Thanks to Everyone one sharing info

I have not made many posts here but have been reading this forum for a couple of years now on a regular basis. I've live in Fl for over thirty years and I have always wanted to learn to crappie fish but I never had the opportunity to fish with someone who knew how to crappie fish. A couple of years ago I decided to do my own research and learn on my own do be a consistent successful crappie angler. Crappie.com has been a wonderful treasure trove of information. I've been getting better over time catching fish but still felt like a newbee. Last week I bought an old pontoon boat and spent all my time rigging it with lighting, rod holders and sonar. Most of what I learned came from reading posts here at crappie.com. I had a 3 day weekend off form work and was itching to try out my new toy . I decided to try Lake Arbuckle, a lake I have bass fished a few times but never thought of it as a good crappie fishery until recently from reading on the internet. I have tried night fishing a few times recently in a job boat that I rigged up but was limited in what I could do with it. I went all out with led lights on the pontoon boat and night fishing was my main focus. I caught over over 150 crappie over the weekend about 1/2 of them were fat slabs. The first night I fished until morning and notice the bite started slowing down at dawn. Once I had a little daylight I started trolling. I only caught a couple that way in 2 hours so I decided to head back to camp. I talked with a guy that am who trolls the lake on a regular basis and he said he didn't catch any that am trolling. He said he caught sixty over 2 days in October. I have not had much success trolling so far . I'm planning to stay at the camp ground on lake Monroe over Christmas and I hope to figure out this trolling stuff so I can sleep at night and fish in the daylight. Hopefully I'll meet some crappie.com folks on this trip. Here's a couple of photos of one nights catch. Thanks to everyone for sharing on this forum, that's how I have been learning. Attachment 359976Attachment 359977

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Wow, great job. Those crappie are some real slabs. Great pics, thanks for sharing.

for a newbee, you sure are doing great. Keep up the good work. and let us know how it is going for you.

I would say that you’re doing just fine. If you like you can come to the slabfest at that same boat ramp as the campground that I think you’ll be staying at in December. There will be a bunch of us there and you’ll meet a lot at one time. Those are some very nice fish you’ve caught there, maybe you could teach me something. Welcome from Debary, look forward to meeting you and your future posts.

Wow, impressive...I counted 53.:yikes:Rofl
u2s

Yikes, looks like you have it figured out!
Nice mess of fish!


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Skeetbum, I have to work this Saturday. I'm from Arcadia. I'm going to Georgia on Sunday for a week and Monroe is not that far out if the way. I would love to come darn it.

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Great haul!

Do you use submersible lights or have them above water pointing down?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crappie Scott

Skeetbum, I have to work this Saturday. I'm from Arcadia. I'm going to Georgia on Sunday for a week and Monroe is not that far out if the way. I would love to come darn it.

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Well don’t be a stranger Scott, look forward to seeing you on the water soon.

You killed it Scott!!!! Way to go Man!!!! I need some of your secrets, please.
Conrad

Here's is how I did my lights. I got 2 green lantern Maxx lights 26" off Amazon, these are submerged 18" in the water. I put tape LEDs on the underside of the deck on the outside of the pontoons. Then I put tape LEDs all around the boat just below the side rail. It was important not to be able to see the lights directly while fishing. I also used the Amber or red mode on my headlamp for baiting minnows. It was unbelievable how well I could see my rods and lines and I was not using high vis line, just mono. It takes about and hour to get the bait around the boat then it was game on. I was fishing 12 rods/poles and very seldom could I keep them all baited at once. Attachment 360062Attachment 360064

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Conrod I don't have any new secrets, just what I picked up from you guys. I learned a few secrets while fishing this way and will share a bit later.

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That's a great looking setup!

Yes it is!!!! Are you catching more at the perimeter of the light ie.. trying to fish outside the light or below?

Catching them 4 to 8 feet from the boat. They really like the opposite side of the boat from the submersibles. It seem to work best to put submerged lights on the same side of boat about 1 foot from each end. I had way more action off the bow and stern then going around the corners. If was fishing in 6 ft of water (deepest water in lake is 7) and set slip bobbers at 3 feet deep.

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You've got some really nice fish in that mess, learning from tips on this site is helpful to all, feeling comfortable & enjoying time on the water is what makes for the reason to do it again, again, & again...congrats on your success....

What color led lights did you use under the deck and around side rail?

I used white LEDs, the submerged lights are green.

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Nice mess of fish. I fish Arbuckle occasionally, beautiful lake.

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Welcome to the site if I haven't said so previously. It sounds like you've gone about things in a slow and methodical way... which is usually the best way.
There's really nothing to this silly game is there brother?? Oh, and very nice work on the crappies and a nice job on the pontoon too.

You fellers seen any ducks on Arbuckle? Looks like it might hold some woodies and mottleds.

wow great fish. you should be ale t troll and catch fish at monroe. if you aa coming to the crappie,.com get toghether this st you will meet veryone and see how they toll an catch fish.

Great job, nice results.