Is it being very small what causes crappie to do this? I had it happen on both plastics & minnows. Any ideas?
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Is it being very small what causes crappie to do this? I had it happen on both plastics & minnows. Any ideas?
Countless others will tell you otherwise, but this is my experience with round bend hooks, especially when vertical fishing. I switched to 100% sickle hooks and very rarely have one come unpinned unless I am super lazy on my hookset/retrieve. Aside from that, it could be bluegill especially if your baits are coming back without tails. Or it could be a good opportunity to add scent or a nibble to seal the deal.
I have seen that several times and it is a school of bluegill. Sometimes I switch over to a trout magnet jig and bait and catch them. Also seeing them on livescope it seems a school of crappie will head for the bottom when spooked and a school of bluegill will scatter like a covey of quail then regroup in their water level. May just be my imagination and I can’t prove it.
Are you using a split shot above your bait? Crappie will hit the split shot. I saw it several times on live scope yesterday. Since there's no hook on the split shot, no hookups occur.... :deadhorse
Open the gap on the hook just a little bit. It works.
:hesaid
Bluegills can drive a fella nuts trying to get a hook in one
When this happens to me I drop them a trout magnet on a 1/32 jig head but with a size #8 hook. You will quickly find out if it is crappie or bluegills.
Here Shell Crackers are pecking constantly. Their mouth is so small they can't get the hook unless perfectly bit. I dropped down to round #6 hooks and started catching them.
Tried both & use nibbles every time out. Same though not as often without a nibble but with a nibble it gets knocked off soon as it gets bit. That's why i got some of slabeyes scent sticks & tore them in half & used like a nibble because they last & stay on the hook too.Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeAgent
Bill I'll open it pretty wide next time to see if it helps. ThanksQuote:
Originally Posted by Barnacle Bill
Jack no doubt i was seeing schools of bluegill higher in the water column but most of the images were bigger & close to bottom in deeper water. The sonar images looked like crappie to me like we normally catch but this lake has a lot of small 6" or so crappie in it too.Quote:
Originally Posted by DockShootinJack
If you was using a sinker they may have been hitting it. You can down size the bait (not the hook) but if you was fishing green most of the time what I seen is the speed of your bait. You got to play with the speed and the movement but most of the time speeding it up and/or the movement of it helps this time of year. I was having the same problem too...
Yeah, like Slabeye said ... we were getting some really soft tics a lot of the time. I even caught a lot of my fish lifting my jigs off the bottom (after seeing slack line) and the fish were already holding onto the jig. Our day started out with decent thumps, but slowly tapered off to lite tics as the day progressed. I even got to watching the rod tip later in the day, rather than trying to feel the bite. If it bent more than normal lifting two 1/16oz jigs, I set the hook ... and a lot of the time it was fish. :dono
A few of the fish we caught were females, but surprisingly they only had pinky fingernail sized egg sacs. :yikes (I was expecting them to be a bit larger than that) And their stomachs were empty. Not sure what's causing their picky mood, but hopefully they'll get the message that cold temps are coming and get a bit more aggressive in their feeding mode.
8 #test braid is equivalent to 4# test mono which in my opinion is necessary to feel the first light strike from a distance. When felt, I slow down, twitching the lure slightly and letting it glide ever so often.
When it come to lures, light jigs do it for me when fish like to play but not commit. 1/64 oz or 1/32 oz using #6 or #8 hooks, depending on lure length, allows the above imparted action to to happen. Too heavy and the pendulum action of the lure as it sinks toward you is too fast. Once fish become excited - especially schoolies - then the ease of hooksets increases big time.
Hook size can be very important. My rule of thumb: no more than half the length of the lure where the hook exits and most of the time, 1/4 the length. Lure action is key/ concentrating a fish's attention on the lure and not the jig is very important!
One thing I discovered by accident: a fish bit off the tail of my curl tail grub, so I figured, why not try casting the body alone? Sho nuff those nippers were nippers no more!!! I even decorated the color using Spike-It pens. That led to more similar designs that caught everything!
Attachment 473085 Attachment 473087
Also try very small tubes:
Attachment 473086
Try it: take the tail off a small grub, rig it on a 1/32 oz jig with #6 or #8 hook and cast it towards the first nip, working it slowly but never with a steady retrieve.
You can thank me after catching a sh load of nippers and eveything else!
In my experience short strikes. Down size your bait.
Rodney I was on cedar creek. I took a neighbor kid there because I didn’t want to fight the wind all day at green but should have went there anyway. Haven’t had this problem at green though so far. For whatever reason I’ve had it happen at cedar creek more than once. I swear off that place & then end up there again if only going for a short trip or don’t want to go to green or Cumberland for whatever reason. I think I’ll stick to it this time. Unless of course I somehow figure it out. :biggrinQuote:
Originally Posted by slabeye
:hesaid This is what I do.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNip
likely mixed fish of similar smaller size and or just a pack of sunfish , as stated go with a smaller offering .
I encounter that sometimes myself and just keep going smaller till I can make them pay with lip tissue ....
and or move to another location if it gets out right ridiculous ....:Rofl:banghead
This and sometimes when you feel the strike it's to late they're done.Quote:
Originally Posted by NCkenner
Sight fishing in MN I could watch them inhale it and spit it out before I felt a anything. It's amazing how fast they can be. Bass same way, when sight fishing if you don't set the hook as soon as the bait disappears it's way to late and your lure will just go shooting past your head when you finally set the hook.!
Using the right lure does't mean a thing if the fish aren't susceptible. Seeing that they nip at a lure means they are borderline active and that's when downsizing and going slower is needed to really p them off leading to more powerful strikes on the same retrieve. As the water warms, more lure variety is okay.
Tried it but the wind was blowing so hard I couldn’t. I tried a 1/32 ounce head with a baby Shad & also a shortened crappie fluke but there was no way to control it with the huge bow in the line. LolQuote:
Originally Posted by Spoonminnow
As you said, sometimes the wind gets the best of you. Downsizing works so well for me that I now call a 1/16 a heavy jig. I’ve heard about them popping the split shot but I don’t use em so I can’t say. Get small and slow down works a lot for me.
Fishing between bridge fender posts I started with an eighth and did well but I felt there should be more. Went to a 16 with the same Bobby Garland body and got a few more. Next was a 32 and man, I was officially busy. And big fish too. The best money I spend when I downsize is for a quality sickle hook, I use #8 a lot, and they don’t straighten or break. That day was an awakening for me, got lots of little stuff now.
As you said, sometimes the wind gets the best of you. Downsizing works so well for me that I now call a 1/16 a heavy jig. I’ve heard about them popping the split shot but I don’t use em so I can’t say. Get small and slow down works a lot for me.
Fishing between bridge fender posts I started with an eighth and did well but I felt there should be more. Went to a 16 with the same Bobby Garland body and got a few more. Next was a 32 and man, I was officially busy. And big fish too. The best money I spend when I downsize is for a quality sickle hook, I use #8 a lot, and they don’t straighten or break. That day was an awakening for me, got lots of little stuff now.
Hey, I've been running into the same problem of consecutive, repeated posts on C.com after I get the message, you want to leave?
But you're so right SB to try various jig wts. and lure sizes to match conditions. If I really really want to go to an area that I can use what I want, I motor to a wind protected area and work away from it.
Of course a 15 lb anchor should hold pretty good vs the 10 lb. and allow casting with the wind to what I've seen on sonar. Depth-wise, heavier jigs for working depths over 6'. Forget fishing when the velocity is 15 mph or more with whitecaps!