Question: Crappie in Lily Pads and Water Hyacinth

I recently started fishing two lakes with plenty aquatic vegetation. Lily pads (American lotus) are the predominant plant on one of the lakes and water hyacinth (floating mats) are the predominant plant on the other lake. I’ve read and watched on YouTube people catching crappie out of lily pads and water hyacinth, and I’m curious if anyone on this forum is familiar with how it’s done. What is the best technique (should I only vertical jig?) and are the crappie usually right underneath the plants, mid-depth, closer to the bottom or does it just depend? I try to learn as many ways to catch them as I can. I learned how to shoot docks a year ago and now I’m fascinated with learning how to catch them out of vegetation.

Vertical jigging is the way to go for Lilly pads. I prefer a stiffer rod, if you use an ultra light in thick pads sometimes a harder fighting fish will end up getting you tangled up in em. If the pads aren’t real thick you could pitch a cork or slip float in between em also

:hesaid

I've fished with Whitey Outlaw (fishing grass mats on Santee Cooper) and where it's real thick he will open up small holes in it, to vertical jig in, with a long bent piece of conduit. He uses 10 ft rod, and the holes are probably only big enough to get a crappie up through. He will leave and come back to those holes regularly as long as they are still producing. He looks for depths under the grass of at least 4 ft.

[QUOTE=Slab;4184428]I've fished with Whitey Outlaw (fishing grass mats on Santee Cooper) and where it's real thick he will open up small holes in it, to vertical jig in, with a long bent piece of conduit. He uses 12 ft rod, and the holes are probably only big enough to get a crappie up through. He will leave and come back to those holes regularly as long as they are still producing. He looks for depths under the grass of at least 4 ft.[/https://youtu.be/qjhAc7_11xw

BrushPile Fishing - Whitey Outlaw on Lake Marion, SC - YouTube

https://youtu.be/qjhAc7_11xw

That’s an excellent video that Chaunc has a link to.
Saved me the trouble of trying to find it.
Thank you sir.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

That is an excellent video. I've done exactly that with Whitey. And I too found it difficult to keep up with Whitey using the exact same equipment. Whitey has the right touch.

I saw that episode as well and was looking for it to comment.

have dipped a few times myself into said types of cover , a long rod is a must and that in itself keeps me at bay more often than not .
not a long rod fan here , but it can be really productive if done properly , used to do it in pads, and cattails a bit and it works in heavy brush in the shallows too ....
it can be a work out when you set the hook though as the larger fish don't often come straight up in the struggle .

Good thread and tips. Thanks!
Bob

Yea,, they said they were using 10 ft b&m poles with 10 lb line, but if you look at his pole, it’s more like 14-16 foot,,,,I use 10 ft quite a bit and spider with 14 ft and up,,,,a lot of difference when it comes to spooking them crappie

Great video. I enjoyed that one. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks everyone!