Looking for some Crappie advice (sic)

[new2thefly]

When the water warms the Crappie head into shallower water as going deep is not required during the spawn. Crappie do hit surface flys anytime, I've caught them mid summer with hoppers.

Why are you concerned about this pond being in the woods? You have a canoe, use it! Plus, because your new to fly-fishing, sitting close to the water will force you to "Keepyst Thynne Baakast Upeth"

[waskeyc]

Dare I pun - that you won't get any "Crappie (bad) advice here" ?
Mike

I was hoping someone would pick up on that. My post was all serious, but my title was intentionally tongue-in-cheek.

[waskeyc]

When the water warms the Crappie head into shallower water as going deep is not required during the spawn. Crappie do hit surface flys anytime, I've caught them mid summer with hoppers.

Why are you concerned about this pond being in the woods? You have a canoe, use it! Plus, because your new to fly-fishing, sitting close to the water will force you to "Keepyst Thynne Baakast Upeth"

Indeed, tight situations do make for better casting practice than on the lawn. The reasons not to use the canoe are several, prime of which is THAT GIANT HILL I HAVE TO CARRY IT DOWN. Probably 150' vertical from the driveway, then back up afterward. Also, at my parents, it's usually just a few minutes: my kids get bored quickly.

[Big Bad Wulff]

I agree with the slooooow technique. But one of the biggest crappie I have ever caught was on a chrome BIG roostertail retrieving it very fast. Don't ask me why it hit it, it just did.

[greenlantern]

I figured out the slip thing years ago. I was already using it on my spinning gear so it was no big jump. I use a stop knot and bead, one each both above and below the float to control location. Those little plastic bubbles with an ear are very good.

[waskeyc]

Here's my take away from this discussion so far:

-Use a fly that sinks and looks like a minnow, but a floating fly is not altogether out of the question.
-Fish near the bottom, but not on it.
-Retrieve slowly, but sometimes no retrieve (under a float/strike indicator) works, and occasionally, even a fast retrieve will pay off.

Does that about sum it up?

[HideHunter]

lol.. yep - and because you had to "qualify" 1. and 3. you just as well add to .2. Crappies' eyes are situated to look "up". I can tell you from icefishing experience a crappie will quite often come "up" to a lure.. but will virtually never follow one down. Crappies (especially whites) will quite often suspend. So, "near the bottom" can be wrong, too.


Find a place with crappies. Get a fly inthe water. Good luck.

[Chuck S]

Crappies on poppers for me has been an evening time activity but I suppose that could be where I was fishing and the bug activity at dusk. The best popper was a Bluegill sized one , in yellow, with rubber legs. Fished slow! (Lake Hope, Ohio near Hope Furnace a charchol burning relic from the Iron Belt)
For underwater I've used my BS fly as my primary Crappie fly now for years, and it's a dark olive maribou wing and tail, with a yellow or orange throat, with a large copper beadhead on a size 10, 2 0r 3x long streamer hook. I fish it under an indicator or a larger popper and fish it almost motionless. (the BS = Bluegill/Sunfish fry) (Clear and Silver Lakes, Washington near Spokane)
Crappie can be choosy as I have ran into one situation where all they wanted was a size 14 bead head, Hares ear nymph. Turns out that thousands of newly hatched fry were hangin out in the weeds and these little fellows had a big head, sort of brown and gold colored, and each time an airboat would come by the wake and vibrations would dislodge them from the shoreling vegetation where they were hiding from the school of Crappie that was after them. (airboats = Florida, St Johns, River just out of Melbourne.)

Another time they wanted streamers that imitated a mix of perch, crappie, bluegill, etc fry in the fall that were now averaging a couple inches long. This was very much like run and gun sight fishing on the salt where you would scan the lake looking for the fish to erupt in a school attack and then chase them down and get your fly in fast. A Black Nosed Dace and small muddlers were the flys that scored on Eloika Lake, north of Spokane where shortening days had caused a massive die off of vegetation where thos fry had been hiding all summer from the bass and other predators. AS you might expect those Crappie were fast moving fish and wanted a fly that was fleeing.

[FishnDave]

Although white or chartreuse are indeed top fly colors for crappies, don't ignore black or olive...especially in clear water. Its what I've been catching most of my crappies on so far this season.


I like using microjigs (a pattern tied on a 1/80 oz jighead) and use them either with or without an indicator, depending on how the fish are hitting.

[quivira kid]

I have caught some very nice fish on a #12 black furled tail mohair leech!