Crappie on the verge

[Transplanted Sportsman]

I fished Normandy this past Saturday for about 4 hrs after midday and only managed 3 keepers, marked lots of fish all on brush or adjecent to, an unbelievable amount of bait, cloud after cloud of them with lots of fish under them, I wonder if one would be better off spider rigging, I have only seen one person do this on normandy in years, do any of you guys on here spider rigs in the fall and winter months and what settings do you do this?, creeks, or mouths of creeks? how deep, how fast? I would like to try this and see if I can do beter and keep my daughters entretained, they get bored watching a bobber, thanks in advance!!

[agelesssone]

Originally Posted by Transplanted Sportsman

I fished Normandy this past Saturday for about 4 hrs after midday and only managed 3 keepers, marked lots of fish all on brush or adjecent to, an unbelievable amount of bait, cloud after cloud of them with lots of fish under them, I wonder if one would be better off spider rigging, I have only seen one person do this on normandy in years, do any of you guys on here spider rigs in the fall and winter months and what settings do you do this?, creeks, or mouths of creeks? how deep, how fast? I would like to try this and see if I can do beter and keep my daughters entretained, they get bored watching a bobber, thanks in advance!!

If you want the girls to not be bored, STAY OFF NORMANDY!
That is a very tough lake that passes out MANY, MANY goose eggs every year. And does this quite often to seasoned anglers that fish the lake often.
I know guides that work there and struggle a lot of times to come in with 5-6 fish and rarely catch more than a couple walleyes in a trip.

Better to take them to a place that has bluegills or crappie or yellow bass, critters that are willing (usually) to sacrifice themselves for the enjoyment of youngsters.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

Thanks Merv!, the reason why I fish it is because it is the closest to me, 25 minutes puts me on the boat ramp, and I really do not know any other lake as I have only fished Tims or Priest a couple of times, this lake can surprise you with some well above average crappies more times than not, although very rarely I limit out, just seeking some general info on spider rigging as I never done this before and dont know anybody that does it, I figured I try something new, I love to get the hang on Priest as I did very well early in the spring crappie fishing from the bank, then work and family placed a damp on my fishing for most of the year but things have stabilized now and I'm anxious to catch up, thanks again!

[agelesssone]

I'd like to fish Normandy but it is 85 miles from me.
It does have some killer crappie and good walleye.

Go on the Crappie.com website for spider rig information.
Lots of guys do it. It is a very good way to catch fish, a little expensive to set up though.
It might be tough to do on Normandy because of the clear water and the spook easy fish there.
Good luck to ya!
I don't know how far you are from Woods Lake but that is a good crappie lake too.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

I bought the 14' long poles a couple of years ago, and this year I bought a drift master rod holder, I'm planning to do this just from the front of the boat for now, I'm in shelbyville so woods and jpp are the same distance from me, I used to fish woods often a few years ago, we caught fish almost all the time but they mostly short fish and the keepers didn't have the shoulders crappie have on normandy, thanks for the crappie.com tip, I have been on the forum looking in the past but only on the TN section, will try that then report, thanks again Merv!

[TNBronzeback]

If i ever around to consistantly catching walleyes out of Normandy im gonna send carrier pigeons, horse riding messengers, telegraphs ect, letting the world know i cracked the code on that lake! lol.
2 times ive gone, 1 trip was sun up to past dark and the last trip was a solid 9 hours and skunked both times....not just on walleyes, but anything in general. Lol. The snags were biting good though. Lol

[Heiny57]

I use 8 rods at a time. What questions do you have? I can post where I got all my equipment if you like.

[Heiny57]

Dual seat mounts and depfinder riser

[Transplanted Sportsman]

Man, that is a very nice set up Ray!, since I have decided that for now I will just do this with 4 poles in the front until I get the hang of it to minimize tangles and not to invest too much in this, I have what I need, now the question that I have is where to spider rig?, is this normally done on flats?, drop offs?, creek channels?, on structure or open water?, and how fast you normally go? all this is very new and trying to minimize the learning curve due to my limited time to fish, thanks in advance!

[Heiny57]

Literally all the above. It depends what part of the lake I am in. When I fish lower end of JPP I fish open water and watch for bait, if I'm up the river I fish channel edges. I try to move about .6 mph. Things are different when it's winter than spring, and when lake is low or high. Just cover water and you will figure it out.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

I guess it will have to be a lower speed in the winter time depending on weather and the conditions for the day, now it's a matter of spending time on the water, I will post how I do, thank you for all the advice!

[thehick176]

Fished up river from the steam plant this morning from 8:30 until noon. We had 18 keeper Crappie and caught about 30. All came on 16th ounce jigs close to the bank. We were sitting in 20 fow but within casting range of the bank. All of them came off brush or fallen logs using a very slow retrieve.

[FishAddict]

Any crappie reports on the lower end? I'm really wanting to go catch a few.