Crappie Fishing on Badin...

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Because it alerts on everything. More fake reading than fish. If you have your transducer set correctly this is what you are looking for. Old pic, old unit, but that is what you are looking for. Those arches weighed about 45# each and we caught both of them.2470993A-DCB2-4870-849A-C8DD78B6AF4E.jpeg
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I don't think you will ever see anyone that uses one regularly, or has used one long keeps that function enabled. All the seminars I ever went to when I was learning how to use electronics that was one of the first things any of the pros would say disable that crap.
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
Posting for Oldest School......his son-in-law with a nice fish and beautiful background scenery!
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Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
went with my SIL Friday. Cold drizzle but no boats. Jordan Lake.
He could fish every bridge as he liked.
one had a lot of fish two had zilch and we found one bluff with some.
They were one wind off the bottom 24 ft seem to be constant.
We fished double jig rigs.
He caught them well probably 40. I caught 11. i am never going to hear the end of that "lesson". :)
We fished from 11 till 4:30.

I have a great pic of him with the biggest. I"ll try and get it posted by someone who has a clue.
Thanks @MJ74, I appreciate the help.
 
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sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
We went yesterday afternoon and today. The crappie bite was SLOW on Badin. Caught a few. Marked tons of fish and bait, but they generally didn't want to bite. The blue cat bite was better. Caught a 17 lber and a 9.5 on a 14' rod with 6 pound leader.

I didn't see or speak to anyone else who was catching crappie either.
We didn’t get shut out though:
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BLOODBROTHER

Twelve Pointer
Fished Badin yesterday and found tons of bait and fish but was tough to get a bite. Zeroed on crappie long lining and casting with jigs and minnows. Only players were 1 small channel cat and a 25” fat healthy striper. Caught on a small, monkey milk colored crappie jig. It’s stomach was empty, the catfish puked up about 20- 1 1/2” shad.
 

darenative

Twelve Pointer
Fished Badin yesterday and found tons of bait and fish but was tough to get a bite. Zeroed on crappie long lining and casting with jigs and minnows. Only players were 1 small channel cat and a 25” fat healthy striper. Caught on a small, monkey milk colored crappie jig. It’s stomach was empty, the catfish puked up about 20- 1 1/2” shad.
Our crappie along the coast didn't play yesterday either. You could put a jig in front of em and you could see em move away from it on the sonar. I tried every trick i know and crappie bites were few and far between for us yesterday.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
That is the bad part about Badin...she can make you a hero or a zero as fast as any I have ever fished.
There are just so many small shad in the winter all ganged up and every fish in the lake it seems is hanging out there with them. You might be pulling 8 or 10 baits in a spot with millions of natural baits, looking for a bite.

I've sat around thinking about this before - is it a matter of being there on the wrong day, or would it be more productive to find some fish holding well away from bait? I know at least one good fisherman who says he stays away from big shad schools.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
There are just so many small shad in the winter all ganged up and every fish in the lake it seems is hanging out there with them. You might be pulling 8 or 10 baits in a spot with millions of natural baits, looking for a bite.

I've sat around thinking about this before - is it a matter of being there on the wrong day, or would it be more productive to find some fish holding well away from bait? I know at least one good fisherman who says he stays away from big shad schools.
you might consider fishing on the bottom under the shallowest bait you can find. if the bait is closer to the bottom it may help as well.
but that's on any lake not just badin.
Like wise fishing brushpiles versus suspended schools.
 

BLOODBROTHER

Twelve Pointer
There are just so many small shad in the winter all ganged up and every fish in the lake it seems is hanging out there with them. You might be pulling 8 or 10 baits in a spot with millions of natural baits, looking for a bite.

I've sat around thinking about this before - is it a matter of being there on the wrong day, or would it be more productive to find some fish holding well away from bait? I know at least one good fisherman who says he stays away from big shad schools.
That exact thought did cross my mind. Im fairly new to crappie fishing at Badin. Its the closest place to my home at about 20 minutes away. Im not giving up yet but if i cant get on em, ill abndon that lake for anything but bass and cats.
 

Helium

Old Mossy Horns
There are just so many small shad in the winter all ganged up and every fish in the lake it seems is hanging out there with them. You might be pulling 8 or 10 baits in a spot with millions of natural baits, looking for a bite.

I've sat around thinking about this before - is it a matter of being there on the wrong day, or would it be more productive to find some fish holding well away from bait? I know at least one good fisherman who says he stays away from big shad schools.
Ive personally never allowed the shad to influence my winter crappie fishing.

We have tried and true holding spots that the crappie school up very hard. Once there catching them is usually not an issue although it takes work.

It can be hit or miss.

For some reason they are delayed this year in showing up in said spots
 

catfishrus

Twelve Pointer
There are just so many small shad in the winter all ganged up and every fish in the lake it seems is hanging out there with them. You might be pulling 8 or 10 baits in a spot with millions of natural baits, looking for a bite.

I've sat around thinking about this before - is it a matter of being there on the wrong day, or would it be more productive to find some fish holding well away from bait? I know at least one good fisherman who says he stays away from big shad schools.

We had a very good day catfishing last month. I posted it on facebook and a fellow angler sent me a PM saying he wanted to go that morning but he claimed he never do any good on a NE wind at Badin. I never told him but the wind was out of the south that morning. About 2 oclock at which time our bite died the wind shifted to NE.

If you compare it to tourney fishing. For me those days when big stringers come to the scales....most people catch fish on them days. The days when the weigh in is low...most people struggle. This tells me the condition have just much a roll if not more than location.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Thats a good tip, I’ll pay attention to the wind direction more. The funny thing was, the blues were chewing. Another crappie fisherman who pulled up near us said he had caught 14 of them first thing and zero crappie and just had to move away from them.

Ive personally never allowed the shad to influence my winter crappie fishing.

We have tried and true holding spots that the crappie school up very hard. Once there catching them is usually not an issue although it takes work.
Yeah, I know y’all wear them out once they get in there. Especially in the evenings. Im not sure its a matter of “allowing “ the shad to dictate, thats just where the bulk of the fish are. I am wondering if there are more catchable fish elsewhere though.

In the past year, I’ve tried to branch out from catching them in specific spots to catching them in open water. Hoping it will give me more options on the tougher days. Fishing multiple rods in a spread also takes out the need for individual skills when there’s inexperienced fishermen on board.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
you might consider fishing on the bottom under the shallowest bait you can find. if the bait is closer to the bottom it may help as well.
but that's on any lake not just badin.
Like wise fishing brushpiles versus suspended schools.
Deep brush piles produced very well for us in winter in the past at HR, but I haven’t found the same at Badin. Either I haven’t found the right ones, or the fish behave differently.
 

Hunterreed

Twelve Pointer
Going to try and say this without giving up my fishing spots,crappie at badin like to suspend near vertical structure. If you know badin well you know where these places are. Look for the thermocline. All I'm saying
 
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