Good start to crappie fishing.
 

Kicked off my fall crappie fishing today with limit of 15 crappie at Nickajack. Most of the fish were 11-12 inches with a few at the 13 mark. Had to work hard getting them....meaning it took me 5 hours. I used a Bison colored Trout Magnet with 2# test line and 3# test fluorocarbon leader. The water temp there was 61 degrees....which surprised me. The crappie were holding tight to cover right up next to a wall that drops 23 feet but the fish were holding about 4 feet deep. My nephew and I will hit it again Friday.


Regards

Nice catch. Water temp on priest last night was 61.

I am hoping the bite gets better and the fish get bigger when it drops to 58.




Regards

Nice solid limit there Alpha!!, water temp was 62 deg at Normandy last Sunday, caught on hoss 16 inch Crappie at about 6 feet deep an a brush pile, only fish caught all day!!! in ten hours of fishing so I have a road ahead before I can be as good as you are to catch these slabs!!

Thanks....the key for me to catching crappie is to have locations that you are pretty sure they are there in the same place year after year. Through a lot of time and gasoline I have found those places....LOL. I have a place on Normandy that I need to check out that I have been told holds big slabs.....I just need to get over there and see if it is so.




Regards

Nice work Alpha!!

Pretty fish Alpha.

I fished my crappie holes hard earlier in the year but around Thanksgiving will start back again.

Alpha, did you use a bobber or just cast and reel?

No float yesterday...just casting and jigging it in. There are days where I use the float there but they didn't want that yesterday. They were in a finicky mood and since I got up at 3:30 to get down there I was wanting to leave after about 3 hours and only 8 fish. But I kept at it and when I got that 15th one I hit the road. My nephew is taking every Friday off in November so he can go down there with me. He has a love affair with the place after taking 6 trips down with me and we limited out every time....but I told him that don't always happen and we are over due for some not so good days down there. Hope he don't burn his vaction time for no fish...LOL.



Regards

Yup, it seems you have to experiment every day to see what mood the fish are in. Some days it's a stationary presentation other days is a moving target.

Glad you caught your limit. Adds more fun to the trip.

Was down that way on a sales trip about 3 weeks ago. didn't catch a fish above the dam on the lake but a boater said he heard they were catching crappie below the dam in the eddies during generation, I tried it and caught three over about an hour, they were all quality fish. When a nice crappie gets in current, its a whole different ball game when it comes to a fight with 2# test. Glad to hear they are starting to bite on the lake side, need to make more sales calls down that way. :)

If one does not filet crappie that tail race can give you 30 fish a lot of times. But I have never caught any slabs down there like in the lake. But I haven't fished it that much either.....but there are plenty of 9-10 inch fish there....just right for eating whole.



Regards