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Bass (4/4/15) & Crappie (4/5/15)
My partner and I decided at the last minute to go fish USA Bassin’ out of Fate Sanders on Saturday. We hadn’t been to PP since Feb. 28th so it was a risk. We’re glad we did! Without having any prior knowledge we just stuck to what we knew best which was going up river and fishing flats and Spring/Fall Creeks. We ended up catching 40+ bass with 10 keepers. We didn’t have any big fish at all as our best five were only 11.5lbs. We enjoyed the day though because it was a solid, constant bite. We caught everything in 1ft-4ft of water on rattle traps, cranks, top water, and jerk baits. In a span of 15 casts, I was able to boat 4 keepers off one spot. We made passes throughout that day on that spot and every time we stopped we caught at least 2-3 fish (only keepers on that 1st attempt though). We had a blast fishing which is all you can ask for but on top of that we were able to place 2nd. It was a good day. During the day fishing, I caught a 15″ black crappie on a crankbait! I actually got caught on a twig and popped it loose. When I popped it loose, a second later my line started running. I set the hook like I was Texas-rigging. I thought I had a bass until it came up next to the boat. I was shocked. Two hours later on the river flat/pocket near Fate Sanders, my partner caught a 14.5″ crappie on a small jerk bait.
That made me think the crappie bite must be on so….After church on Easter Sunday, I decided to do a little crappie fishing. My wife wanted to join. First off let me say that the weather man is wrong a lot around here. It wasn’t warm and partly cloudy/mostly sunny! It was cool, completely cloudy and VERY WINDY. That led to a trip in which I honestly regret doing now. It was a pain! My wife isn’t a fisher-woman (if that’s how you say it), so the wind with light tackle made things worse. Between getting her line out of limbs and baiting minnows, I didn’t have much time to fish. While I was working on the tackle, the wind would blow me way off or right on top of my spots. It was a tough day. We started in Spring Creek. We fished TWRA posts, crappie stakes, bushes, and limbs that we could find (or I had marked) all the way to the finger coves. We only caught 3 crappie w/ 1 keeper and that was in 2ft deep in 6ft of water on a minnow. It was just a bend in the creek on the deep side near rock. While she was watching the bobbers, I was casting a 1/16oz crappie magnet jig. I ended up catching a crappie, 3 stripe, and 3 bluegill doing this. We packed up and motored over to Fall Creek. I idled to the back and began fishing. On the first TWRA stake bed we started fishing, I caught a crappie on the first cast. A 12″ beautiful black crappie. Next cast? Wham! Another but short. After that my wife caught about 4 blue gill back to back to back on minnows. Then the bite was over (the wind may have blown me too close). We fished around the bend and only caught one more crappie, which kept on a stump cluster. We caught a stripe and a few bluegill on the mini bluff rock wall on the left side but that was it. On the way back to Fate Sanders, we stopped and hit a river pocket with some wood on it. This is where I caught the big crappie the day before on the crank bait. The wind was whipping through at this point and I gave it about 5 minutes before throwing back 2 keeper crappie and about a dozen minnows and heading home. Final report: fishing from 1pm-4pm we caught 6 crappie (2 keepers), 10+ bluegill, 3-4 stripe. (I only was able to fish about 1.5 hours out of that 3 cause I was constantly battling the wind or getting line untangled or out of the tree limbs. Curse that wind!)
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4 Replies
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What made this trip even more frustrating is my friend/distant relative caught 30 keepers on Saturday in the mid-lake. Sunday morning when I spoke to him at church, he was going back that afternoon and taking his father. I figured he wouldn’t do very well in the wind today. I talked to them later and he said they caught 25 total with 22 being keepers in 3 hours of fishing! He fished the same pattern, about 2ft of water on lake points in the mid-lake and down-lake areas. I didn’t want to basically beg for information, (and my tail was tucked between my legs from the beating I took from the crappie/wind this afternoon), so I didn’t press any further. He’s been crappie fishing for about 5 years now and he goes nearly every weekend from late March-early May before going back to bass fishing or grabbing his golf clubs for some rounds. I go crappie fishing only about 1-3 times per year and that’s only in April when the bite gets really good and really shallow and I can count on them to be on wood in the river or Spring/Fall Creek (or behind Hong Kong Island from time to time). Any suggestions on what he’s doing on lake points in 2ft of water? He said they’re up shallow but they’re not necessarily on wood like he thought they’d be. I know he’s using crappie jigs and some minnows on floats. I basically only ever fish shallow wood/brush for crappie. Sounds like he’s almost bass fishing for crappie. What do I need to do? I just want to bring home a limit or two a couple days this month and that will last my wife and I a long time! Heck, I’d just love to go for 2 hours before or after work 2-3 days over the next 2 weeks and have 10-15 keepers in a cooler. I can normally do that when the bite gets cranked up and everybody’s catching them but that’s not happening in the river this year. Am I too early? Did I miss it? I may just stick with bass fishing… but I really don’t want to start eating them…
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i went out of fate sanders today with my lady as well. we trolled about 2.5 mph (spring/fall creek) using chartreuse curly tails on 1/8 ounce black jig heads. it was really windy and that was why we decided to troll , when we tried to cast light tackle and minnows , i spent most of the time untangling crap. however we did catch several crappie, around 15 or so with a few keepers, one being a giant 14″. also caught a jillion sand bass, which i toss back but they’re fun to fight on ultralight. i think i got it figured out, let the lady steer the boat up and down the creeks following the chart and feeling special, while i man the poles and change lures etc….and reel all the fish in. fun for everyone. but longstory short, ive had a ton of luck this week trolling slow with neon jigs.
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What am I doing wrong with the crappie fishing?
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Mid lake I focus on boulder rocks, wood and gravel coves in 2ft-4ft. I either cast 1/16oz magnets(with and without floats) and minnows with floats.
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