12-11-2010, 04:49 AM
trick to catching big crappie, well more crappie.
use a number 4 wire hook, live or pickled minnow no bigger than a couple inches.
[ul][li]for pickled minnow, hook him in the top of the back so that when it is sitting in the water it looks like it is upright and level.[/li][li]for a live minnow, hook him though the upper lip so you will keep him alive.[/li][li]use a split shot one foot above your presentation, this is important in that it allows the crappie the oppertunity to play with its food. Yes I said play[/li][/ul]Crappie hit the minnow from the back, this is where it is important to remember to use this trick when fishing for them, and this is true when using suspended jigs and worms
using a bobber just big enough to suspend your presentation at the depth that the crappie are at. the cheep little round bobbers work just fine.
[ul][li]now, here is the trick, [/li][li]earlier I said they like to play with thier food, it takes anywhere from a few seconds to a whole minute to five minutes for them to decide to take the whole bait. It is vary important that you allow the bobber to go all the way down. and when I say down I mean down for the count. crappie when they hit like to swim down when they can.[/li][li]using to big of bobber can cause you to loose a lot of bites, when begining to run if they feal the bobber they will let go. This is the same reason for hooking a live minnow by the upper lip, this way the crappie dont feal the line untill it is to late. Since crappie hit from the back side, if they bump in to the line they will look like they are biteing when they are not even close to being ready to set the hook. This is where you get tons of false bites when using minnows that are hooked from the tail.[/li][li]Line, I mentioned crappie fealing the line, This is where you dont want to use anything bigger than a quality 4 pound test. Cheap line will have thin spots and will break on you. and always cut off about five feet of line when making a new rigging.[/li][li]Setting the hook, earlier I said they are called paper mouths, the is so vary important, and dose take a nack but is not hard to pickup on in time, Do not set the hook like you would with a large mouth bass, when you do you litterialy rip apart the mouth of a calico bass "crappie" the tecnique is to with rod in hand just flick your rist up then maintain even preasure, do not horse them in. [/li][li]This means setting your reel's drag to about 3-5 pounds max. This is so Important when fishing for the bigger crappie, one would thing that the bigger the crappie the tougher themouth, this is not true for crappie, paper is paper. Bigger crappie are strong swimmers and can break them selves off the hook and that is why they need to be able to run. So on my rigs, I use a spool loaded with six pound line and I make my leads around 12 inches and hang them below a swivel snap.[/li][/ul]But you said you dont want crappie, so I will move on to the next post.
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use a number 4 wire hook, live or pickled minnow no bigger than a couple inches.
[ul][li]for pickled minnow, hook him in the top of the back so that when it is sitting in the water it looks like it is upright and level.[/li][li]for a live minnow, hook him though the upper lip so you will keep him alive.[/li][li]use a split shot one foot above your presentation, this is important in that it allows the crappie the oppertunity to play with its food. Yes I said play[/li][/ul]Crappie hit the minnow from the back, this is where it is important to remember to use this trick when fishing for them, and this is true when using suspended jigs and worms
using a bobber just big enough to suspend your presentation at the depth that the crappie are at. the cheep little round bobbers work just fine.
[ul][li]now, here is the trick, [/li][li]earlier I said they like to play with thier food, it takes anywhere from a few seconds to a whole minute to five minutes for them to decide to take the whole bait. It is vary important that you allow the bobber to go all the way down. and when I say down I mean down for the count. crappie when they hit like to swim down when they can.[/li][li]using to big of bobber can cause you to loose a lot of bites, when begining to run if they feal the bobber they will let go. This is the same reason for hooking a live minnow by the upper lip, this way the crappie dont feal the line untill it is to late. Since crappie hit from the back side, if they bump in to the line they will look like they are biteing when they are not even close to being ready to set the hook. This is where you get tons of false bites when using minnows that are hooked from the tail.[/li][li]Line, I mentioned crappie fealing the line, This is where you dont want to use anything bigger than a quality 4 pound test. Cheap line will have thin spots and will break on you. and always cut off about five feet of line when making a new rigging.[/li][li]Setting the hook, earlier I said they are called paper mouths, the is so vary important, and dose take a nack but is not hard to pickup on in time, Do not set the hook like you would with a large mouth bass, when you do you litterialy rip apart the mouth of a calico bass "crappie" the tecnique is to with rod in hand just flick your rist up then maintain even preasure, do not horse them in. [/li][li]This means setting your reel's drag to about 3-5 pounds max. This is so Important when fishing for the bigger crappie, one would thing that the bigger the crappie the tougher themouth, this is not true for crappie, paper is paper. Bigger crappie are strong swimmers and can break them selves off the hook and that is why they need to be able to run. So on my rigs, I use a spool loaded with six pound line and I make my leads around 12 inches and hang them below a swivel snap.[/li][/ul]But you said you dont want crappie, so I will move on to the next post.
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