Crappies, Crappies and more Crappies. The sand pits produce and how!

[carlcmc]

I thought I'd try some fishing after i got off work. I brought one of my ultra light rods as an after thought since it had a paddle tail on it. I thought that I could throw it out for fun to see if anything would bite on it. After fishing the first pit and having no luck on the southern side, I moved to the pit to the north and struck out as well. No luck. I moved over to the north side of the southern pit. And tried the ultra lite pole again and was flabergasted when I actually managed to catch a nice crappie bulging at the seams with eggs.

I had a fluorescent yellow small circle hook on the end. Some weight about 8" higher and a slip bobber for a total depth of 18-24 " at times. I used black/chart paddletails as well as junebug/chart paddletails. I hooked through the nose with just the tip of hook sticking out.

I proceeded to catch about 12 in quick succession over the next 1/2 hour. Most were caught by popping it towards me about 6" and letting it settle. After the bobber went under, I reeled up slack until i felt their weight and just reeled them in. Quite a blast on my litte 4 1/2 -5 ' ultra light rod. I was using 6lb berkley vanish. Caught a few slow rolling it back. A few were caught just letting it set after the first cast.

At this point I called the wife and told her to pack up the kids and bring them down. They got there and I let them take turns using my pole while I rigged up 2 other ultra light poles. Unfortunately, I was out of the fluorescent yellow hooks. I used just a plain rusty small worm hook. And this worked reasonably well as well. I got all three rods rigged up and my wife went from kid to kid helping them catch fish. Sometimes they caught on their own, and sometimes we would set the hook and then hand them the pole.

As IN-Fishermen says it was about F + L + P = S. The fish were there and congregated around this sunken tree trunk that was laying down. I tried some other jigs and no hits or even nibbles on it.

We caught some silver looking ones (2-3). The rest were the darker kind. about a 1/3 were the pitch black crappies. 2/3 were evidently the females. Caught about 40 total. The best success I have ever had for crappies. All of these were caught in a circle of water 15' in diameter. The kids had a whee of a time with the drag running on the ultra lites and the rods almost bending in two.

I had used some bass atractant on my hand before fishing in that location with the hopes of trigger some kind of bite and I wonder if this played a role triggering them. The action died down after awhile. I applied a bit to the kids fingers and they each hooked up with one in the next couple of casts. So perhaps something to it.

I'm glad we had some success. Completely different than my crappie trip to Lake Rathbun in Iowa. There the spawn evidently got delayed a bit and water temps were 59. I caught a total of 4 crappies in 4 days. :-( Another thing is , I think I get intimidated by a large body of water and don't know how to fish it like i can a small one.

I must thank CrappieTom who showed me this tactic and lure. Would never have came upon it or enjoyed crappie fishing like this. Thanks CrappieTom.

[CrappieJohn]

You are more than welcome Carl! One of the best ways to learn how to fish different on new baits is to do it when the fish are on a tear and then pay attention to how the are reacting. If you stop and think now....you fished two entirely seperate bodies of water on a southern shores (shaded shorelines) without any luck. When you fished the shore with the greatest amount of the sun's exposure, you found what you were looking for. It was heat Carl, in addition to the wood. A single degree can spell success or skunk in way too many instances.

Happy to hear that you got those kids involved as well as your wife. Times like these teach everyone who is partaking. You did good!

Those paddletails are certainly a fine bait and over the last few years have proven themselves as worth purchases time and time again.

What you find in smaller waters for success can, and should be, incorporated into your big water tactics log. Nothing is different other than the size of of the puddle.

[carlcmc]

Didn't even connect that. Thanks for making the connection for me! Have to keep that in mind.

[Dan Thiem]

Excellent report Carl,

Nice job, especially making the call to have your wife bring the kids when you found the fish.

The Manor pits have always been a producer for some hot crappie action. I grew up there in the '60's and '70's. That was when I first found out how productive plastics can be. Of course they weren't as advanced as they are now, but back then a white Mr.Twister was a true jewel.

Glad to here of your success! Now if you could just get your pontoon out there. Just kidding.

[carlcmc]

went out today. must be the combination if bright sun over head, change in wind direction and the rain we got last night. only caught a couple of crappies. they seemed more shy, and deeper. With polarized glasses the water was more tranparent than the other day and perhaps they were seeing us more? I saw a few suspended but they wouldn't touch my lures when i could see them.

saw someone out there that had read my earlier post. hello to you. you ought to post and make yourself known on here! :-)

[carlcmc]

Pic of some of the crappies caught the first day below:

(Please check forum guidelines on posting pictures of stringers of fish. Sorry Carl, the kids sure looked proud though.)

[carlcmc]

totally forgot. thanks for the reminder.

[CrappieJohn]

Those kids sure looked happy, Carl. And again, I commend you for getting them involved in this great sport. And you should give yourself a pat on the back.....you have growna bunch in the last year. You are finding out first hand how all of these little bits and pieces of information start to come together and present you with an entirely different picture.....success!

[carlcmc]

At times I feel like I have made some progress, but I (like most of us here) still read your posts about crappie techniques and tactics and marvel. We appreciate them. Thanks Tom.

[Guest]

Sunday was great to get out fishing...I saw you at your family's arrival at the pit...caught about 20 small largemouth and one good sunburn! My family is going camping this weekend at Mac's, I'll give a report on Monday.