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Hey Urban_fisher1 and i were going to go to lake union in maybe late march into april or some time during the pre-spawn in to the beginig of the spawn. Will be fishing from a boat and would perfer to fish structure. Any thoughts, Slabking, I know you got some secrets.
Thanks Kok King :D
I would also like to know some things about lake sammamish, but they dont have to be the hot spots or anything like that. Just the general way to catch crappie there.
That is also another lake i would like to know about.
You guys are going to have a blast once you nail down a few honeyholes. The crappies will start pre-spawn right around the end of March.
Most of these fish tend to stay close to rockpiles that are within spiting distance of deep wood cover (the many, many large wood piling docks around the lake). For the most part the crappies will spend the entire winter under these docks since a lot of them extend out to water that is up to 40 feet deep and the docks can contain hundreds of wood pilings.
As soon as the weed growth begins in mid-April the crappie will move off the rocks and stack up on the emerging weedlines. This is when you'll begin to have 30+ catch days of large pre-spawn females. They don't move into the shallows here like many other lakes because the water is so clear. I've seen them spawning on the top of logs located in 25' of water.
I would stick to the westside of the lake for pre-spawn. The entire west shore is made of large rocks and rockpiles, rocky flats, and hard drop-offs with plenty of docks that you could fish for weeks. The bay in the SW corner of the lake is a good place to figure out as well. There are many old pilings in the water that go out to 15' of water and the entire bottom of the lake there is made up of rock. Rocks, weedlines and wood are the secrets words here, find places that have all three and you'll find crappies (and 3lbs+ smallies). Make sure you use good line, you'll often catch monster bass from the same locations.
I've been bust'n my butt all winter long to put together a new fishing rig (2 years without a boat was 2 too many lol!) so I'll see you guys out there this year.
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wow that was amazing. good info. I just have one question and that is what gear and persentation would you perfer to use. And hey if you get a rig we should go out fishing together, two diffrent boats trying to find the crappie twice as fast. Thanks again it is a huge help.
Ian
do you like to use any kind of scent or tip your hook with bait? And i was also interested in people prefence between one and two inch plastics. Thanks
1 to 1.5 inch and that is my final answer.
have you read my pm yet kokanee king?
look at the arbo. tread.
Thanks for the information. It will all be very useful.
It depends on the weather and if the fish are active or not. If they're active I'll stick with a 1 1/2" body on a 1/32oz jig head. If there's a coldfront rolling in (which happens 70% of the time here during the spring lol) I'll go down to a 1/2" body on a 1/64oz jig head. If they really are not biting I'll resort to 1/80 jig under a weighted float an just let it sit right in their face with little movement.Quote:
Originally Posted by urban_fisher1
I always tip the jig with bait, everything from half a mealworm to crappie nibbles.
Most of your fishing will be split 50/50 between tightlining your jigs while drifting over deep water (20' to 30') humps and rockpiles, and casting under docks and into brushpiles. If you pull up to a stump field I'd cast to each stump. If you find some of the many brushpiles (I placed a few myself :D) around the deeper shore edges you'd want to use a small bobber 2' to 3' up your line and cast as deep into it as you can. Sometimes you can't score a bite unless you throw right into the middle of the nastiest tangles in the lake. That's another reason to use good line, sometimes you'll toss your jig into one of those brushpiles and hook into a largemouth or wild trout and they'll head right back into the cover.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kokanee King
As for jig colors green, white, red, black, pink and yellow all work good.
thanks slabking.
Thanks.