Tough Crappies

[Rich]

Last time out in the boat Sleded and I encountered something we've never faced. There were big crappies packed into canals, probably after the minnows you could nearly walk across. Problem is, the crappies wouldn't hit anything. Normally when the minnows are in that thick we use a live minnow below a float and crawl it slowly through the school, and the crappies can't resist. These ones weren't going for that. Dead sticking didn't work either, so we switched up to small tubes and grubs with different retreives, under floats, vertical jigging, casting and reeling.. nothing would work. Bluegill and perch were going nuts but the crappies wouldn't touch anything. I even casted a small spinner and crankbait to see if they were just active. Nope.

 

I've never encountered such finicky crappies ever! We were using flouro leads and all.

 

Is there anything one can do in such a situation to get them to bite, or is it a lost cause?

[Daplumma]

TNT Rich,works for me down here!Seriously,if live minnows and white jigs under a bobber dont work then your pretty much SOL.

Joe

[joonmoon]

Maybe you could try the Banjo Minnow, works for me. Grab the buggers by the throat and ring it...lol. I think you gotta be shootin an episode of AA to get em...lol.

[wolfville]

Try beers.... to make you feel better, not for them.

[mattyk]

I've encourtered that problemm as well. I think they must be well fed.

[LeXXington]

I saw this thread and was going too recommend Fiber,

 

 

I think thats the most frustrating thing about fishing, You see the darn fish but they just ain't doing what they are suppose too do.

 

What's this last time in the boat stuff.. No ice yet

[nelly]

Rich, not sure of the exact name but I think it's called stinger. It looks abit like a tube but it is solid in the head and the tail is long like an arrow. It's the tail that attract their attention. (Only has one tail) I buy them by the 100 pack around $12.00. They are salted and made from phoenix. Solid white is best.

[Hooked]

Sometimes its the size of the minnow you are using and depth your float is set at, not that you didn't know that already. Just the other day, I threw on a minnow, little bit over 2", and no takers. Put another minnow on, little smaller, put in same spot, bam, fish on within seconds. I also put a heavy bell sinker on hook, temporarily, and cast in spot I'll be fishing, that tells me how much deeper or not, to set my float. Or they could just be full? Frustrating no doubt though. All that you more than likely already know, but throwing some suggestions out there. Good luck.

[Beans]

A 4 x 4 foot dip net ???

 

You could say you were after smelt...

[bassjnkie]

What is the exact location, I will check it out for you. LOL

 

Dip net, best idea!!

 

 

 

 

Daniel

OCH

[banger]

Next time that happens, I would recommend TNT LOL

 

That sucks. But thats why they call it fish'in.And not catching.

[Rich]

Haha thanks for the suggestions guys. Fate has it I'm all out of TNT and I don't do much drinking these days.

 

Hooked, right you are. We were stuck with only a couple sizes of minnows and that very well may have been the problem. Guess I'll just write the day off as a "perch and bluegill trip"

 

On a better note, Sugarpacket and I did pretty well on crappies yesterday, ice fishing from the boat, haha! Report to come.