So you want to do some research to help insure that your day on the lake will be productive and fun as you fish for crappie and other species on lake Morena.
C-mon I know the underlying idea is that you want to have bragging rights with your buddies and family…Am I right?
Well that’s ok. I don’t blame you eather way. It’s a smart thing to do to try and be ready. So in this article I will list out some of the top picks for baits that you might want to bring along as you try to slay Crappies on the lake.
Have you ever gone fishing and had a great time catching fish all day and then when you returned for another day of fun, been disappointed because you got skunked?
Fish can be finicky creatures and they have a certain pattern they follow year after year.
For starters you need to have the right bait for the right time of year.
This could explain why you got skunked all by itself and it’s certainly something that needs to be discussed.
So let’s go through the seasons in order to give you a better idea what you need at the right time when you will be fishing.
Spring, aaaahh spring. Many anglers favorite time of year for fishing. The crappie have been lethargy in the cold winter water and they are famished and ready to go to the buffet.
This is good if you’re fishing because the fish tend to be hungry and more active.
You may want to give them what they’re looking for. For starters you will find that The crappie are on their nest because it is the spring spawn. The crappie are on their nest guarding their eggs and they will bite at just about anything so it makes it easier than other times of year to catch crappie.
During these times you might want to use a bobber (These Kind Work Very Well) with a short leader and a very small weight or a jig head. When fish responding they will be in very shallow water on their nests so make sure your leader is short. It is recommended that you use maybe about a 1 foot liter between your jig head and your bobber. There is a short time when this is happening that you can catch more crappy than you would believe. If you are a little early you will be fishing during the pre-Spohn time. During this time you will have to find where the Croppie are hanging out. It will be in shaded 10 to 20 foot deep areas where they have some cover but it will most likely be in the coves because they will stack up and stay in one spot before the spawn and this tends to be very near where their spawning beds are.
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So the trick is to find the shallow areas in the coals with responding beds are and then back off to deeper water. You can try a barber with about a 3 foot leader and a jig head and see if you can find them suspended about halfway down. Once you find them there will be many huddled together in the same area. Some calls will contain crappy and others will be empty with no fish there. Find the clothes that have the fish and stick to those. The other thing to keep in mind is once you find the pre-Spawn Croppie, you have also found where their beds will be because they will make their beds in the same area in the shallows so if you are coming back anytime soon look for them in shallower water in the spring time.
The beautiful thing about springtime Croppie fishing is that you don’t even really need a boat. You can do just fine off the shore because they are huddled up in the shallows anyway. You’re probably going to want to move around a lot until you find a large group of fish beds but when you do, you can do just fine off the shore anda boat is not necessary. There’s really no change from the way we described it previously, however as you walk down the shore instead of casting directly out into the lake, you will want to cast up shallow to the bank in front of you as you walk. If the Croppie are on beds they are going to be in very shallow 4 to 6 feet of water so your leader should be about half of that or even as short as 1 to 2 feet. Cast for a while in front of you, then work 10 or 20 feet and do it again until you find the beds. Keep in mind crappy like to make their nests on hard ground so look for rocks and gravel on the shore and these might provide great places for the crappy out in the water to have their beds.
Summer
OK we all know it gets hot in the summer. The fish feel the heat to as the water temperature rises. Just like us they want to get out of the sun and try to cool off. This means that if we are going to catch fish in the summertime we are going to want to look at areas where the Croppie have cover. If there are trees sticking out of water this would be a good place for cover and so you can check there for Croppie. Good places to check would be under bridges where the pillars go into the water and especially dogs that hang out into the water. Docs provide exceptional shade grumpy and keep them out of the sun. So it’s a great place to check and see if you can catch Croppie there in the summertime. What should you use for bait? Live bait is almost always best so try to catch live bait with a cast net. If you can’t catch a live bait or if it doesn’t seem to be working, another good idea is to use a jig. You’re going to want to use a very small one. Start with a 1/32 ounce jig head and add a plastic or a small shad or a tube or a short warm. Do you want to be fishing about the middle of the water depth where you are at not on the bottom or on the top.
Fall
And the father are a couple of things to keep in mind. Usually in the fall the Croppie tend to be spread out more than the rest of the year. That means that you are going to have to cover more surface area in order to find where the fish are. If you find some crappy in the cold, and you catch a few fish out of there, you may have to move to another code to find more. This is different than win crappy our bedding because during the spring time when they are betting they are usually bunched up in the shallows meaning that there are more fish per square foot and it’s a little easier to find them. The other thing that you need to keep in mind in the fall time is to use very natural looking jigs and fish them a lot slower. You need to keep these beds in front of the fishes face a little longer because they may not be as active as they are during the rest of the year so slow down, be patient, find where the fish are and find what depth they are at and you will have a lot more success but you may need to cover more water.
It should be mentioned that when you are fishing for Croppie do you want to make sure you are always using very light tackle. 2 to 4 pound test is plenty unless you are catching very large fish. The average Croppie can we cut just fine on 2 pound test, keep your jigs very small. 1/32, 1/16, 1/64 ounce jig heads are the ones you probably want to try. In the fall you can put a little more leader between your barber and your Jig head. Maybe try between 2 to 3 feet when you’re fishing in 8 feet of water.
In the phone it might be a good idea to fish on the north side of the lake up to about the middle of the lake. If you look at where the sun is, it will be warming up the north side of the lake little bit better. Many Anglers feel that this is a good way to up your chances.
So here’s a free tip for you. When you’re fishing in the fall in order to help your chances, fish with a jig on the bottom of the line like normal, but add another hug about 18 inches up and fish with a live shadow me now on this one. Not only will it give the Croppie a choice but Live bait sends out vibrations in the water that are crappy can feel with its lateral line and you will up your chances this way as well. That’s a free tip don’t tell anyone I gave that to you ha ha Ha.
Winter
So in the winter time, it’s likely that the oxygen will be down lower in the water. This means that the fish might be quite a bit deeper. In order to catch Croppie you can use the same jigs that we usually talk about but you’re going to have to fish them deeper so you probably have to ditch the bomber. Instead of using a barber Castro do you get out where there is cover and on top of bushes and let it slowly sink down while reeling it back very slowly. Very slowly. Again in the winter you are going to have to have patience and try a lot of spots until you find where they are hanging out. Fish always love cover so if you can find grass or bushes or docs or columns or trees in the water this will be your best bet. Keep in mind that they may be much deeper than in the spring time and summer time. Once you do start catching fish, try to find out the depth that they are at and that will give you a good idea work to finish the rest of the day. Once you find a school of fish and you catch three or four out of that school it’s possible that they might shut down even though there are fish there they stop biting so you might need to move and find another spot. Stay on the move, keep patient, and have a lot of fun.
So there we go, use your small jig heads and baby shad swimmer or small worm or tube jig and you’re ready to go. Now you know how to fish for Croppie throughout the year. Remember to keep your gear a very lightweight and the more you practice the better you’ll get.
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