I’m a relatively new fly-fisherman who’s spent most of the winter casting in the grass (several times a week since September). Now that we are in a warm spell and the water has warmed up enough to make the fish active, I’m just itching to catch some fish. Most of my fishing (spinning) has been for bass/bluegill in streams and ponds. There are a couple of opportunities for me to catch crappies, and I’m not sure how to go about it.
The first location is my Dad’s 1/2 acre pond, where I fished as a kid. It used to be a LMB/BG fishery, but someone introduced some crappies and following a fish kill 5 or so years ago, I think stunted crappies are about all that are in there. The pond is in the woods, so casting a fly rod, or anything else, is tough, but the shoreline will probably be most productive anyway.
The other location is the local 20,000 acre reservoir, Smith Mountain Lake. SML has had a growing crappie population in recent years, and I’d like to know how to tap into that. The lake is very deep, over 200 feet at the dam, and near 100 in the cove I fish with my canoe. It is also heavily covered by private docks. The shoreline is very steep and the bottom is out of sight by the end of almost any dock, even though clarity is typically over 5’. There are no weeds to speak of, and all timber within 13’ of full pond was removed before damming, although the remaining deepwater timber was left in place.
I’ve heard that crappies don’t usually take surface lures like bass and bluegill, and I know most people use minnows. I don’t plan on switching from floating WF line, so maximum depth will be about 6 or 7 feet. Any deeper than that and I’ll get my spinning rod out. So here are my questions:
What general type and size of fly should I use?
What depths should I target?
and How should I retrieve?
I’ve always had my best early season crappie luck on white buggers. Generally slow, and low in the water column. Probably not right on the bottom, as most of the crappies will be suspended if they’re active. Go looking around 10’, long leaders, and a slowww twitchy retrieve.
You might want to consider using a sinking leader (RIO and other companies make them) for fishing the drop offs. A sinking leader with a lightly weighted fly will help you get fly deeper and stay deeper through your retrieve. The sinking leader with an unweighted fly will fish well, too. Small minnow flies like white buggers or clouser minnows will work as will nymph patterns.
Crappie will hit a top water fly. Consequently, you may consider a popper-dropper combination with a yellow/white popper (about hook size 4) below which would be a white or grey wolly bugger (size 8 or a white/grey Boudreaux (size 12) or a white and tinsel clouser (size 8 8).
The technique is twitch and wait, twitch and wait.
Notice the white and flash theme?- little minnows. Cabela’s carries some jig hooks for fly tying that have a small lead head-I also use dumbell eyes tied right behind the eye to create a jig effect. Crappies will chase schools of minnows to the surface or feed on a hatch, so carry some small poppers and a few dries with you, too.
#8 or 10 Red or Red/White Boa Leech has “been berry, berry goood to me” this year. As the water warms pre-spawn don’t be afraid to go shallow. Most of my fish come in 4’ or less - sometimes 6". And CoachBob is right - they will take topwater. I had a ball on a Jelly Bean several days last year.
Lots of good suggestions on flies so nothing significant to add on that topic.
However for flyline and leader setup I like a floating line and a 9ft leader and I attach a strike indicator (essentially a bobber) to the leader. The indicator has two functions. First it aids with strike detection; crappie can be notoriously light biters. Second, the indicator is used to suspend a weighted fly at a known depth. I prefer indicators that can be easily repositioned on the leader. If I need to use a leader longer than the length of the rod I use a slip indicator (slip bobber) that will break free and slide down the leader when a fish is hooked. Then I can fish longer leaders and reach a greater depth if needed. Slip indicators can be made but I have also acquired some from Cascade Crest Tools. There was quite a bit of discussion about slip indicators on this forum a year or two ago. I first learned about these techniques from an article in California Fly Fisher magazine many years ago and they greatly improved my success with crappie.
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.
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.
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.
-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.
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.
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.) :tieone:
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.
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.
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As the water warms pre-spawn don’t be afraid to go shallow. Most of my fish come in 4’ or less - sometimes 6". And CoachBob is right - they will take topwater. I had a ball on a Jelly Bean several days last year.
