Crappie Time, Heating up

Was out yesterday afternoon for a short while. Checked out the shallows, no fish. Moved out to the outside edges of weedbeds (8-10ft.) found them! Nonstop action for a good 2 hrs. Got my fix, took home enough for dinner,(5).
Heading back out this morning to put a few in the freezer. Love this time of year!!!

Nice. Always nice to have a freezer handy....lol.

Awesome!! I'll be breaking the boat out this Tues in hunt of some like that too.

Nice crappie, your luck should continue today. Can't beat this weather for crappie fishing. I am surprised you have not been out already. The crappie have been out in that staging area (10 to 15 feet of water) since early March. Now they are shallow as well depending on the lake of choice, and water level. Last year in September you commented on my use of a barrel swivel attached to my jig head. I do that to be able to change baits fast, and frequently if needed. Do you just tie your line directly to the jig head? That is what most of my friends do.

Yes, always tie my line to jig without the use of a snap swivel. Pic below will show a more natural presentation to the fish……

Wow! Great job, Smilee! Weather is great and unbeatable right now, but potentially rain coming in the rest of this week again.

Hope the torrential rain won't push them back, as it'll be warm rain at least.

This is a great tip. I'm constantly pulling my knot back for a lateral presentation.

Thank you for the reply. I was just curious if you fished crappie like most anglers. I have to utilize every advantage over the fish there is...(fishing at night). Many walleye, pike and muskie around to bite off my line. The swivel and clasp give me an extra 1.5 inches away from the knot to protect the line. Sometimes for my jigs, crank baits, and jerk baits a leader is used depending how many walleye, pike and muskie caught in that area in the past. The jig and bait sit at a 20% angle in the water, here is a picture to show how it looks to the fish. Crappie, bluegill, bass, walleye, pike, and muskie, all feed up at night. Crappie always feed up, but even more at night as well as being more aggressive. That 20% angle also brings the catch rate up to almost 100% when setting the hook. A 1/4 ounce jig head moving through the water at a very slow and steady retrieve is hard for a crappie, or the other fish to miss. And it is almost impossible to lose a fish when the hook is in the roof of the mouth. The fish at night tend to preset a hook for the angler as they try to swallow the entire bait after hunting it down. Daylight fishing hours are mostly reaction bites from crappie anyway. I apologize for the long post. I should have put this on my own thread. Here is the picture of how the jig head looks to the fish, submerged in water. It's never let me down and almost impossible to lose a crank bait, jerk bait, or jig head with some hardware in the way, protecting the line from the teeth of the fish. I use the same setup during the daylight hours and have never noticed a difference. Just too lazy to change the setup as my daylight fishing hours turn into night fishing usually anyways. LOL. Sorry again for the long reply, just love discussing fishing methods. I will shut up now. Good luck next time you get after the crappie. Stay safe.

That is so very very interesting... When I switched from mono / braid direct tie to my jigs, into having a fluoro leader to the jigs, I did find it helped.

Therefore, I always felt the little swivel barrel attached to the jig as "too much mass". I mean, in that last picture, the cross-area profile of the swivel is approx 25% of the entire jig and plastic...

Always good to hear both sides about how they feel.

Nice crappies! Just wondering what you saw for water temps? Thanks!