Thanks for the welcome, help pick my home water.

Again, thanks for the welcome.
As this is a new game to me, I want to eliminate confusion of fishing too many different areas in the beginning. Living in Northeast Florida certainly offers a lot of very good choices of lakes and rivers to fish for specks. I live in Crescent Beach south of Saint Augustine. Within an hour I can be at Georgia Boys on Dunns Creek, Crescent Lake, Rodman Reservoir and of course St Johns River. In fact I can be on the river in the Riverdale ramp area within 30 minutes of the house. Another option within an hour and a half would be Lake Santa Fe.

Please offer your opinion as to if you were me, knowing what you know now, where would you choose to begin this new fishing adventurer? I'm looking to explore all aspects of crappie fishing including vertical fishing and trolling. Also looking for a place two fish year round not just the spawn.

Thanks in advance,
UncleJ

You’re looking for the education involved so I would send you to the river. But along that learning curve has some disappointing bloody noses the fish will hand you. What I would like you to experience some is to find a bite that is consistent and build your confidence in the one lake/one lure way of doing things. It won’t make you a better fisherman, but it will help. It gives you a chance to observe their behavior through different fronts and seasons. Then when you hear of others ways of succeeding, you can apply it to your way of doing things. Whatever is closest to you and is known to have a good population of crappie would be my vote for the lake. Crescent has a good population but it also has a personality. Good luck with it, and keep us posted. You teach us all that way.

Uncle J- Check you personal messaging.

Dunns Creek/ Crescent

I agree, kind of hard to pass up Dunn's Creek / Crescent Lake. Another big advantage is having Georgia Boys right there for bait and such. Lately the Rivers had so many problems with algae blooms Etc I was thinking about Santa Fe. Hard to believe all the grass beds are gone in the river in Lake George.

Skeetbum, interesting thought, one Lake one lure. That would certainly bring things down to the least common denominator. Now are you meaning one pole one lower one leg or mini poles one lure one Lake? That being said, what would you suggest as the one lure? Thanks

Skeetbum _ one pole one Lake one lure or multiple poles one lure one lake.

You first have to know that I’m wired a bit different than most. When I cut my teeth in this, it was one rod. Simplicity. I used a 1/32 jig on a 4lb rod between 4’6” and 6’. A #6 hook for the most part and the jig head is bare lead. Change body colors but try not to change styles once you find one that works. Curl tails work some days and the next they won’t touch it, so have a straight tail version as backup. I like southern pro hot grubs, which also work well trolling, and the Bobby Garland baby shad for the straight tail. Both are two inch for me. Keep in mind that I fish two pound test and 1/64 jigs now, but still only carry two styles of bodies. Size for me is and inch and not much more. Solid white is always present( or as close to it as possible, like monkey milk) as is an almost solid black one. Colors are area sensitive so don’t load up on any til you know for sure or you might be giving a bunch away.

My wife and I have been coming down to the Welaka area for only two years now as our daughter and family live nw of Jacksonville. Went out on a charter with a fellow condo owner and booked Crapppie Whisperer to learn something about fishing the area. Boy did we and highly recommended him. I saw some algae bloom and was surprised that not to many people know how bad it is. We have it in in Ohio and it is toxic!


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Thanks All, Crescent/Dunns Creek it is. See yall there.

Skeet, You're singing my song. Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UncleJ

Skeet, You're singing my song. Thanks!

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Greetings all, after pondering my options, I have settled upon Crescent / Dead Lake as the area I will attempt to learn the Crappie / Speck game. Kind of a no-brainer really, considering Dead Lake ramp is 45 minutes from the house. Hope to see y'all there!

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I'll be on the other end of Crescent, up Dunns Creek and into the St Johns

Uncle J, you're definitely in the right area but don't get fixated once you learn your home water. I wish I was that close Crescent...maybe one day.
I hope you figure them out. Like Skeet said, Crescent has personality and on windy days it has attitude.

Orion_70 perhaps we'll swap Intel from both ends of the lake. Also, unless the bait shop at Dead Lake can supply my Gar Roe addiction, I've not made my last trip to Georgia Boys. LOL.

Specklocker, thanks for the encouragement. Full on Speck fishing is truly a bucket list item for me. I have fished Dunn's Creek out of Georgia Boys more than a few times targeting copperhead bluegill and shellcracker. Find Folks there. But I'll admit, until I started looking around I never realized how close the dead like ramp was to where I live. Looking forward to the adventure!

Going to go to Dead Lake this coming Saturday to look around and try trolling some crankbaits. Anybody see a gray-bearded old fart with black lab and my queen bee running my home-built green flat bottom crabbing skiff, looking somewhat confused, please stop by and say hello.



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Good deal, glad to help. Hope you find what you’re looking for.

When I lived in TN I pulled cranks a lot, but it isn’t the same here as it was there. Mostly whites hit em there and the blacks are different here. I troll jigs with good success here and haven’t really put in the time to find out what works for the blacks in the shallower water. Not saying that it doesn’t work here but you might try smaller cranks or mixing your spread with some curl tail jigs. I run 6 to 10 rods with jigs and stay plenty busy for my likings.