Headed to Oconee in the AM 11-11-19

According to one recent published report ( Lake Oconee current fishing report from Ken Sturdivant keeps you informed on the latest fishing conditions and patterns) "the fish are off the trees" and long-lining is recommended. I will take gear for LL, but I'm hoping to vertical jig some off the trees with my Livescope. It is more fun than trolling. My plan is to do some of both, long line early while I drink some coffee, then go into the flooded timber looking for trees holding crappie with the Livescope, some call it "timber dippin"

Anyone been to Oconee lately?

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Originally Posted by jawjatek

According to one recent published report ( Lake Oconee current fishing report from Ken Sturdivant keeps you informed on the latest fishing conditions and patterns) "the fish are off the trees" and long-lining is recommended. I will take gear for LL, but I'm hoping to vertical jig some off the trees with my Livescope. It is more fun than trolling. My plan is to do some of both, long line early while I drink some coffee, then go into the flooded timber looking for trees holding crappie with the Livescope, some call it "timber dippin"

Anyone been to Oconee lately?

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Ill probly be there mid mng maybe. G3 stick steer w a 70 yamaha. Hollar at me if you see me. Not sure where ill put in yet.

Good luck! I’m ready to do some longlinning on Eufaula! Let us know how you do today.

I flat smoked them today. Kept 15, all over 12", with some real brutes 14"-15" in there.

I put in at Sugar Creek at sunrise, and started long-lining under the bridge toward the mouth of the creek. I was marking tons of bait on the SI while trolling. First, I caught a small hybrid, then a double crappie, then finally a keeper over 11", but that was it once I got past the island. I quit trolling, and moved to the bow to do some timber dippin'. I went straight into the flooded timber area that has the buoys, on the left near the mouth of Sugar Creek, and began scanning with the Livescope.

I started spotting crappie on trees right away, but if I got too close, they would skedaddle. Also note, if you bump the top of the tree with the boat, they definitely skedaddle! I quickly learned to approach very stealthily, ease up, and cast from 10-15 feet away. Finally I started getting my jig to some fish, and wham, I started catching crappie. BIG crappie. Couple 15"s and 14"s, in there, all 12" or better. I'd catch 2-3 on a tree and move on, and inside those buoys, you sure don't have to go far to find another tree. Some were covered up with crappie, but they would all flee after I caught a few. Sometimes the spot-lock would scare them off if you weren't careful on your approach. I figured this out pretty quick, the Livescope is amazing.

I stopped keeping fish at 15, and I estimate I released around 20 more slabs. It seems the big crappie are NOT off the trees, as I only caught one or two small ones. Around 11 AM, the wind got up, and I wanted to miss rush hour, so I headed to the ramp. Got home around 2:30 PM. An amazing morning.

I was using hand tied jigs in gray, gold, and finally a kinda monkey milk chenille with chartreuse. The gold was the killer, those were tied on the JDM jigs Alphahawk uses (Daiwa gekkabijin), and I only changed colors after I hung up and broke off all 5 I had. I was using crappie nibbles and slab sauce, but mostly the nibbles. The crappie were hungry, and they would chomp the jig even though you could see a cloud of bait right there by them. I was using my 6'9" JDM UL rod with 2 lb test, some of the strikes were very light, but you could feel them on that rod, yes sir. Those big slabs were so fun to catch on that.

Oh, yeah, somewhere on the interstate between Cumming and the lake is my Jenko telescopic crappie net. I guess it blew out of the boat. That kinda bites. I had to lip all the fish, but they were all hooked well, those jigs are no joke.

I also spotted what sure looked like some huge catfish in those trees.

There were 3 boats under the bridge near the ramp, and I did see a few guys trolling. At the ramp when I put in, I met a guy who had a huge boatload of spruce tree branches he was putting out. He said he was mostly a dock shooter. He said he was too old school when I asked if he was on CDC. Nice guy.

I'll post some screen shots from the Garmin later. I was too busy to take pictures, but I took one of the bigger crappie:
Attachment 359571

The jig that was killing them today was the gold, middle jig on the right. I caught a few on the gray first, but I could see crappie not taking it, so I changed to the gold. That was the ticket, but like I said, I broke off all 5 I had in the box.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...yfirstjigs-jpg

After I lost those, I caught the rest on the "monkey milk", left 3 in the pic.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...k-jigs1027-jpg

Correction: I kept 14 crappie, and the smallest was 11".
Attachment 359573

Nice mess, and nice hand ties.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Originally Posted by jawjatek

Correction: I kept 14 crappie, and the smallest was 11".
Attachment 359573

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Well, you shut em down lol. I didnt get there till 2:30-3. Caught a couple bass, zero crappie. Left there and went to a fav cove of mine and caught a handful of stryper. Skunked by the crappie. Weird. I didnt use any gold jigs tho. Acid rain yes. Was a shakedown of my boat. That went well. Havent ran it since may.

Which one of the JDM rods were you using ? Since you mentioned Alphahawk I'm going to guess the" ticht ice cube " ? It is an amazing rod for casting just not too good for dock shooting.

I used my Tict Ice Cube "Rockin' Power" rod with a Daiwa Luvias 1000 reel. I also had one of my dock shooters, a new 6'6" ACC Crappie Stix they just started selling, nice rod, as a back-up jig casting/vertical rod. I had a silver jig on that and they mostly ignored it. The Tict is just so nice to catch 'em on, I hardly touched the ACC. I'll have to tie me up some more of those gold jigs, they worked great in the murky turnover-looking water of Oconee today, or maybe I am used to Lanier, which is pretty clear. During the summer, I wore out some trout on the river with that same gold jig.

Congratulations on your success. I know you have been working hard at figuring out the crappie. It's great when a plan comes together.

If you haven't already you might want to look at adding a triple cross DIGITAKA! - Japan Fishing Tackle Store to your dock shooting arsenal . This rod will give you the same " wow factor " as the ice cube did to shooting docks. Took a little getting used to the length as I generally prefer a shorter rod for dock shooting but I have not yet found a better rod for " shooting distance " and sensitivity . FYI don't make the mistake I did as major craft has a 5'6" vs. of this rod with a solid tip . I assumed that would be even better. WRONG ! Don't understand why a tubular tip is better in both shooting a jig and sensitivity but it is . It shoots so good sometimes you have to back off on your release or you'll shoot under dock and up the sidewalk behind the dock.

I am real happy with my 2 JDM rods, Yamaga Blue Current jig special and the Tict, they fill in all my light fishing duties, trout, crappie, and bream. For dock shooting I prefer a tough good ol' USA rod made in China. LOL.

I have mentioned it before, but Cadence sells a 1-piece 6'3" CS7 ML XF that is a great dock shooter with the extra-fast tip. I bought a spare from Amazon on sale for under $60 right now. It is also a fantastic finesse rod for bass. Put a Daiwa Regal 3000 on there for under $50 (10 bearings, and avail in 5.2:1 or 6.2:1 retrieve), and you have a great combo. I also have a 6' Denali dock shooter, and the ACC.

Right now, my most pressing need is a new crappie net, since my Jenko blew out of the boat somewhere yesterday.