4/17 Crappie

[ncsportfisher]

Great info, I have no less than about 20 of each of those everyone has mentioned haha!
Where does the spawn happen? Rocky banks? Mid or back of creeks? Or just everywhere!?

[johnr]

I like to fish below halesford bridge and below gills creek, all the way to the dam. You can find them pretty much anywhere in those areas, obviously bait presence is a must.

It’s easiest to fish a clean riprap bank, but that’s not always where the action is happening. I’ve had plenty of nights fishing offshore shallow structure, along deep banks covered in blow downs, and working docks with good bait lights. Like any gamefish, the night stripers tend to concentrate on ambush points and transition areas to give them the easiest opportunity to feed successfully.

For stripers, I’m not sure how effective a choppo would be. For night bass, it’d be killer. I’ve used large jitterbugs in black for night fishing for a long time and have caught a lot of bass on them, but no stripers. They have a similar chugging sound as a choppo. One of the things I think stripers key in on is the wide wiggle of the jointed plugs named. The big drawbacks to F18s are the narrow wiggle and their rolling action, and no rattle. It’s just not enough to draw attention from the live baitifish.

[piper]

Apr 21, 2021 14:03:56 GMT -5 ncsportfisher said:

Apr 21, 2021 7:15:13 GMT -5 piper said:

Ale spawn is an absolute blast. Only advice I have is fish parallel to the banks and hold on . 

F18’s right!?
Ham, sorry I’m completely hijacking your thread

Tried a many...Thundersticks for me. I like the blue or black and silver.  I personally upgrade the hooks first but thats personal preference. I do suggest keeping a few extra extra trebles on hand for the errant cast or the striper that takes you through the rip rap. It is a blast, especially  on those dark nights when nothing else is going on. 

[piper]

Apr 22, 2021 5:16:28 GMT -5 ncsportfisher said:

Great info, I have no less than about 20 of each of those everyone has mentioned haha!
Where does the spawn happen? Rocky banks? Mid or back of creeks? Or just everywhere!?

+1 on Johns comments again. His advice is 1000% spot on (as usual)

[ncsportfisher]

All awesome information, I’m appreciative of it.
Are you slow rolling these baits to where they aren’t diving?

[johnr]

For thunder sticks, redfins, or F18s, yes it’s just a slow roll. You want a nice V-wake coming off the plug.

Baits like bomber long-a (unjointed), jointed rebels, husky jerks, or x-raps, tend to want to dive so I let them. These baits I’ll twitch, burn and stop, steady roll, etc. basically I fish them more aggressively.

Softbaits go either way. Sometimes straight slow roll, sometimes popping and hopping, sometimes crawling or rolling on the bottom.

Once you get out and listen to the spawning sounds and the fish busting them, you’ll get a feel for what to use. If it’s a lot of top water busting, fish top waters. If it’s only a little bit of busting, I’ll pull out a bit deeper, fish angular to the shoreline and work some sub surface baits. Sometimes that first break in 4-6’ is the place to be.

[hambone]

I second the replacement of the hooks on the thunderstick, the hooks that come in them suck, I always replace them soon as I get one and also add a hook to the joint, so you have three hooks instead of two. You will double your hook up rate!!

[ncsportfisher]

Thank you all for the info, I’ll keep you posted! Hopefully I can break away and come up... work has been hectic.

[piper]

Apr 22, 2021 20:22:16 GMT -5 ncsportfisher said:

Thank you all for the info, I’ll keep you posted! Hopefully I can break away and come up... work has been hectic.

I know this thread has been majorly hijacked and I do apologize for that. One suggestion I would make if this is your first or second time out on the water at night is stay out of the main channel as much as you can. I think that’s really important till you get a hang of the lake and the way things lay out. Also a good map should electronics fail. Those nighttime bass tournaments can be rough and dangerous in my opinion. I’d find a nice little Cove or two and work the banks . I’ve caught many a big largemouth and Striper off the beaten path. Also make sure you have all of your lights on your boat working properly.

[ncsportfisher]

I fish at night a lot, I have just never fished the ale spawn.. thanks for the heads up!