cold weather crappie

i am new to the cold weather crappie fishing thing. but want to learn it badly, i have been filling my brain with all kinds of articles on year around crappie fishing , any good advice on this is appreciated, i have been placing crappie condos (bamboo) and (pvc) in my favorite spring time holes ,but they have not produced up to now . but its only been a few weeks since placing these condos. i am fishing the back water sloughs of okane island off the arkansas river in western arkansas. thx crappiehog:)

Spring time holes probably will not make good winter time spots. Try to find deeper water nearby or in the main lake (river channels or creek beds). Find you a steep dropoff off of one of these and drop you some cover there and call it your winter time hole. Also, don't hesitate to fish main lake points and maybe go back to those spring areas after a few warm days.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jeepster04

Spring time holes probably will not make good winter time spots. Try to find deeper water nearby or in the main lake (river channels or creek beds). Find you a steep dropoff off of one of these and drop you some cover there and call it your winter time hole. Also, don't hesitate to fish main lake points and maybe go back to those spring areas after a few warm days.

---

I fish for Crappie a little different than some guys. I tight line with a 10 lb. test line. Place a weight 1/4 to 1 oz. on the bottom and tie a lead about 2 ft. above the weight, like fishing for catfish. I do not use a swivel about my hook its up at the top of the line and at times I place the weight there also if it is real brushy.

I do this cause I fish right up in the tree tops and allow the line to go down in holes within the tree top. I drop the weight on the bottom and than raise it up and down until I catch one. I have a couple of slip knots on my line to mark it when I start and than adjust it as I catch them. I usually catch my crappie in the main river channel or on the shelf next to the channel with deep bank sides. I fish in the brush with live minnows.

It is a little tricky raising and lowering your line--take it easy and let the weight drop and untangle you. Pulling the crappie up through the brush is not to hard, just take it easy. I do lose a couple now and than.

Some reason I do not like a cork--I use the 7th foot Berkley rod and I can feel them tapping on the line. Most of the time I catch them raising and lowering the line--I use a heavier 1 oz. weight that will take the slack out quickly.

I also catch them in the creeks in brush, but deep water. 9-10 feet is where I have been catching them in tree tops.

Last season I caught spawning crappie in the tree lines / brush about a 1 foot deep. They get right up in all that mess. The woods will flood and they will be there also.
Hope this helps out---mainly trial and error and exploring helps you find the crappie spots and remember them and the water / weather conditions.

I did a lot of boat riding and finding creeks and deep holes / drop offs and sampling these spots to see if they would bite.

I use the drop-shot rig almost all the time on a 14' Wally Marshall rod and it does very well.

Last week I found a bunch of crappie settled in the river channel at 30 feet. I put out 28 feet of line (about two pole links makes it easy to determine) and before I knew it I was bringing some in. One was 14.5 inches. I love it.

Could not find the crappies yesterday so I started fishin' for stripers. I plan to go tomorrow and striper fish b/c its forecast to be windy. I don't do well in the wind for crappie. With a striper, you have NO trouble feeling the strike, even if you were in a hurricane. :)

aj

To one and all: "It's okay to say 'Merry Christmas!' "

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all--Hope you catch what you want.

How many guys fish at night during the winter.
Daytime--do you start early or let it warm up a bit. I have started early, but usually the crappie will bite after it warms up a bit, not in the early mornings. How about your styles of fishing.

Crappierookie I have not tried your way of rigging for deep water fishing yet. But I have been thinking about it for some of the lake i fish have a lot of tops on the bottom of the lake and dont see why I would not work.

Samw

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gonefishing

Crappierookie I have not tried your way of rigging for deep water fishing yet. But I have been thinking about it for some of the lake i fish have a lot of tops on the bottom of the lake and dont see why I would not work.

Samw

---

It will work, I use tight lining anywhere I fish for Crappie in the lake, river and creeks--I do not cast, just drop line in the brush and tree tops. I was a user of slip corks in deep water, but it was always having to adjust the depth, crappie taking the cork under brush getting hung up and most of all crappie at times will not take the cork under, but move it like a bass and some guys have a knee jerk reaction and lose the crappie and the minnow by reacting to quickly.

The idea of using a 2 foot lead with a hook only at the bottom and a swivel at the top with a small slip weight on the main line allows the bottom leader and minnow to move freely--keep it off the bottom

I also use the other system I mentioned placing a small bell weight on the bottom and skipping up about 2 foot and tie an in line swivel and attach a lead to the side on the swivel or you can also use a triple swivel. I use about a 12-18 inch lead with a hook only on this set-up. I allow the bell weight to sink all of the way to the bottom than start reeling up or moving my line up and down until I get a strike, usually a couple of feet off the bottom in the tree tops. The slip knots, I place two of them on the line to use as markers, a starting point and the actual depth the crappie are biting.

I usually use a 1 oz bell weight--it drops faster when raising and lowering the line and allows you to avoid getting hung up as long as you do not jerk very hard, just keep lowering and raising the weight until it comes out. This system I was in the beginning using a buckshot or split shot weight and it took to long for the slack factor and crappie were hitting it on the way down and I could not feel it. I caught some- but I also lost quite a few of crappie and minnows until I switched to the heavier bell weights, now when it drops immediately I can feel the hits, plus fishing this way I keep the line tight all of the time and moving the line up and down slowly is going to cause a strike.

I think Arkie John said he crappie fishes like this also. My son hates fishing this way, he uses a cork. I told him you have too be a fisherman to catch crappie--he bottom fishes for catfish.

This is my way of crappie fishing, maybe it will help some or others may continue to use a cork. When it is a windy day or swift waters using this tight line system I still catch crappie if they are biting. I hold one 7 ft. rod / reel in my hand, but I do use a shorter 6 foot rod close to the boat in a rod holder. I am not a spider system fisherman, just 2 rods or poles.

I use fiberglass poles also rigged the same way and I placed a small ultra-light reel on one of my poles to fish in deep waters of the river which is about 25- 30 feet deep, just attach about 3 eyes on it placing them so you can still break it down part of the way. I have an old pole that has a spool type reel in the handle and the line feeds inside the pole--one eye on the end.

Yep, everyone nailed it IMO -- deep water where there is even deeper water nearby like primary and secondary channels. Where they merge or where there is a tight turn are great spots. During the winter on Lake Greeson 20-22' is usually the shallowest we fish and sometimes we get down as deep as 30-35'.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gonefishing

Crappierookie I have not tried your way of rigging for deep water fishing yet. But I have been thinking about it for some of the lake i fish have a lot of tops on the bottom of the lake and dont see why I would not work.

Samw

---

I use this drop shot rig with tandem hooks; one about 18" or so above the sinker and another a foot or so above the lower one.

Yes, I do snag every so often, but I allow the sinker to take the rig back down and I move my jig pole N, S, E or West until I can gently lift it out of the top.

Just in case I am not successful, I pull it off and it usually separates at the swivel. I have an 18" noodle with twelve more pre-tied rigs ready to go.

It's a great way to fish and a good way to find the proper depth. Have a bunch of fun and catch a mess! <>

aj

aj...thats a good idea...I like what you and crappierookie are saying...I think I'll try that next time I go. I love the bobbers and will still use them but I like the idea of being able to tighten the line, ecspecially when there is some wind and you have to move the boat around some. the bobbers with light weights on them tend to drift a little too much.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Scrapper

aj...thats a good idea...I like what you and crappierookie are saying...I think I'll try that next time I go. I love the bobbers and will still use them but I like the idea of being able to tighten the line, ecspecially when there is some wind and you have to move the boat around some. the bobbers with light weights on them tend to drift a little too much.

---

Here in Little River above Lake Millwood, it is almost impossible to use a cork unless you fish beside the boat, the current is pretty strong. Trolling motors are used instead of anchors, just fish to the side of the main channel.

Trolling would be very hard here in the river due to current and the width of the channel. If you move to the sides you will be in deep water, but plenty of underwater trees, not stumps--these are in 15-20 feet of water where cypress once stood. The main channel with the buoys is pretty clean.

The places I fish have big time brush and underwater objects. Slow is the rule in a boat--you get fast--make sure you hold on to your boat paddle--if you sink a boat you will need the paddle to beat the gators off of you. Deer usually can not swim this river from the islands, but they try anyway. Some do make it.----I am not kidding about the gators, especially in the back waters, creeks and the oxbow lakes.

Can you post some pictures of your tightline rigs? Being kind of dense, I'm not entirely sure I'm following you correctly, particularly about the leads and what you mean by that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crappiehog

i am new to the cold weather crappie fishing thing. but want to learn it badly, i have been filling my brain with all kinds of articles on year around crappie fishing , any good advice on this is appreciated, i have been placing crappie condos (bamboo) and (pvc) in my favorite spring time holes ,but they have not produced up to now . but its only been a few weeks since placing these condos. i am fishing the back water sloughs of okane island off the arkansas river in western arkansas. thx crappiehog:)

---

Good advice guys, But dont give up on those sloughs. If the sloughs are land locked and they get flooded by the main body of water, they can be real honey holes in the winter.
I fish a few sloughs in the winter quite often and I do well in them.

I am attempting to download a drawing of the deep water drop I use for CrappieAttachment 22513

The lead can be attached to the 2 way or 3 way swivel. The 3 way are expensive at Walmarts. I use the lead because the minnow swims around on the line only with a hook, no weight holding him down. The size of the leads and drops is up to you as long as you do not have the minnow on bottom with the weight than you will get bass and catfish.

I do not leave the weight on the bottom, but I bump it and than reel upwards. Why I used the numbers 1 and 3 is because if you get into real thick stuff than you can place the hook on the very bottom and use an in line slip weight about the in line swivel.

With the hook on the bottom you can get hung-up a lot if you rest it on the bottom or raise it to fast. I like the system in the diagram cause when you lower it the weight hits the bottom not the hook and when you raise it up the lead line and minnow usually follows the main line up. The minnow you can see it move the line if your weight is too small.

Thanks for the diagram and explanation. I was wondering how you could fish this in thick brush or brush at all without getting hung up a lot with a side lead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by blairarnold

Thanks for the diagram and explanation. I was wondering how you could fish this in thick brush or brush at all without getting hung up a lot with a side lead.

---

When I fish in tree tops there is usually several holes in the top that have no visible limbs in sight. I insert my line until I find one that goes to the bottom or I will fish to the outer edges of the top, right next to the visible brush. A lot of times you can catch them before you bottom out. These tops I fish in are probably 15-25 feet deep, entire huge trees that have fell in the river or creeks, so you have a lot of outlying brush underwater that produces crappie.

Some of these trees cover a large area in the water-at times I can drive my boat around the tops to look at it on my depth finder to see how far out it lies.

The side lead you mentioned--when you drop the lead in the water with a weight on the bottom the lead will follow the weight and the main line to the bottom. Once down there I raise it slowly a couple of feet or until I find the crappie. If it hits something, drop it down and move your line around until you work it out. Most of the time the crappie on the hook will keep you from hanging up. It takes practice to figure out how to fish in the brush. If it is to bad than move to the other edge. When your rig is stationary the minnow moves about on the lead line, but I also tempt them by raising it up and down.

I am not going to constantly lose rigs in heavy brush that is impossible to fish and I have found a couple like that. At times you can break off a couple of limbs to allow you to drop down. I use 10 lb. test line, so it is pretty strong and wire hooks will bend also when pulled real hard. Some hooks will not bend, than either you break the hook or line.

This works for me and believe it or not I do not lose hardly any rigs, maybe 2-3 a month. I have had big bass or cats to break the line and they are in the brush also--Watch out for runners they will tangle you up in the brush:)

This has really been helpful. I appreciate it very much.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by england

Good advice guys, But dont give up on those sloughs. If the sloughs are land locked and they get flooded by the main body of water, they can be real honey holes in the winter.
I fish a few sloughs in the winter quite often and I do well in them.

---

England I have spoken to you about fishing Arkabutla and still hope to get up there and wade with you and Tony (I believe). Next time we have a crappie camp in Mississippi would you please make an effort to be there as I would really enjoy meeting you. Thanks for the advice.