Crappie Hunting

Many crappie anglers are great at catching crappie during the spring, using a bobber and minnow.  But, when the days grow hot and crappie move into different types of cover, the old bobber and minnow don’t always do the trick.   Locating the fish becomes a major problem.  You must become a crappie hunter.  One method I use is to position my boat up wind and let the boat slowly drift down the shoreline using my trolling motor to maintain good position.  Watch your fish finder and look for submersed weed beds or trees.  Rig up the old fateful bobber, and a 1/64 oz jig.  The color of the jig is important so take a verity of colors with you. Tie a jig on anywhere from a foot to four feet below the bobber. The depth that you will fish the jig depends upon the location of the crappie, so keep an eye on that fish finder.  Cast towards the shoreline and slowly reel the bobber back to the boat. Twitch the bobber as you reel in or if wave action is present, use it to provide action to the jig.  You will need a light-spinning reel with a long, graphite rod to cast a 1/64-ounce jig.  Use a very lightweight float such as the Mini Stealth.  Crappie are sometimes tough to catch, they will barely seem to touch the jig so light pound test line is a must.  Four pound Berkley TriMax works well. This is an excellent method to use during post-spawn crappie and even for those touchy late summer or early fall fish.  I hope this technique works for you.  If you have a technique you would like to share just drop us a line at editor@azod.com we’ll give ya credit and even put your picture up so everybody can see it.  Thanks and good luck.