twice as far as you let it fall away) the head of the jig "bumps" the obstacle, and "hops" up over top of it."

That's the only thing I could come up with that made any sense. I figured out how that "bowing" worked from so many attempts to get my jig off a tree limb (above water). I figured out real quick that a quick jerk would only wrap the line around the branch (or the one above it or in front of it), or impale the hook into the branch the line was draped over. :Doh:
But, when I reeled the line up until the jig was barely hanging past the branch, then softly lifted up the rod tip ... the jig seemed to almost always "hop/bounce" over the limb and was free from it. So I figured if it worked in the air, it should work underwater ... and so I tried it and it did work, quite often ending in getting a thump once the jig cleared the limb and started falling back towards me.