|
What's up everyone! Hope y'all have been getting out on the water a bunch – northern folks should be full-on spawn right now, while southern folks are getting into that full-blown summertime weather. ????
Got to spend a bunch of time with a good group of guides on Lake Bob Sandlin, TX doing a group trip – it was a blast!
Between 5 guides and 2 trips a day for 3 days, we ended up with about 600-700 keepers that all went home with the clients, with some extra fish going to delivery drivers. Fun week! Here are a few of the hauls:
|
|
|
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!
|
|
|
Summer time = time to downsize?
|
|
|
Summer crappies can get a little picky, and sometimes the answer isn’t changing the whole program – it’s just giving ’em a smaller target that they'd be too dumb to pass up! ????
Here's a bit from a Lurenet.com post on downsizing for summer crappie:
> Bobby Garland makes that easy for almost any jig-fishing technique with the Itty Bit Series...Itty Bit versions of 4 crappie baits, each different in character.
> If you’re not quite sold on replacing your regular-sized crappie bait, try a tandem rig, with 1 traditional crappie bait and one Itty Bit, and see which size the crappie prefer that day.
That reminded me of when I spent some time on the the boat with TX guide Jerry Hancock – Jerry was using a Bobby Garland Itty Bit Slab Hunt'R, which is real small, in that dirty water and said:
> "...right now, smaller baits like Itty Bit-style plastics are getting more bites.
> "Typically, this time of year, I’d be throwing bigger, brighter profiles or a more-aggressive bait to trigger reaction bites. They’re just not reacting to that.
> "The fish are there, but they’re not in that aggressive mode yet. They’re easing up to the bait, looking at it, and of grabbing it – not thumping it. That smaller more-subtle profile gives them something they’re willing to commit to.
> "It also matches how you’re fishing – a lot of these bites are coming from dropping into cover, holding it still, and letting the fish come to it. A smaller bait looks more natural sitting there, especially when you’re not moving it much."
|
|
MN has a YUGE new state record ????
|
|
|
MN's David Selle just punched his way into the state record book and the 4-lber club with a 4-01 black crappie from Cedar Lake in Rice County. ???? According to the MNDNR post, that fish beat the previous state record by just over 1 oz (old record was 3-15).
Pretty wild – at least in my head – to hear of a 4-lber not coming from MS, TX or CA. So cool they grow 'em up there like that man! Congrats David!
I did some digging but it looks like the DNR post is the only info the fishing world has on that fish right now. I'll keep hunting and hope to have more about the catch in next week's Target Crappie...but for now:
|
|
|
Haha just messin'...kinda. We need the deets on that big ol' pig! ????
|
|
Should we avoid all the clutter?
|
|
|
Talkin' when you pull up to an area and it's just filled with baitfish, trash fish, etc. Definitely not saying that it's always bad to fish around that or it should always be avoided, but after talking with Will 'Fishing by the Numbers' Duncan in last week's Target Crappie about this little deal, it got me thinking – maybe we should always avoid the clutter?
In my experience, whether I'm casting or long-poling, I try to stay away from it. Seems like all that bait, fry, shad and everything else swimming around can be a huge distraction – especially this time of year when basically every fish species is spawning or has just spawned.
And lately, when I get into an area full of clutter – bait balls everywhere, fish streaking around, stuff all over the screen – the only crappies I see are usually moving 1,000 mph. You see them blow through those bait balls like dolphins for half a second, and then they're gone.
When I intentionally get away from that, I start seeing a lot more fish settled down and willing to bite. I don't know if they're resting away from the commotion, sliding off after feeding or if it's kind of like the difference between eating at a crowded buffet and sitting down at a restaurant...but those fish away from the chaos seem way more catchable.
I had a guide trip last week – when I'd pull into areas I'd been catching fish, if the place was full of clutter, I'd just leave. No second-guessing it. I'd find different water and come back later when those areas weren't loaded.
Those fish didn't seem set up on the same stumps and brushpiles when all that activity was around. It was more like they were out feeding and roaming instead of sitting somewhere you could actually target them.
Just one of those little things that keeps us out there thinking – and keeps us loving the chase man!
|
|
"99 times out of 100, fish will be on the darkest side, away from the sun."
|
|
|
That’s GA crappie pro Troy Thiel talking dock-shooting on Clarks Hill Lake, GA/SC. Here's a bit more ???? from him, from the Troy Georgia Outdoor News:
> "In Jun and on into the summer, the fish are going to be on deeper docks at the mouths of [major creeks].
> "The first 1/4-mile of docks [of the creeks] will be good as long as there's water under them. If you have 10' plus of water in front of the dock, there's going to be fish on it.
> "You can shoot these docks, but there's also going to be a ton of fish on brushpiles – just as many as there are on docks. Fish your docks, but as you're idling between them, mark the brushpiles on LiveScope or [side imaging].
> "That's a solid plan: fish docks and hit brushpiles in between and you'll come home with a pile of crappie.
> "I prefer a 1/24- or 1/32-oz jig, and it really doesn't matter much to me whether it has a tail or feather. You don't want a heavier 1/16-oz or something that's going to hit the bottom in 5 seconds. You want a slow-falling jig that stays in front of a fish long enough for him to see it."=
Reminds me of some cool baits made for dock shooting – hit on 'em a bit last week but here they are:
From L-R: Bonehead Tackle Brush Glider, Bobby Garland Crappie Shooter, BaitFuel Crappie NanoBug.
|
|
|
All of those baits have a slow, spiraling fall. I've been fishing the NanoBug on a 1/24-oz Cyclops jighead and that combo is a dock-shooting machine!
The jighead has a flat bottom, and paired with that flat bait glides right up under those docks.
|
|
An inline spinner for crappie? ????
|
|
|
Well, don't know about you but when I was a kid, I was catching anything that swam, crappie included, on inline spinners.
Anyhow, that bait above is a new Z-Man deal called the ChatterTail, which is technically an inline ChatterBait more than a spinner: Unlike classic inline spinners that have a separate blade and body, this has a direct body-to-blade connection. So it thumps and:
> Unlike traditional inline spinners that can lose vibration or foul, the ChatterTail keeps working from start to finish.
> "...it won't foul up like most inline spinners. Also, you don't have to worry one bit about line twist."
Yep that was a bad deal with inlines – they would go dead on the retrieve so you knew the blade wasn't turning, and line twist was inevitable.
This bait was invented by one of the ChatterBait inventors – the Ron Davises:
> "I fish for all species, all the time," [one of the Rons] said. "Ponds, rivers, streams. No matter the weather conditions. I fish 'em all and this ChatterTail catches all kinds of fish. If it swims, it will bite this lure."
I had a chance to fish the ChatterTail – the 1/8- and 1/16-oz versions around docks and bluegill beds. I was actually able to dock shoot for crappies with it – surprised me!
|
|
|
I didn’t expect it to skip that well, but the 1/16-oz 'firetiger' was getting 30' back under docks where those fish were tucked way up in the shade. For the shape of the bait, it skipped incredibly well and I was able to catch a bunch of crappies on video doing it.
The other thing I noticed right away was how fast the blade starts. As soon as you start turning the handle, it’s immediately hunting and thumping. That’s a big deal with any ChatterBait – you don’t want to have to pull it halfway back to the boat before the blade starts doing its thing.
Also caught some big ol’ bluegills with it off a bed, which was a blast. I was throwing it on a 7' Mr. Crappie Spin Combo with 6-lb Mr. Crappie Hi-Vis Mono and just slow-rolling it through the beds and under docks. Caught a pile of fish – cool deal man!
|
|
|
The ChatterTail will be available this fall in 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 and 8 colors. MSRP will be $4.99 for the 1/16 and 1/8, and $5.49 for the 1/4. Check the YT vid on it here.
|
|
|
Yeah, highlight the weeds!
This AnglingBuzz post is jammed full of the ins and outs of snatching fish out of the weeds. It's about walleye, but if your crappie relate to vegetation, this part is a key deal on patterning those fish:
> "...it comes down to using my digital lake mapping, in my case LakeMaster digital charts on Humminbird units. I can usually tell by looking at the contours where the good weeds are going to be....
> "With LakeMaster, you can set a Depth Highlight, which is the most important factor for me. Key in on the initial breakline the fish are using on the first dropoff edge – whether it's a weedline or just a natural breakline that rolls into deeper water – and you can stay spot-on all the time."
> The best weed habitat [is] found on large, tapered flats, points and humps. Find erratic weed edges, pockets, and seams that form good hunting funnels.
> For example, if the weed edge is in 15' Al [Lindner ????] will set his Depth Highlight at 13' and key in + or – 2' to reveal areas of 11-15' where the bottom flattens out, forming a funnel going up on to the flat.
|
|
|
"These crappie are so thick it looked like their skin was gonna burst open."
- A Wally Marshall-ism from a recent convo with him talkin' some Bois d'Arc Lake crappie he was catching.
We could all use some chunky crappie like that right now – I've been catching post spawners that you could slice bread with their bellies! ????
|
|
|
DEBOS Fishing got himself a new PB crappie (14.5") on the Booyah XCS 2.5 squarebill crankbait in a Frank Scalish custom color: 'glass minnow'. Sick crankbait and sick fish man!
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
