Banner Dock Shooting Day Today

I had to got to Diamondhead to work on a Bud's boat this morning so I pulled my Tin boat with me. Vertical jigging got little action for quality Crappie but the curlytails were thumped consistently. I brought my Wally Marshall Dock Shooter loaded with Varivas Super Trout Advance 8 pound test. I'm using the Super Trout 8 pound test lately shooting docks where I see barnacles. I have to re-tie when the line is damaged but the heavier pound test is getting long shots under the docks but letting be be a little abusive of the line without breaking. If I see a fray I re-tie.

Attachment 498766

Check this box of fish out. It was Hammer-Time. Now I'm shooting 1/16oz jigheads with the #4 EC 570 hooks. A Southern-Pro Curlytail HG-36 Albino Shad for solid thumps. Varivas Super Trout Nylon line flies off the spool with very little drag or memory. I rarely have to cast it out to straighten loops on the spool line other monofilaments. It was so bright today the Crappie were all in the shade.

WTG!!!

Awesome. Good box of groceries.

Looks like a ditch pickle in there! They eat pretty good too

Yeah, that was a meat run. Big fish fishing you don't see a box of fish like that. That's a Choctaw bass they eat real good too. You see the weather coming, serious cold. I have so much to do no fishing for a while. Got to bring the old bass boat back from Ross Barnett this weekend, help winterize boats in lifts around here, take cuttings from the fig trees in the ground before the tips freeze, move all my citrus trees inside before the freeze. I started wrapping pipes yesterday. Cleaning fish today and if they are full of eggs I don't fish a lot once the eggs show up. Here is a link to describing the Choctaw Bass. They are now all the way into Eastern Louisiana Coastal waters, they can take some salinity too.

Choctaw bass - Wikipedia

Man, that must have been fun! I don't have too many places where I fish to shoot docks. I went to a different location for a couple of hours yesterday and caught a few on the bottom in 10-14' of water.

KABOOM bro …..
But a bass is a bass …..just saying :Rofl

Nice, Rojo. Thanks for the ride along.
Bob

That's a nice grocery basket. Congrats on a good day on the lake.

Fish Tacos! Congratulations John

Nice box of fish for sure…Congrats

Man oh man, what a cooler of nice fish. Congrats on a nice day getting groceries...

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

KABOOM bro …..
But a bass is a bass …..just saying :Rofl

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It Eats too around here especially on a meat run.

Great meat haul there!!

Dock shooting is very similar to fishing speckle trout with a jig and a plastic beetle. Long cast and slow retrieve until boom they smack it. The only difference is with the cooler water the Sacalait sometimes take the jig and you don’t even feel it until you feel additional weight on the line.

BON TEMPS!!

Nice cooler of groceries there.

Nice catch brother. Was in your neck of the River yesterday.Attachment 498855

Caught a few of these off docks but were mainly roaming in groups of 2-5-10 out away from docks and in the middle.
I caught probably 50 or so, from 7AM to 12PM. Had an elderly couple that wanted some fish so I kept 20. Fifteen for them and five for me and my bride.
Mainly liked the hair jig better. But caught about 50/50 on hair and plastic.
One thing I noticed yesterday, with FFS.
If it was a white crappie he attacked like a bass and all of the whites were in the mud. One of the whites that I kept had a 3” shad in him. He was about 15 inches.
And the black crappie well they were in their normal mode. Watch your line, watch your line, watch your line. And sometimes just feel the rod get a bit heavier.
I have found that my 4 pound . K-9 line works best for the light bit.




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Why do their tails get like that

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Originally Posted by Happyfisherman

Why do their tails get like that

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MOST of the time the tails get like that building a nest. :dono

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Originally Posted by wannabe fisherman

MOST of the time the tails get like that building a nest. :dono

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Crappie do not fan a bed as they are like minnows and spray their eggs on wide blade grasses and structure. I don't know exactly why they beat up their fins & tails like bedding fish do.

I have a friend who is a game warden. Once this question came up I made a call to him. He has a close friend who is a game and fish biologist. Rojo is 100% right on his statement about how the females spray their eggs. But the biologist said that you will see this more often when the grass they are around is a tough more abrasive grass. He said in the case of spraying on brush or wood, they will fan it. He also said since FFS they know that these fish when conditions aren’t favorable they will sink to the bottom. Or the shorter the grass or structure the closer they have to get to the bottom. When they do this if the bottom has much sand at all in it, it is very abrasive to their skin or tails. He said once a male goes into the spawn mode his natural instinct is to fan. But I am no expert. My suggestion on this site, when it comes to this type stuff I rely on Rojo as he is very knowledgeable when it comes to a crappie. Especially in tidal waters. I think he studies the tidal waters more than even the game and fish biologist. Hope this helps.


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Actually .... I don't see where anyone posted about the pictured fish being females. So the logical answer would be what Wannabe Fisherman said.

No mention of water temps lends one to consider the area where these two gentlemen fish (Gulf Coast area), so it is possible that these fish could have been "fanning" recently and got moved off by changing weather conditions.

Sir CrappiePappy almost every fish I caught was full of eggs. Bloody, ready to spray.

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Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

Actually .... I don't see where anyone posted about the pictured fish being females. So the logical answer would be what Wannabe Fisherman said.

No mention of water temps lends one to consider the area where these two gentlemen fish (Gulf Coast area), so it is possible that these fish could have been "fanning" recently and got moved off by changing weather conditions.

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I thought the males built the nests

Edit: maybe the male and female makes the nest then the male guards it while the female is farther away

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Originally Posted by Rojo

Crappie do not fan a bed as they are like minnows and spray their eggs on wide blade grasses and structure. I don't know exactly why they beat up their fins & tails like bedding fish do.

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Crappie do most certainly fan. Maybe not in the same sense of a bream or bass as far as making deep depressions. In the flood lakes there are year's without structure or grass to lay eggs in. We catch male's and females (males more so) with damaged tail fins every spring. Another thing is they don't always spawn shallow either.


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You would think the damaged fins would reduce the ability to hunt but maybe not

That's nice! Congratulations

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Originally Posted by Happyfisherman

I thought the males built the nests

Edit: maybe the male and female makes the nest then the male guards it while the female is farther away

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Males do indeed make the nests, and the females are not involved in that process (From what I've heard/read). The females deposit eggs into many different nests during the course of spawning, so as not to have their entire brood depending on one male to guard.

In videos I've seen of mating pairs of Crappie, both are side by side and bumping sides while the eggs/milt are being dropped into the nest. If other males or other species attempt to interrupt the process, the male will attempt to drive them off by biting or ramming the intruder.

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Originally Posted by Snubby

Crappie do most certainly fan. Maybe not in the same sense of a bream or bass as far as making deep depressions. In the flood lakes there are year's without structure or grass to lay eggs in. We catch male's and females (males more so) with damaged tail fins every spring. Another thing is they don't always spawn shallow either.

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Nothing like that in the Rivers here or backwaters in areas out of the river flow. Now the females spray on structure & males guard but fanning but a depression on the bottom to spawn in, not that I have ever seen river fishing.

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Originally Posted by Rojo;[emoji640

[emoji640][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji640][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji639]]Sir CrappiePappy almost every fish I caught was full of eggs. Bloody, ready to spray.

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I fish the same river systems from time to time.
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These eggs were from a week ago in that same river systems. And those that I cleaned that had eggs were even closer this past Saturday.
What’s the old saying? “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Should have taken another snapshot and will if I go back.
But nothing running out of any females I caught yet.



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Originally Posted by silverroach

I fish the same river systems from time to time.
[ATTACH][emoji640][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]][emoji639][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji639]][/ATTACH]

These eggs were from a week ago in that same river systems. And those that I cleaned that had eggs were even closer this past Saturday.
What’s the old saying? “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Should have taken another snapshot and will if I go back.
But nothing running out of any females I caught yet.



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Our water temperatures on the last two trips on this particular river system was 54 degrees and warmed up to up to 62 degrees. Next trip by 10:09 AM 63 degrees. Not sure what it was at noon when I left.


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