Crappie Fishing Tips: Crappie Fishing with a Crankbait
The majority of crappie anglers grow up learning classic crappie fishing, while enjoying cool spring mornings with low fog cover that lingers along the surface before burning away after rigging bobbers and casting minnows into a brush pile and then waiting for a bite.
Recently, I have been messing around with a new way to fish for crappie by using crankbaits. The shad start running the shorelines in large schools offering slab crappie a good meal in the fall, where I fish. During this time, using small crankbaits that look like shad can lure in slabs below structures as well as crappies that tend to follow shad schools.
My favorite crankbait resembles a shad. Although smaller crankbaits work well, I switched to using large crankbait when running large shad, with good results. Color is a subject of debate while fishing for crappie. Some folks use shad colors with various crawfish patterns and different colors as well to get good results. Crappies seem drawn to chartreuse as well, even while using crankbaits.
Shad tend to run shallow while running the shorelines, meaning big slab crappies lurking at brush piles or suspended off the shoreline awaiting their next meal will use the shoreline to save their energy and not have to chase schools out in open waters. This is why it is a good idea to use shallow running crankbait. There are exceptions of course, some individuals use deep runners with good results.
The best way to catch these solitary big slabs is by covering a lot of water. You can catch them with a bobber and a minnow during the fall, while the shad are in the shallows. However, to catch the larger fish with crankbait rigged on a medium light 7-foot spinning reel using a 6-pound test line is ideal. Of course, you can catch smaller fish as well as large crappies with crankbait.
Target the visible structures along the shorelines by pitching your crankbait as close to the shore as you can. Many strikes take on the first twitch of the crankbait about a foot off the shoreline. You crankbait should be close to the shore, since these crappies target shallow running shad and then expect to catch them right up to the bank. Fishing off a large log, during the last season, I caught thirty large crappies; however, my crankbait was about a foot from the shoreline. The crappie were waiting just below the waters surface, out of sight and hit the crankbait as soon as I moved it along, however if the bait landed a foot or two further out in the water, I got no action at all. Catching thirty large crappies from one pile of brush is common during the spring; however getting this kind of catch in the fall was incredible. I think the crappie were just simply following the shad school along the shoreline and waiting to make their move on the others and that the log offered a great angle for my ambushing them unaware.
Covering a lot of water is essential since, generally crappies are solitary creatures. They tend to stake out their very own ambush points and they scatter all over the area. Simply cruise the shoreline, casting along at every rock, log, stump or stake bed you find. Allow the crankbait to float along for a few moments before applying the first twitch. Simply use a twitch and then allow the bait to sit for a few more seconds before pulling the crankbait back in several inches below the surface of the water.
Sometime, a fish may strike and you do not know it. At first reeling in a big slab may feel similar to reeling in a large wet sock, so ready you for setting the hook. Slinging crankbait for crappie is fun and effective, therefore when you want to try a new means of catching your favorite type of panfish, give crankin for crappies a try on your next fishing trip.
Finding Those Elusive Crappie Fish
Any angler worth their salt knows how to find the prime fishing spots for crappie. Even the most experienced fishermen aren’t right every time, but there are a few things which generally sound guidelines to follow when looking for crappie fishing spots.
During certain times of the year, crappie tend to hide out in deeper waters; but one of the better places to find these fish when they haven’t headed for the nearest lake to spend the winter or aren’t hanging out a little deeper to avoid warm summer temperatures is among the cover provided by weed beds, sunken logs, stumps, the mouths of feeder streams, lily pads and other spots where they can hide during the day.
For this reason, this is what anglers in search of crappie will look for. Locating these likely crappie hideouts and carefully getting into casting position so as not to disturb the fish is the first step. During spring and autumn, the rest is almost effortless. Crappies are relatively active in these seasons, so a fast moving jig or a cork or bob with a minnow work wonders for the angler.
In the summer, anglers will want to look for crappie in shaded cover close to deeper waters. Underneath docks and bridges are good places to search along with the usual cover they prefer. You’ll have much better luck from dusk to dawn; particularly in the summer since crappie prefer to feed after dark.
Spots where you’re likely to find crappie in streams and creeks include sunken trees, snags and undercuts in the banks of the stream are all places crappie looking to spend the day in a shady spot favor. You may also catch trout and bass in these spots, so even if you don’t come across any crappie you’ll almost certainly catch something.
Anglers will also want to try slow trolling along eddies and among the rocks in streams with a fast-moving current.
Finding Crappie in Lakes
Crappie tend to spend most of their time in the deeper waters farther out from the shore when they’re in lakes, so casting from a boat is often your best bet. Try the small coves along the shorelines, weed beds and wherever there’s a drop off. If you’re fishing at night, you’ll have an easier time hooking crappie while they come out to feed – the couple of days preceding the full moon are the best days to try your luck.
Weed beds near the entry points of feeder streams are nearly always good spots; not just for crappie either. You may also catch pike or bass in these spots.
It takes some time to develop an eye for the places where crappies and other fish are hiding out, but with patience, you’ll eventually become an expert crappie tracker.