On open water crappie I start with a 1/16 oz black jig head with a 1" chartreuse artificial minnow under a bobber as a search bait. Once I've found a school, I switch to a 1/8 oz jig with a 2 1/2 - 3in soft plastic minnow to find the bigger ones. You can catch lots of fish on the small baits....but the big slabs want a bigger bite. I typically find them on the edge of Lilly pads or around sunken trees or beaver lodges. But I've also found them in areas with no cover...just sand and gravel bottom structure
Been pretty busy making fishing lures but haven't been out testing them nearly enough. Fishing hasn't been too bad the little that I've been out though. Bout done with turkey season so hope to get a little more fishing in soon!
End of March we went hickory shad fishing. Caught around 50 this year. The wife even caught one and her new pink pole
Made our yearly trip down to Dale Hollow Lake in Tn. last week. There are ten of us that make this trip every year just to trophy small mouth fish. Here are a few pictures of the better ones we caught
Minnesota Fishing opener was good to us on Leech Lake this year. Only took 2 pictures, but we ended up with 10 walleyes in the slot on Saturday - Threw a 23" back and also threw a bunch of smaller fish back. Great opening weekend.
Dang nice fish. I've always wanted to do a smallie trip, not many options close to me. I caught some dinks in Arkansas a few years back, but nothing to brag about. I've done Fork and Falcon trips, maybe the next one will be to a smallie lake. Finally have a day off this Friday, and they are of course calling for rain. I was wanting to get out and prefish for a tourney I'm wanting to fish on the Illinois in June, but it looks like I'll have to wait.
We were drifting/trolling at 1-2mph while jigging shiner minnows. Bounce the bottom/just off the bottom.
