What didn’t happen was….

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
I’ve been trying to glean some fishing tips from you guys. It seems not only the fish are tight lipped. So, keeping that in mind:

I went crappie fishing. I didn’t catch a thing last Thursday. Went back Friday just in case. Went yesterday and people told me the front hurt them and that it was hard fishing. Had to try again today because the previous day was so difficult.

What didn’t work was road runners tossed in shad schools 10-20ft deep. Smaller schools of fish I kept trying vertical jigging an old school maribou. I tried doing both simultaneously with sort of a slow trolling speed and casting the road runner. I wish I had good news to report. It became difficult to umm, ‘manage’ the two rods because they kept getting a bend in them. Lure color didn’t seem to matter since there were absolutely no fish of course.

I’ll keep y’all updated. I know it’s unrelated but my wife’s fish tacos were “off the hook” today…..🎣
 
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Bailey Boat

Twelve Pointer
Assuming that your targeting Crappie, expand your lure choices. Include some curly tail grubs with various weights of lead head jigs to cover any water depth. Try the lures under a light bobber if there are any wind ripples on the water, they will provide needed action to the lure.

Where, and how (bank or boat) are you fishing??
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
I was fishing on a lake in my kayak. There were fellas spider rigging minnows and live scoping that couldn’t wrap their head around what I was doing. But they wouldn’t abandon their tactics so they caught like 5 fish. I’m the kind of guy that would even give them some lures if they were struggling and I had spare. But there’s some merit to doing it your way I suppose?
 

Dick

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I will have to drag they yak out. been a few years.
always just threw jigs and never had issues with catching something.
 

Justin

Old Mossy Horns
Don’t give up on the marabou. There’s members here that can attest to it, but I’ve caught maybe 6 (six) of my last 700-800 since Nov. on minnows. Maybe 12 of those on rubber, the rest on marabou. Even the minnow ones were marabou tipped with minnows. I’ve caught 4 over 2lb, up to 2.40, the last month and witnessed 5 more over 2lb, up to 2.44 come over the side of the boat, all on marabou. I dread the warm weather and fish going to spawn. Draws out the “it’s crappie season now!” people. Lol. Don’t let anyone tell you they won’t hit a jig all year, especially in cold weather.
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
Don’t give up on the marabou. There’s members here that can attest to it, but I’ve caught maybe 6 (six) of my last 700-800 since Nov. on minnows. Maybe 12 of those on rubber, the rest on marabou. Even the minnow ones were marabou tipped with minnows. I’ve caught 4 over 2lb, up to 2.40, the last month and witnessed 5 more over 2lb, up to 2.44 come over the side of the boat, all on marabou. I dread the warm weather and fish going to spawn. Draws out the “it’s crappie season now!” people. Lol. Don’t let anyone tell you they won’t hit a jig all year, especially in cold weather.

Seen it with my own eye,,,
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
Apparently I need a way to introduce more tone into my posts. I’m not saying I was successful because that would violate some sort of fishing code of secrecy that y’all maintain. I’m not saying I wasn’t either……………….

Oh, I didn’t give up on the maribou. I just couldn’t keep one rod down and cast the other like I had intended. It was too hard to coordinate the timing given the rate of, umm, “retrieval”.

I originally got to the area I wanted to fish and placed that rod in the holder while tying on the maribou. Since the rod was in the holder I had maybe 10ft of line out. I finished tying and just threw it by hand over board. Didn’t get to finish tying the second lure on.

Can’t violate the code but, if someone was wanting a few tips here and there I/we could just post up ‘What didn’t happen” on the off days we find ourselves successful. Fishing alone in a kayak always doesn’t lend itself to new ideas very often except what I read. Maybe some other schmuck with no friends and a tiny boat could use a pointer? I mean RGTFM has taught me a lot. BUT there comes a point where his stuff is repeating or is inapplicable to my area(s). Ymmv
 

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
Don’t give up on the marabou. There’s members here that can attest to it, but I’ve caught maybe 6 (six) of my last 700-800 since Nov. on minnows. Maybe 12 of those on rubber, the rest on marabou. Even the minnow ones were marabou tipped with minnows. I’ve caught 4 over 2lb, up to 2.40, the last month and witnessed 5 more over 2lb, up to 2.44 come over the side of the boat, all on marabou. I dread the warm weather and fish going to spawn. Draws out the “it’s crappie season now!” people. Lol. Don’t let anyone tell you they won’t hit a jig all year, especially in cold weather.


I’ve caught 4 over 2lbs incidentally while fishing for green carp over the past month…..all on a chatterbait 😂 biggest was 3 lbs and that is the biggest one I’ve ever caught that I’ve weighed.
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
I’ve caught 4 over 2lbs incidentally while fishing for green carp over the past month…..all on a chatterbait 😂 biggest was 3 lbs and that is the biggest one I’ve ever caught that I’ve weighed.
That sort of post is a blatant violation of the secrecy code. Next thing you know you’ll have a ton of pictures on here showing where you were.
 

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
That sort of post is a blatant violation of the secrecy code. Next thing you know you’ll have a ton of pictures on here showing where you were.


As the other crappie masters stated don’t give up on the maribou jig. This time of the year don’t be afraid to fish super shallow either especially in coves and around shallow cover. I’m not crappie pro but crappie are the most simple of all fish to catch for me. This time of the year I really enjoy using a red and white jig(plastic or hair) under a plastic float. The jig sits about 18 inches under the float because generally I am fishing shallow. Also a curly gaily grub(acid rain is my favorite color) on a 1/16oz lead jig head retrieved at a slow steady pace is another staple that has worked well for me my whole life either shallow or deep or over brush.
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
does anyone actually read posts before commenting???
Meh, a little. I’m wordy and sarcastic. Hard to read or follow if you don’t already know that.

:what:

Soooooo, Im going to take the advice and start over this weekend. Forecast looks bleak. Doubt I’ll even catch my limit 5 times over. Guess it’s worth the peace and exercise lol.
 

Dick

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Meh, a little. I’m wordy and sarcastic. Hard to read or follow if you don’t already know that.

:what:

Soooooo, Im going to take the advice and start over this weekend. Forecast looks bleak. Doubt I’ll even catch my limit 5 times over. Guess it’s worth the peace and exercise lol.
should I worry that I understood?🤣
 

Shine

Six Pointer
Contributor
Comes to plastics black and chartreuse jigs can’t beat it. If you have the electronics then you’ll be even more better off. I have the older version of electronics but stopped spider rigging and more times then not the spider riggers just follow me around laughing because I know how to target them.
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
Yeeeesssss sir. This weekend the wind was hell. Not many kayakers or other paddled craft. Saw a couple guys get stuck in the wind.

Maybe not me so much, but it wasn’t a cakewalk. Somehow I ended up focusing on trolling 1ft off the bottom. 10-12ft in between shallows and 20ft drops. They didn’t seem to care about my green and yellow lure. I changed to pink (maribou) and had to just keep trying it. I’d bump bottom, reel up one revolution and “troll” using the wind. Hard to keep that rod in the holder. Sometimes I’d cast a road runner gently lifting it across the bottom too. Pink with a orange glow Bobby garland. I really would have thought that they’d like that. I couldn’t manage both rods much.

My thumb is tore up and I’m gonna try one of those wonder bar things too I suppose.

Better luck next time maybe. Hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes :)
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
Well the mud pushed em down and made them quit biting. But just like before 8-12ft and sitting in the muck on bottom. If you got lucky and hit one with your lure you might get a bite. Otherwise it was just 2-5lb flatheads that bit. It’s always a struggle with the little guys, mainly because I’m allergic and have to handle them like a bomb.
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
Don’t know if any one keeps up but today was miserable. Cold and muddy water made for hard fishing. I wish I could say that I found them 20-30’ down long lining spoons and maribou. I bet pink wouldn’t have worked well. If a man was stubborn enough to try edges of creek channels later in the day casting a grub or roadrunner it might have panned out. Maybe 6-8ft deep. Near coves and shallow flats should have worked. Oh welll. On an unrelated note the beginnings of dinner could have been this if I would have kept just a few:
 

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TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
I thought white bass fishing sounded good today. I’m tired of rewording so y’all just deal with it.

They ate the crap out of a chrome rattle trap today. Cast and count it down 3-4 seconds and reel it in with your rod tip low, way, way faster than you think you should. Stupid fast. Ludicrous speed. At least it was on a 5.0 ratio spinning reel. If you’re going through a good area and didn’t get a hit in the first ten seconds stop for a split second then go back to ripping it. Not many missed hits like this. They hit it like a small truck. Lite rod, 4lb test line, and set your drag right!
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
Broke out a bigger rod today for stripers. Medium action 7ft daiwa laguna with a kast king conventional reel. 14lb mono. Still throwing lipless cranks just bigger. Cast as far as I can sling it, 70+ yards or so, count it down 3-4 seconds and reel super fast. Pause every now and then. When I say fast I mean if it was going faster it’d probably just skim along the top. That happened a few times when my rod tip wasn’t low enough.
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
Crappie were in small fast moving schools scattered 10-20 ft of open water 8-15 feet deep. Occasionally higher. Didn’t like the road runner nearly as much as they did a plain black/chart grub on a 1/32 head. Some fish came on a pink marabou but a black/green marabou beat it also. Ospreys and bald eagles everywhere. They caught fish too. Found one 6lb greenie too, good times.
 

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TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
Not much of a turbidity spike but it was enough to see on sonar that the bottom two feet of the lake the mud was settling. Fish laying in it, scattered, and extremely not hungry. I’ll try again tomorrow :) I’ll try to fish between the rain drops….
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
More of the same. Crappie were in small schools near bottom off creek channels. Basically where the settling mud wasn’t an issue for them. If you hit them with the lure you could catch them. If ya wanted to slay small (1-2lbs) channel cats, fish minnows on bottom or work a small jig with some scent in 6’ ish soft bottom flats. They were killing a garlic marabou. Fun on ultralight gear but a PITA for me to get off the hook. I’ll try to take some pics of the sonar more for these posts.
 

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
Alright. Today they were all tiny, on the bottom, and eating slowly. Ended up finding a huge group just off (not in) a huge submerged tree. Double tube jigs in whatever color you grabbed. Just cast, let it sink, then slooooooowly pick it up and let it coast to the bottom again and again. Some scent was the different between missed “nibbles” and caught fish.

Sonar pics as promised. I played with the colors for best pics. Each small school looked like this:
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