Still, if it’s your first time fishing for it, or you’ve tried before but had no luck, we’re here to help. Here is a little list of tips and tricks for catching this highly popular and great fish.
7 Tips & Techniques That’s Critical For Fishing
This is the type of fish you can find all year, regardless of the season or time during the day. However, the trick to it is to know how you can do this, as well as when and where. These tricks are widely used among fishers who target crappie fish.
It’s important to remember that each water is different and has its distinct qualities, bottom profile, and vegetation. So, apply the techniques that are specific to the water body you’re fishing in.
1. Be Prepared
As always, when you’re targeting a specific type of fish, you have to be prepared in the right way. When you’re fishing for crappie, you need the right lure and tackle. The right bait is also essential, and a lot of it, too.
It’s best if you have a wide range of colors in your lure selection. Crappie fish may bite one color over all others that exact day, while it might prefer another color tomorrow. Make sure to have several colors, sizes, and shapes of tackle so that you have what to choose from. Otherwise, you’re likely to go home without crappie.
2. Adapt Your Technique To The Season
Even though you can catch the fish throughout the entire year, the way you do it changes with the seasons. The fish are spawning in the winter, so they’re close to the shore in shallow water. In this case, ultralight spinning and fly tackler are what comes in handy the most.
All other seasons, crappie fish spends time offshore in deep water. To catch them, you’ll need to use another technique because you won’t find them anywhere near the shore regardless how much you try.
Trolling and drifting are necessary when catching crappie fish in summer, spring, and fall.
3. Use Live Minnows
When targeting certain fish, it’s important to know what their favorite food is. In this case, crappie fish absolutely loves minnows.
You can choose from minnows, mosquito fish, mollies, and several other small fish you can find at your local bait shop.
What’s the absolute best choice for crappie fish? It’s definitely the Missouri Minnows, so get your hands onto those whenever you can.
4. Utilize Cane Poles
What if you see that right spot in deep water where there might be big crappie, but you can’t reach it. It’d be a pity to lose the opportunity, so why not use the cane pole?
Many people forget about these tools because they date way back and are considered somewhat as a thing of the past. However, cane poles have changed a lot regarding materials and overall quality.
New cane poles are retractable and made from fine materials. Once you retract it, it becomes a small compact stick that doesn’t take up much space, and fits in your boat quite nicely.
5. Carry Light Tackles
A tackle that’s ultralight and being about 2 to 6 pounds is the best for crappie fishing. If you’re in shallow water and during winter; even better.
This kind of tackle allows you to cast the smallest lures and jigs you need if you want to catch crappie from afar. Plus, it’s well-known that lighter line is more sensitive, too, so you cannot possibly miss when the fish bites.
Sometimes, people forget this detail, but all the fishermen experienced in crappie fishing advise you to focus on it at all times. It’s the kind of trick that can change the game.
6. Use Wet Flies
You may or may not know that there are wet and dry flies. Dry flies are the ones that only sit on top of the water, while wet ones actually sink in it.
Crappie will come to the top during winter spawning, and in shallow water, so dry flies may work then. However, wet flies will attract crappie at any time, plus, you can catch other fish that way, too.
It’s a matter of preference, and it also depends on what you can find in your local bait shop. Dry flies will work but only at the specific time, while wet flies won’t disappoint you regardless of the season or day.
7. Test Depth Levels
Crappie will be at different depths throughout the day, also depending on the season. Things like bait abundances, temperature changes, and oxygen quantities are what affects the fish, too.
So, you’ll have to do some searching. Take the general guidelines like the season. If it’s winter, the fish is closer to shore, where the water isn’t as deep. If it’s summer, for example, you’ll probably have to take your boat to some deeper water.
Use crappie rods with baits at different depths, so this way you can find where the fish is most likely to be.
8. Wakeup Really Early
Like with most fish, it’s best if you do all this early in the morning. Pretty much all fish species like eating as soon as the sun comes up, and so does the crappie fish.
It’s recommended you wake up really early in the morning so you can catch that first bite. If you happen to miss it, you’ll most probably struggle throughout the day.
We’re not saying you cannot catch any crappie later during the day, but just that it’s harder to do so.
9. Winter Season Is The Best
Crappie spends most of the year offshore in deep water. However, each winter, the fish comes close to shore to spawn. They’ll most likely be somewhere in around 3 to 5 feet of water and close to vegetation.
Freshwater anglers call this the crappie season. It’s understandable because it’s far easier to catch the fish if it’s near the shore as opposed to being offshore and in deeper water.
So, even though you can actually find crappie at any time of the year, winter is the best season for that.
10. Fishing Rods for Crappie
Any rod and reel can work for catching crappie. However, we think the Cadence CR5 is the best choice. It’s inexpensive, and extremely light. If you choose this rod, make sure you use in shallow water.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, these several tips and tricks were helpful, and you learned something new today. As you can tell, fishing for crappies isn’t as complicated, especially since you can do it any season you like.
There isn’t much more you can do to successfully catch this fish since we’ve included all the most important tips here. If you follow this step by step, you’re bound to go home with this fish every single time.
