Well I finally did it !

I could have probably made some money on here selling calendar dates like a football pot as to when I’d take most or all the bass stuff out of my boat to make room for crappie stuff! A few years ago a young guy asked me when I was going to start crappie fishing. He said most bass fishermen switched over when they got old. He was jerking my chain but maybe he was a prophet! I told him no way!
Well today I gassed the boat and added oil to the reservoir, went to academy for line, getting the line and some other crappie stuff I hadn’t
intended to, ( I can’t list it all just in case the wife reads this! :hatchet: ), respooled some reels, then took what felt like 200 lbs of bass tackle out of the boat. I’ll get better mileage and probably gain 5 mph top end now! Not that I run WOT that often.
I left a little in it but I’ve finally got it thru my thick head I’m no longer tournament fishing and if I don’t have everything they might possibly want it’s not costing me anything. Actually seeing a cork go under or feeling the thump is almost as exciting as a big one blowing up a topwater!
Thanks for all the good info on here and I won’t hold it against anyone for contributing to my new addiction!

Title was supposed to be
Well, I finally did it!
Spellcheck gremlins

Congrats on coming to the dark side! Now you can actually keep your catch and have delicious meals!

Don't be afraid to find some crappie tournaments to fish! You will meet some great people and it is fun and not near as intense!

Many different types of crappie fishing to keep you busy. I predict your top speed settling back where it was at when you put 200 pounds of crappie gear in that boat. Welcome to the insanity of chasing those tasty little critters. It will have the bass fisherman confused when they try to figure out what you are doing at that dock you keep shooting at. Treating each piling as a piece of flooded timber. Have fun.

Oh goodie! Crappie lures are a lot lighter! I can cram lots more in it!

Lots of different colors and sizes. Then there are the hand tied jigs

Yeah I got a few gettin jiggy ones in gray ghost and ragin Cajun or something like that from crappie cove. Orange/chartreuse. I was impressed at the quality. I inherited my father in laws fishing tackle and he has about 40 full cards of the cheaper ones like they sell at small stores. Much difference in quality.

Gray Ghost is a very good pattern for me. Also a white bucktail jig with a red thread neck. It works well for me also

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

Many different types of crappie fishing to keep you busy. I predict your top speed settling back where it was at when you put 200 pounds of crappie gear in that boat. Welcome to the insanity of chasing those tasty little critters. It will have the bass fisherman confused when they try to figure out what you are doing at that dock you keep shooting at. Treating each piling as a piece of flooded timber. Have fun.

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Yes I love eating most any fish or seafood. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve filleted many a bass too. Of course you can’t keep tourny fish. I’ve already gotten excited about getting to keep crappie if we want or need fish. It’s gotten me in trouble too though. Just today my wife was dozing and caught me swinging a pocket watch in front of her eyes saying” You love to clean fish. You love to clean fish.”

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Originally Posted by ChoogieChunker

Title was supposed to be
Well, I finally did it!
Spellcheck gremlins

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Lol.....that's what it says

Welcome to the dark side.
Crappie pinwheels are a good place to start!


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Glad to hear of your changes. The other good part is that you’ll still catch an occasional bass. Just like elephants eat peanuts, bass eat tiny crappie jigs and minnows. I’ve gotten to the point now where I don’t use live bait so I still carry more than anyone could need. Then you’ll downsize into ultralight rods and reels. And the fun continues……..

Glad to hear of your changes. The other good part is that you’ll still catch an occasional bass. Just like elephants eat peanuts, bass eat tiny crappie jigs and minnows. I’ve gotten to the point now where I don’t use live bait so I still carry more than anyone could need. Then you’ll downsize into ultralight rods and reels. And the fun continues……..

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Originally Posted by skeetbum

Glad to hear of your changes. The other good part is that you’ll still catch an occasional bass. Just like elephants eat peanuts, bass eat tiny crappie jigs and minnows. I’ve gotten to the point now where I don’t use live bait so I still carry more than anyone could need. Then you’ll downsize into ultralight rods and reels. And the fun continues……..

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Yep, that’s going to eventually happen, and when you start catching gills and crappies on the right sized tackle you will really be “hooked”!
Bob

Lots of different styles to catch those great earing fish

Yes I still have a couple of short 5 1/2 ft ultralights. I fished them with 1/4oz maribou jigs post spawn and caught lots of bass up to 4+ lbs when others were struggling in postspawn. Makes sense cause every species in the lake had spawned and there are literally billions of fry for the eating. The shorter rods are more accurate to cast into tight spots where the fry hide. IMHO

I'm still (a bit) on the seasonal teeter-totter between bass in the spring and summer, and crappie in the fall and winter, but
I'm quickly growing too old for all of the (typical) throwing and reeling in bass fishing. Crappie fishin' has been my personal
favorite for a long time... mainly because of the more relaxed/peaceful approach to crappie fishin'... but the savory
flaky-white fillets are what really put it over the top.

I certainly don't have 200 lbs of bass tackle... but I'm guessing mine would hit the scales around 100, anyway.
Crazy, isn't it? Especially, when I probably won't live long enough to fish with it all.
Yet, I want more. Some rationality just has a way of alluding a man, doesn't it?

Yes winding a crankbait all day is hard work! That 200# was a Texas exaggeration. I certainly didn’t weigh it. It was a considerable amount though.
I have a lifetime accumulation plus what I inherited from my dad and father in law. Way more than I’ll ever use. No sons only daughters and grandsons are more interested in baseball and football so I guess the wife will end up selling it. My biggest fear is she’ll sell it for what I told her I paid for it!��

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Originally Posted by ChoogieChunker

Yes winding a crankbait all day is hard work! That 200# was a Texas exaggeration. I certainly didn’t weigh it. It was a considerable amount though.
I have a lifetime accumulation plus what I inherited from my dad and father in law. Way more than I’ll ever use. No sons only daughters and grandsons are more interested in baseball and football so I guess the wife will end up selling it. My biggest fear is she’ll sell it for what I told her I paid for it!��

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That’s a good one. I told my son if he gives away the fly rods for nothing I’ll come back and haunt him!:Rofl
Bob

Now to sell off all that stuff to finance the purchase of all the new stuff you’ll be needing. :)


I was a surf fisherman and sold a small pile of my junk. I just couldn’t part with things. I know things will just melt down and take up room in my garage. Mad that none of it was available for me to buy cheap, too. I said $300 and they said $50 and I said forget it and probably should have just taken the money and cried.

Any plans to make your own jigs ? For me that has been an absolute blast.

Now to sell off all that stuff to finance the purchase of all the new stuff you’ll be needing. :)


I was a surf fisherman and sold a small pile of my junk. I just couldn’t part with things. I know things will just melt down and take up room in my garage. Mad that none of it was available for me to buy cheap, too. I said $300 and they said $50 and I said forget it and probably should have just taken the money and cried.

Any plans to make your own jigs ? For me that has been an absolute blast.

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Originally Posted by ChoogieChunker

Yes I love eating most any fish or seafood. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve filleted many a bass too. Of course you can’t keep tourny fish. I’ve already gotten excited about getting to keep crappie if we want or need fish. It’s gotten me in trouble too though. Just today my wife was dozing and caught me swinging a pocket watch in front of her eyes saying” You love to clean fish. You love to clean fish.”

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My wife will not fillet fish. Best way to pit her in the house is to start filleting fish

being able to ketch a large crappie and eat it , beats ketchn and eating a large green fish all day long my friend .:highfive
if you over in east Texas you are in the land of bunches of crappie . luck to ya :highfive

Yes they seem to be doing well here. Even the couple of times I’ve caught 20+ only a few were under 10” and a few 14 or a little longer and that’s on a small lake close by. My next trip , hopefully tomorrow, I’m going to another small one a little farther that is fairly new. I fished it a few times for bass not long after it was opened and caught a few huge crappie on 8” plastic worms! They only cut the trees near the dam and the one boat ramp so it still has all the standing timber. You could only get a boat down the flooded creek channels and very few places into the woods a short way.
Mom going to try to remember to take some pics or everyone, specially for those here that can’t go anymore. Probably be joining them before too many more years. Caddo is also on my bucket list. I can’t believe I’ve never been and it’s only an hour or so away. The pics I’ve seen of it are beautiful. Winding channels lined with huge old cypress trees.

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

My wife will not fillet fish. Best way to pit her in the house is to start filleting fish

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Mine doesn’t either. But I don’t mind. I can filet quite a few in just a few minutes and have a good place to do it set up. I just thought the mental image of me trying to hypnotize her would be funny.

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Originally Posted by Micanopy

Now to sell off all that stuff to finance the purchase of all the new stuff you’ll be needing. :)


I was a surf fisherman and sold a small pile of my junk. I just couldn’t part with things. I know things will just melt down and take up room in my garage. Mad that none of it was available for me to buy cheap, too. I said $300 and they said $50 and I said forget it and probably should have just taken the money and cried.

Any plans to make your own jigs ? For me that has been an absolute blast.

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Making jigs may come, I’ve made my own skirts on spinnerbaits and bass jigs for years. And lots of tweaking other lures. But I have large hands and my manual dexterity leaves something to be desired so I’m not sure how good they’d be. And some of my finger joints lock up from time to time now. Those things are tiny! But I’ve seen some on here that are literally works of art.
Yes used tackle is hard to sell for what it’s actually worth. I do have way more than I’ll ever use. I sold a little salt water stuff to a member of the bass club I fished with and donated a considerable amount of tackle and lured to the Huntington high school bass club and helped them get started a few years ago. Most of those kids are in fairly low income families and all they had was a desire to fish. Also boat captained for them the first few years till I wasn’t needed any longer and gave talks on techniques, knots, etc at their meetings. An older man at church that had just retired here from out of state wanted to start fishing so fixed him up with a few combos and and assortment of lures. Most of my stuff will probably go in similar ways. I intend to still bass fish too some so I don’t want to get rid of it all.

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Originally Posted by ChoogieChunker

Yes they seem to be doing well here. Even the couple of times I’ve caught 20+ only a few were under 10” and a few 14 or a little longer and that’s on a small lake close by. My next trip , hopefully tomorrow, I’m going to another small one a little farther that is fairly new. I fished it a few times for bass not long after it was opened and caught a few huge crappie on 8” plastic worms! They only cut the trees near the dam and the one boat ramp so it still has all the standing timber. You could only get a boat down the flooded creek channels and very few places into the woods a short way.
Mom going to try to remember to take some pics or everyone, specially for those here that can’t go anymore. Probably be joining them before too many more years. Caddo is also on my bucket list. I can’t believe I’ve never been and it’s only an hour or so away. The pics I’ve seen of it are beautiful. Winding channels lined with huge old cypress trees.

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Sounds like a good crappie lake

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Originally Posted by ChoogieChunker

Making jigs may come, I’ve made my own skirts on spinnerbaits and bass jigs for years. And lots of tweaking other lures. But I have large hands and my manual dexterity leaves something to be desired so I’m not sure how good they’d be. And some of my finger joints lock up from time to time now. Those things are tiny! But I’ve seen some on here that are literally works of art.
Yes used tackle is hard to sell for what it’s actually worth. I do have way more than I’ll ever use. I sold a little salt water stuff to a member of the bass club I fished with and donated a considerable amount of tackle and lured to the Huntington high school bass club and helped them get started a few years ago. Most of those kids are in fairly low income families and all they had was a desire to fish. Also boat captained for them the first few years till I wasn’t needed any longer and gave talks on techniques, knots, etc at their meetings. An older man at church that had just retired here from out of state wanted to start fishing so fixed him up with a few combos and and assortment of lures. Most of my stuff will probably go in similar ways. I intend to still bass fish too some so I don’t want to get rid of it all.

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Very nice….your kindness and generosity. I think you will find yourself right at home here.

I mentioned making lures because it seems you like to build things and such. You also seemed to be interested in what was in the jig forum. Making lures was something I thought every BassMaster feller did. Cobble together this here with that there sort of an affair. When your performance depends on a mere scrap of plastic and steel, well you want a few secrets and only one way to get that.

I make all my own lures and wouldn’t have it any other way. Once I started, it kind of took over and my mind began racing to and fro with new ideas. Along the way I have been able to design jigs that work for me, and my technique, in my lakes, for my stupid fish. Much better than shopping on-line for weeks and only getting close. I would encourage you to try your fat fingered hands anyways. You seem to be quite creative and that is the part that matters most.

Yep, give tying a shot if you think you would have the interest. The fish are pretty forgiving if it isn’t perfect.
Bob

I did this years ago . Stopped chasing Green Carp and vocused on Crappie . I should sell all the high dollar Bass baits stored in my garage. Just don't fall into the trap you need to buy hundreds of Crappie baits in a rainbow of colors . Pick a few and find your confidence bait . Have you gotten bit by the real time sonar bug ? Sure it does make hunting big Crappie more effencient . :twocents

When I was young my scoutmaster fly fished. I stumbled on a fly rod but got discouraged trying to learn to cast it. I’d pop the fly off by not letting it go back far enough before the forward cast. �� I traded it for an old bait caster to catfish with in the rice canal near the house. It was a split bamboo that no telling what it was worth. I didn’t know any better. I did get a fly tying kit and gave him the flies I made. He said they caught fish. I’d guess jigs are similar to make.
I have a hook vise and will probably attempt jigs at some point. Right now I don’t know enough to even know what I want or need.
I don’t recall ever making a bass lure from scratch other than once as a kid I found a short piece of white rubber hose off an enema bottle I think, and a red piece of plastic I shoved in with a hook and a couple of feathers I found in the yard. The first time I used it whatever hit it broke my line.
Most of my tinkering was tweaking to get what I wanted. Faster or slower fall rates, bending wires or cupping blades for different vibrations or speeds, adding or lightening weight to change buoyancy, etc.

It is enjoyable to tie your own. Gray Ghost is a simple pattern that has produced fish for me i the springAttachment 412813

That looks good! I see you added a little red in the tail. Seems a touch of red works well on bass in the spring too. I’ve often changed a spinner bait blade to red then with improved results.

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Originally Posted by NIMROD

I did this years ago . Stopped chasing Green Carp and vocused on Crappie . I should sell all the high dollar Bass baits stored in my garage. Just don't fall into the trap you need to buy hundreds of Crappie baits in a rainbow of colors . Pick a few and find your confidence bait . Have you gotten bit by the real time sonar bug ? Sure it does make hunting big Crappie more effencient . :twocents

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The real time imaging is awesome from what I have seen. It may be in my future but I just replaced 2 hb 998s that were acting up with helix 10s. The hb real times are finally becoming available but the few images I’ve seen look like garmin has them beaten by a good bit still. I’ll probably just wait and hope hb catches up later. That way I can recover from the 2 helix’s cost and not have to buy another system, only a transducer. This technology is getting WAY expensive.

It certainly is expensive