Big Indiana...Crappie?

Want to become a better bass angler? Here's a little tip then...Go crappie fishing. Got to spend the better part of a day on a local reservoir with a friend chasing crappie. Despite mostly clear blue skies and 15-20 mph winds, we still managed nearly 100 crappie with over 3 dozen nice keepers in the bunch. So why will crappie fishing improve your bass catching? Lets look.

Here is a shot of the first spot we started to get into them good (click to enlarge). That is a nice brushpile sitting on top of a good hard bottom area with fish in and adjacent to the brush. You'll get real good with your graph after spending time idling around looking for these stumps or brushpiles that other crappie anglers have built and placed. Some lakes are filled with cover that you'd never even realize was there until you spend some slow time behind the wheel looking for such areas.

Here is another area that gave up lots of crappie. A large flat with scattered stumps and rocks immediately adjacent to a good drop (click to enlarge). Those are almost all crappie loosely grouped on top of this flat. The very first cast had the pole bent over and the action continued steadily for almost 45 minutes before finally tailing off and having to move again. This flat sits out in 9-12' of water, again with a nice break immediately off one side dropping into 15' and then 20' of water. I'm guessing the crappie had largely finished spawning in the cove this flat sits at the mouth of and had started to move back to the main lake, gathering on this nice area before warming temperatures push them out into the open water.

Finally, here is a nice shot from the bow of an individual stump that we caught fish off of (click to enlarge). Again, this stump is situated up on a point that splits a couple cove arms. So how does any of this make you a better bass angler?

• Improved abilities with a depthfinder - You'll spend lots of time idling, graphing and interpreting your depthfinder. The more you do it, the better you'll get.
• Develops better boat control - We fished these areas in a 10-20 mph wind. While it may not be too difficult to fish a large point or giant flat under such conditions, to hold over a single stump or brushpile in such conditions is a challenge. Your boat control will improve tremendously as a result of practice.
• Improves presentation - We're fishing these isolated spots in heavy wind with 2 to 4 pound line, 1.5-2.0" tubes and curlytails on 1/16 and 1/8-oz. jigheads in 7-15' of open water. We're having to control the presentation so we get close enough to the wood to get bit but not so close that we'll stay hung up all the time.
• Gain confidence  - and we're catching fish. Doesn't matter that it's crappie we're catching, we're getting lots of confidence by catching lots of fish off these areas. The hardest part of learning a new technique is always keeping your head in the game and remaining confident when you don't get bit right away. Crappie will help over come that problem.
• Translation - Once you can master all the different components of crappie fishing, everything from locating isolated cover, boat control and proper presentation, and having developed the confidence that comes along with doing and catching, all you have to do is change your equipment slightly and the next trip it will be bass instead of crappie that you're catching! Thanks to crappie, I can now just as easily have presented a jig or a dropshot or a shakey-head worm to these exact same spots and caught bass.

The locations are the same, the boat control is the same, only the baits are different. So if you want to set yourself apart from so many of the other Indiana tournament anglers, get your butt off the bank and go crappie fishing!

Comments

[Richard Ziert]

Excellent report.