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Crappie experts
hardwater diehard:
Good reads
http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/fishing-for-panfish/2/
http://www.in-fisherman.com/ice-fishing/ice-fishing-crappie/
panfishman13:
whenever i'm catching small crappie after small crappie, i try a few different things to upgrade size:
1. if you've been fishing the top of the school, try fishing the bottom of the school; and vise-versa. this works when the big fish are nearby, but they're not being aggressive enough to shoulder small fish out of the way.
2. fish plastics rather than bait. a small fish is generally less interested in a soft plastic, while a large fish has likely seen a lot of bait in its lifetime, plastics allow you to present a different shape or even scent, which can turn on bigger fish.
3. fish larger lures/baits. small fish can't wrap their mouth around/are intimidated by larger baits. big fish see it as a larger meal (as long as you're fishing it in a way they like)
4. fish hard lures like jigging rapalas, slab raps, rippin raps, etc. fish these more subtly than you think. if you think you ARE fishing subtly, i guarantee you're not fishing subtly enough. almost all of my success with hard lures has come from being very very careful with any movement i make, and paying close attention to how the fish react.
5. change color to something harder to see. small fish are always attracted to bright, flashy stuff that's easy to see. big fish will pay closer attention and hunt down stuff the small fish don't notice, rather than trying to fight a dozen fish half their size vying for a tiny scrap of food. so, if you're fishing a silver spoon on a bright day, and only catching dinks, switch to a gold spoon, or a copper spoon, and see what happens. sometimes that's all it takes.
eriksat1:
I was in a similar situation yesterday dink fish after dink fish. Sometimes you just need to move to find a school of bigger fish, upsizing only mean lookers no biters at all. I mean if you want sit there all day and watch small fish come look but not hit, go for it. If not move and try and locate bigger fish.
Tye:
I have got into some crazy schools of crappie this winter and while the jig catches the numbers, I have caught the biggest ones on #3 Rippin Raps and VMC Tingler Spoons.
vanhln:
Tye,
It looks like #3 only comes in the Ultra Light Rippin Rap. Was that what you had?
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