How To Fish Crappie Structure For More Hookups

When fishing area with heavy structure there are many things you can do to increase the amount of hookups. This article will discuss several methods that will help your overall performance on the water.

The first thing you must do is fish as light as possible. I would advise using four pound test line whenever possible. You can maybe go to line as heavy as six pound but no heavier. You also will need a light action graphite rod to feel the sometimes gentle pickups that indicate a fish in on the line. The reel is in this form of fishing the least important piece of equipment. Any standard functioning spinning reel will suffice.

One tackle change I have made many people adjust is the hook selection. When you are fishing heavy structure you do not want to spook the fish. Hookups into the structure are inevitable when fishing in this type of area. For these reason I advise using very thin wire hooks.

A Crappie, even a large one, is not strong enough to straighten a hook out to secure its release. A very thin hook helps in two main areas. First it is a better choice when you consider the very delicate mouth of a Crappie. You will lose less fish you have hook when using a thin wire hook.

Secondly when you get hooked up into the structure you are fishing it is easier to pull the wire hook free without disturbing the structure and consequently spooking the fish. It is very important when fishing heavy structure to not disturb it when you inevitably become snagged.

For bait nothing beats a small minnow. Most bait stores do not call small minnows "crappie minnows" without good reason. Over the long run it is undoubtedly the best bait for catching Crappie. You can use insects, earthworms, nitecrawlers and leeches and catch fish, but in the final analysis the small minnows out produces all of the alternative bait choices.

The manner in which you present your offering is very important as well. Crappies have one distinct feeding pattern that is different than most other fish. They like to feed at a preferred depth that can change from day to day and sometimes even from hour to hour. When you arrive at a fishing are you should be prepared to fish at varying depths in an effort to locate fish that are feeding. Many anglers use a fish finding rig that has a series of two or three hooks that are located precisely one foot apart to help speed up this process. I like to start fishing one foot off the bottom and then move upwards until I either start catching fish or declare an area no good.

When Crappie are actively feeding I simply attached my live offering onto as small a hook as I can use and wait for action. When however the fish are not feeding actively you will often have to be creative in your approach. A small jig head tipped with a minnow or maggot can often trigger strikes from fish when they would not otherwise feed. The key is to increase the size of your bait for fish that are not active.