Went fishing yesterday with a friend and we caught some summer time crappie. We fished the first 6 hours of the day, before it got too hot. I admit that it is difficult for me to catch crappie in the summer in my area, but Tim’s Ford Lake in Tennessee changed that.. this was a day before all the 4th of July pleasure boats moved onto the lake.
We fished our Slider 1 1/2″ crappie grub, using 4lb line, and a 1/16 oz open hook jig head. The hook was a very thin needle sharp double-lite hook. This hook tends to straighten out when hung up and come loose. So all you need to do is bend the hook back into shape with your fingers and keep fishing. This eliminates a lot of break offs and retying, saves heads and time. The double-lite wire hook is fine for crappie. I caught a 3 1/2lb smallmouth on it too .. just had to play the fish down a lot because of the very light hook and 4lb line. My partner had a good size largemouth bass on his line, but used too much pressure and his hook straightened out .. lost the bass.
We caught about 50 fish during 6 hours.; 30 crappie (most average to small size .. no slabs; 18 or so stripe (white bass); and a couple of Bass and a catfish.
Most all of these fish caught under shady floating boat docks where the water depth was 18′ to 50′ deep under these docks. We would cast out and let the lure fall back to us most times. Sometimes vertical jigging worked by raising the rod tip about 12″ and then lower back down. They would hit it on the fall.
The water was sort of clear, but not crystal clear. It was a bright sunny day. This help drive the fish under the shady docks. Not all docks had crappie.
My fishing partner (Terry Collins) used 4lb gold line that was easy to see. I meant to change to the gold line the night before, but keep a clear 4lb line on my reel. The gold line gave Terry an advantage. We had to watch our lines; and he could see his a lot better. I should have switched to the gold line.
Overall a very good trip and we got off the lake before it became too hot under the summer sun.
Charlie Brewer Jr
By: Charlie Brewer, Jr.
