West Point Crappie – on Fly Gear:
- This topic has 12 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated Mar 5, 2013 at 8:26 pm by
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I mean since Zach is planning his spring adventures (aside from baseball) lets add another one to his list.
Theoretically Clay you should be able to catch crappie on crappie jigs (also known as beadhead wooly buggers) and sinking lines. All you really need is a bit of structure like a sunken christmas tree to fish over. This time of year the crappie should be congregating in relatively shallow water (say 12 feet or less) near creek mouths.
Old timers troll for them at like .7 miles per hour. You can’t do that and be legitimately fly fishing, but I have caught plenty of crappie while fishing for other things using a slow strip near brush. If I were going to target them specifically I would tie a hybrid wooly bugger with bead head eyes, a pink chenille body, and a a fluorescent pink plastic wiggle tail, to imitate this:
I wouldn’t necessarily use a sinking line; I’d just use a reasonably long leader.
You could also buy some of these; they’ll cast just fine on a fly rod:
http://www.gonefishinpa.com/servlet/the-1176/fishing-lure-marabou-jig/Detail
Zach
I’ve been watching
Big Cedar Creek has the saranac 14’7 for $499 havent seen anything on craigs list cheaper than that.
But I’m still watching
Regarding gear I was reading an article with a guy that makes his own jigs with split shot/crappie hook/yarn. He said he fishes in submerged trees and will break off tons of rigs so this is most affordable solution.
I might actually have the patience to put something like that together LOL.
Sometimes I think you need to leave the fly rod at home. Crappie fishing most rivers and lakes is one of those times. They hold tight to cover and to get them often very means precise casting into tiny holes in brush. Then you usually need to let your lure hang in the strike zone which requires a float of some kind. Add a fly rod to this mixture and you get a day full of cussing and untangling.
GA Pond Crappie is a different story. In that situation a fly rod would do fine with a long leader, big indicator, and jig. Zach if you haven’t discovered GA private pond fishing yet do it. Some of the most unforgettable days I’ve ever spent on the water were spend on small farm ponds in lower GA. Black water Bassin.
I like the farthest upstream you can get on Maple Creek in late March and early April for casting to West Point crappie. Like Mike said for the rest of the year.
You know the more I think about this post the more I would like to share what works for me here in Missouri. Mainly I work the smaller rivers working eddys but when the water is slower I can pluck them out of the brush. Besides crappie I catch now and again bass both black and white, walleye and some nice channel cat. My best flys are the wooly bugers (pink or red bead, white body, chartruse tail with a chartruse hackle), a streamer (think it is called an ASP?) and what I call an epoxy minnow tied on a jig hook.. Streamers and buggers I throw first cuz I like to strip and If they are picky the epoxy minnow under an indicator letting it drift into or over the brush.
I have some photos to attach but when I do the attach thing it keeps asking to reattach for security purposes? What am I doing wrong? It has always worked before, (working now!)
Marty
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