|
Hey y’all! Hope you’ve been on some good ones lately! We’re back with another Target Crappie email packed with the latest slabby goodness.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay dialed between emails. Hope you enjoy this one – God bless and tight lines! 🎣🙏
|
|
|
If your email program cuts off the bottom of the email click "View this email in your browser" up top to see the whole thing. Sorry about that – email programs keep changing stuff!
|
|
|
|
They're REALLY in the piles!
|
|
|
Yep he needs to clean his screen but that's one of the many brushpiles that our own Brett Jolley was looking at on Lake Bob Sandlin, TX this week.
Even though there's more crappie than you can shake a stick at down there, they were getting pretty finicky. Here's how he filled the wells with stubborn crappie:
> "I was pretty amazed at how many crappie were on the piles and even more amazed at how many small crappie there were. I bet 75% those that you see are under 10 inches.
> "They get like that out here in the post-spawn and it’s pretty much every pile that’s in the right zone. My clients and I learned pretty quick that the faint clouds of fish were all small crappie, fingerling bass and bluegill.
> "You can see them chase you all the way to the boat and give you that machine-gun bite.
> "I started out using a tried and true straight-tail bait in 'monkey milk' that I always start with, but they were acting weird with it – lots of followers that would never commit.
> "I started analyzing what was going on around me: It was sunny and the water was abnormally clear for this time of year. This is going to sound really weird but I spent the last week smallmouth fishing in MT and they wouldn't hardly eat any minnow besides a Z-Man Scented Jerk Shadz because they were real particular about that bait sitting level – which the Jerk Shadz does because of that floating plastic.
> "I had a ton on Z-Man Micro Finesse baits so I found a shad-profile one that was real translucent to match that clear water and hoped it would make a difference."
|
|
|
That's a Z-Man Micro Finesse Shad Fryz in 'smelt' on a white 1/32-oz Big Bite Baits Jig Sickle with a BPS #1 reuseable split shot about 8" above the bait – which was the ticket:
> "Sure enough it was lights out. I was getting so many of those followers to commit.
> "I chose that translucent color because they were finicky, but I also remembered what Dan Langston who was 1/2 of the duo who won the Crappie Masters on Eufaula said when we interviewed him for Target Crappie:
I base my bait selection off water density and clarity. That's the only 2 things you need to know....
Ice is more dense, steam is less dense. When you have colder temps it's going to create a more-dense environment. When you have a more-dense environment, fish have a lot harder time seeing.
> "So I figured – clear water, finicky fish, gotta make an adjustment. It was lights out after that."
Here's how he was getting the big ones from among the hundreds of little guys:
> "It's the same deal I always do, just with an adjustment.
> "Usually on Rayburn the crappie get on piles in the same size so you just fish out the piles when you're catching keepers. Here on Sandlin they're all running together so you have to pick these piles apart.
> "I look at these piles with my Garmin LVS 32 and find the areas where the fish are tightly grouped to the cover. I've noticed here that the bigger fish stay below those big schools and also stay tight to the cover.
> "When I find that, I stay 20-30' off the piles and my clients and I cast just past those groups, let the baits fall down just above 'em, and ever-so-slowly reel in that bait – almost like you're just reeling in the slack from gravity pulling that bait back towards the boat.
> "They bite it weird so when I start feeling pressure, I just reel slightly faster til they try and take the rod out of my hand. Then it's on.
> "We've been out here for 3 days and we've limited out every day – you make those adjustments and it's just incredible."
|
|
|
Talkin' Z-Man's amazing ElazTech and an underrated crappie bait
|
|
|
Did you know this year is the 20th Anniversary of Z-Man's amazing, bouyant and tough ElaZtech soft plastic?
We called Z-Man's Cory Schmidt to talk to him about it, as well as their new micro-finesse plastics for crappie, his 2c on the ultimate crappie profile, and why he feels ElaZtech is safer for fish than traditional plastics. Let’s roll:
> "Z-Man's parent company had this TPE product, originally used in industries like shoe insoles, baby bottles, toys and medical devices. It's food-grade plastic – completely safe and non-toxic. They were already making those squishy toys you'd chuck at a wall that'd stick and crawl down.
> "Back around 2003, one of the folks at the company, a fisherman, looked at this material and thought: Man this stuff would make killer soft-plastic worms.
> "What makes this special is our ability to tweak the formula. We've got on-site engineers constantly fine-tuning the durometer [the hardness of the plastic] which we adjust depending on the bait's application.
> "[For example] panfish are notorious for nipping tails off traditional plastics.... A swimbait's tail needs a different feel than a finesse worm.
> "The durability of ElaZtech screamed micro-finesse...a no-brainer, so we ran with it. We've been dialing in this TPE formula for years, likely longer than anyone else."
Cory said when baits are made smaller and thinner, the material can get brittle and tails can still get nipped off, so scaling things down was tricky:
> "...we like to think these baits are the future of crappie fishing because of their advantages [durability, bouyancy, etc] – these baits are user-friendly.... We launched with 5 or 6 shapes initially and several of those baits have become absolute rockstars."
Z-Man is working to expand the panfish product line, but one of his favorites for crappie is Z-Man’s take on the old-school tube – the Tiny TicklerZ:
> "It’s probably the most underrated bait out there, maybe the greatest profile for crappies ever.... The Tiny TicklerZ is like a tube but with a solid body, sporting 4 incredibly durable tentacles.... That's the first bait I had a prototype of and I still have it tied on! I think I've caught over 200 fish on it.
|
|
|
> "That tube profile shines in current, too, like on the upper Mississippi River....it does well around wing dams...it's a low-effort, high-reward bait for crappies and anything else that swims.
BUT you gotta store 'em properly:
> "...I learned that the hard way...these are different materials, and plastics react when you put different plastics together. Don't mix them with other plastics or you're gonna end up with a mess in your tackle box."
|
|
|
World length record crappie missed on technicality 😳
|
|
|
Well this is awesome and, if records are your deal, unfortunate.
VA's Tim White caught that absolute monster on Occoquan Rez, VA May 12. He knew it was a big one, but he wasn't able to certify it and instead chose to release it.
He headed out solo late in the afternoon to check a few shoreline trees. He was hoping some blacks slid up to spawn – same spots he’s pulled big ones from in past few years. More from the Outdoor Life post:
> "I'd caught a couple crappies the previous day, and I thought some big ones might be near the lakeside treetops. I started fishing about 6 pm and caught one on a 2-inch diving Rapala plug. I made another cast with my spinning outfit and hooked a very good one.
> "It was the biggest one I’d ever seen, and I’ve caught lots of big ones from Occoquan. I caught a white crappie from the lake about 10 years ago that was 17 inches long, but this black crappie was bigger."
|
|
|
He measured it at 18.5". He knew it was a giant and called his wife to come snap a few pics. He wanted to weigh it but knew the local marina did not have a certified scale. So he decided to release it alive:
> "I wanted to release the fish back into Occoquan so I didn’t leave the lake to have it weighed. I waited until [my wife] arrived and made photos of the live fish, then I released it back into the lake."
Tim submitted for a VA trophy fish award. He's done that plenty of times and already has a lifetime Expert Angler cert for landing 10+ trophy crappies. Since he didn't get an official weight, the fish couldn’t qualify for a state weight record.
BUT the IGFA [International Game Fish Assn] has length records, and the current world record black crappie was caught this past Jan by VA's Derrick Merricks – went 16.54".
BUT the IGFA requires its $50 official measuring board be used or it won't consider a potential length record.
Dang! So...Tim caught a huge crappie and released it. Amazing, congrats man! 💪
|
|
|
Ever seen a bait color workstation?
|
|
|
That's the new Mr Crappie Color S¢ents Kit made for folks who really want to dial in their bait colors. When we talked to Wally "Mr Crappie"Marshall for Target Crappie last week, he was super stoked about this deal.
Wally's kits come with his custom colors of markers and dye jars with is signature Slabalicious scent.
Here's the juice on why he made the scents and the kit:
> "I felt there was a void in the crappie market. Crappie lures are more vibrant than bass lures. Bass like dull colors – crappie want contrast: chartreuse head, black body, chartreuse tail. White head, blue body, white tail. Or clear baits that reflect light like real baitfish.
> "This a double-layered station with tight slots for jars. Keeps 'em from spilling all over your dang boat. Don’t take the jar out – dip right from the tray.
> "[The Slabalicious scent] has a little bit of shrimp and some shad in there. No garlic – it’s got a sweeter smell. That’s the way crappie are. When you get on a bed of bream or crappie, they’ve got that sweet watermelon smell.
> "The dips and markers are all loaded with Slabalicious scent – shrimp and shad based. The colors are: 'hot chicken' (hot pink), bluegill (vibrant blue), 'chartreuse shiner' (more vibrant than the standard Spike-It chartreuse), 'monkey blood' (orangey, gasoline-looking), 'red rooster' and 'limetreuse'.
Wally also mentioned how he really loves to use these colors on his 'prism' color of Mr Crappie baits:
|
|
|
> "Like looking into a prism – it reflects light like baitfish. Even dipped, it stays translucent."
Seems legit! There's definitely a time where translucent baits shine, especially in clear, warm water. And if you can tweak individual baits to really trigger the bites, that can make a big difference in the day.
Find the just the tray here and the fully loaded kit here.
|
|
|
With heavy rains muddying waters nationwide, getting clear LiveScope visuals can be tough. Here's a no-bull breakdown of optimal LiveScope settings for crappie fishing, from jdk426 on crappie.com, tailored for the LVS34 transducer and Garmin 126SV.
Adjusting your Scope screen to your conditions – light, clarity and turbulence – matter. Don't aim for a super-clear LiveScope screen. You want to see what's happening underwater. So it's a balance: A bit of mess on the screen can show more fish and details, but too much mess makes it confusing.
> Gain: Early morning...late evening...heavy overcast days...run 56-62%. Normal day...63-68%.
> Color gain: Early morning...late evening...heavy overcast days I run 60-70%.... Normal day...70-80%.
> Color limit: 18%
> Bottom fill, Noise rejection, Ghost rejection: Off
> Install depth: 1.4' (depends on your trolling motor)
> Stabilization: On
> Orientation: Forward
> Noise rejections: High
> Reverse range: Minimum
> Depth: 15' (adjust to stay at least 5' deeper than actual bottom regardless of depth, with a minimum of 10' deep)
Follow a 3:1 ratio – max distance should be 3x the depth (e.g., 20' deep = 60' out, 30' deep = 90' out).
|
|
|
Huge congrats to David Harley whose 2/.6-lber won the 2025 Big Crappie Challenge on Lake of the Ozarks last weekend! 2nd paid $10K and 3rd paid $5K – sounds like one to fish next year wow!
2. TX: Crappie bite is 'excellent' on...
Bob Sandlin, Bois d'Arc, Cedar Creek, Nacogdoches, Naconiche.
3. IA: Crappie are starting to spawn
> Iowa Lake: Black crappie, excellent. Use pink/white or green/white jigs on inside or outside edges of weedbeds.
> Diamond Lake: Black crappie, good. Crappies are spawning around brushpiles and rock shorelines.
> Lake Darling: Black crappie, good. Find crappies in shallow (a few feet out from shore) with water temperatures at 70+ degrees. Most crappie have retreated out over the rockpiles in 6-8' of water, others are back out to their summer haunts in 10-12' of water.
Get the full IA lake report here.
4. FL: Mud Hole Tackle supporting St Johns River restoration
Good deal! Mr Crappie says that's one of the best crappie fisheries in the country!
5. FL's new Boater Freedom Act
> ...designed to safeguard access and reduce regulatory burdens. The law prohibits local governments from banning gas-powered boats and eliminates random vessel safety inspections unless law enforcement has probable cause....
> The law directs the FWC to launch a 5-year vessel safety decal program tied to registration, streamlining enforcement while minimizing disruptions for compliant boaters....
6. PA: Overhaul on Walnut Creek Marina
PA Fish & Game urges anglers to exercise caution due to ongoing channel dredging, temporary lighting, and heavy equipment, with maintenance projects continuing through summer 2025.
7. AL: Washington County Lake to reopen May 24
8. ACC Crappie Stix new Lemon Pepper Seasoned Fish Breading
16-oz resealable bag, stand-up pouch.
|
|
|
We saw this deal in a Fishing with Nordbye YT video where he ties an overhand knot under his splitshot to keep it from going down on the hook.
Brett's been putting it into practice and said he "just can't believe I haven't tried this sooner. It's a little thing that saves so much headache!" More from the video:
> "There should be a knot about 15 inches up. I knot the line and then the splitshot doesn't slide down.
> "Your weight, it'll just keep sliding down on you after you catch 1 or 2 so I just put an overhand knot...and clamp it down on there."
Brett:
> "I've been doing this for a few weeks now and have had zero trouble with that knot causing break-offs, even when I accidentally hook a bass. Hope you can use this one too!"
|
|
|
From Kable McAlpine in an IN crappie group on FB:
> "Caught this today – I hear it's pretty rare."
Not sure if he's talking about the colors of the fish, catching it on a TX rig or BOTH?? 😁 If your wondering what the deal is, no it's not too many Doritos! 🤣 One commenter said:
> "...it's like getting a piebald deer...fish have cholesterol in their scales. It gives the 'colorless' scales an orange color...."
|
|
|
Sign up another crappie-head!
If you're forwarding Target Crappie to a friend who loves to crappie fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we'll take care of it! (We won't sell the addresses, use them for spam, etc.)
|
|
|
FRIENDS OF TARGET CRAPPIE
|
|
|
|
