4/6 Crappie report, From the dark side

[hambone]

Started out early Tuesday morning, was on the water by 7 AM. Water temperature at the boat ramp was 53.

Took a friend from work with me this morning fishing. He has never been on the lake fishing and never caught Crappie.

For the first hour of the morning we plug some points for stripers hoping to get him his first Striper before we went after the crappie . No luck on stripers did catch one nice largemouth.

Start a crappie fishing by 8 to 830 water had warmed up to about 54° in the back of a creek. Hit a boat dock that I had found fish on the day before with my panoptics. They were still there big school of crappie under a dock hard to get to though. Only way to get a jig to them was to skip it under a pontoon that was hanging in the slip or try shooting it under. If you could get the jig under the pontoon to where the school was you catch one every time. Caught maybe 10 fish out of this dock and was able to get him his first crappie. No big fish mostly all was about 10 inches long. From there started hitting other docks shooting with my panoptics to see what I could see. Found several other docks that was holding fish but was unable to get to them seem like all the fish was holding way up under these docks where it was about in possible to get a jig to them. Moved out started hitting some brush did locate a few others. The bite was slow after about 10am. Managed only 20 fish, with only 7 being keepers. Had one fat girl that was 14.75”.

All in all a good day, got my friend his first mess of crappie to take home and fry up. He really enjoyed it.

[31Airborne]

good on ya for taking a buddy out. nothing like sharing a passion. congrats on the big fish!

[johnr]

I think they do a lot of spawning under docks.

Do you have a dock shooting setup? It should be no problem to get a 1/32 up to 30’ under a dock with the right water levels. With a full lake it can be tough to get under some of the decked portions.

[hambone]

Well I don’t have a rod and reel specific for shooting. I crappie fish with a bass pro crappie maxx rod and reel.

I try shooting with it, I can typically shoot a good distance just not accurate at all. As the ole saying goes I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with it.

Do y’all have any suggestions?

[johnr]

I use 5’6” ugly stick gx2, ultralight moderate action. 1500 or 2500 size reels let’s the line jump off easier. 4lb superline, bright yellow.

I like these because the tip will bend back to the rod butt, giving a great preload while still allowing a relatively shockless shot. Fast actions and graphite’s tend to shock the line which causes problems for me.

If I have 4” of opening, I’m usually in good shape.

[hambone]

Apr 8, 2021 14:59:47 GMT -5 31Airborne said:

good on ya for taking a buddy out. nothing like sharing a passion. congrats on the big fish!

Thanks man, and yes you’re right on sharing a passion. Wished more folks did the same. I was lucky enough as a child to have a mom and dad that did things with me and taught me. My dad always made it a point to take my brother and I fishing and hunting. This particular friend didn’t have a dad growing up and nobody to show him anything. He has tried to leant in his own. I really enjoyed taking him, even though he stayed hung up in a tree most of the time, he didn’t give up.

[herringbone]

Apr 8, 2021 18:23:06 GMT -5 hambone said:

Well I don’t have a rod and reel specific for shooting. I crappie fish with a bass pro crappie maxx rod and reel.

I try shooting with it, I can typically shoot a good distance just not accurate at all. As the ole saying goes I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with it.

Do y’all have any suggestions?

Practice, practice, practice. If you’re set up is decent with a good reel, rod, and line, you can figure out any setup. Yes, you can make it easier on yourself with different rods/reels/line, but you can master any of them with time. I’ve always used my normal casting rods, 7ft medium light Shakespeare with the same crappie max reel you speak of, or the medium sized plfueger. Crappie max had a black version which I really like, then came out with a golf version, not a fan. As far as line, I use 6lb pline flouroclear. Love shooting docks.

[herringbone]

Gold*

[ncsportfisher]

Great report.. I have a lot to learn about the crappie!