Brad Whitehead enjoys old-style fishing by spider rigging multiple poles. He shows
the results of making a good bait presentation. (Photo courtesy Brad Whitehead)
Fireworks on the Water: Explosive Crappie Action!
by Tim Huffman
The temperatures are hot and so is the fishing, if you do it the right way. We spoke with three experts who shared their go-to techniques for catching crappie in July. Following their advice can bring bent poles and plenty of fishing fireworks.
Slow Troll/Spider Rig
Brad Whitehead, an Alabama crappie guide, says. “Summer means stable weather with few cold fronts like the ones that bother us in the spring. We just worry about overheating and boat traffic, so we fish from daybreak and leave before noon.
“I’m old school so I still spider rig. When guiding, I have a customer on each side in the back with four poles each. I can fish out the front, but my goal is to put the customers on fish.”
Whitehead says the key to his success is stakebeds he puts out. He once put them deep, but he has learned 10- to 14-feet deep works best for him. His beds have about 100 stakes, four to five feet tall.
“I really like summer because the action is fast. We literally catch 70 to 80 fish, 9 to 12 inches long. When we pull over a spot the clients often catch four to six fish and that’s fun.
“I use B’n’M poles, 10-pound low-vis line, a 1-ounce egg sinker held by a bobber stop two feet over an Eagle Claw hook.
“Minnows are best in the summer. My best minnow tip is to lift your rod occasionally to make sure your minnow is alive. You won’t catch fish on a dead minnow.”
“People know to drink water or other hydration drinks but often forget,” says Whitehead. “Last year I nearly had a heat stroke because I forgot to drink to stay hydrated. They came to the ramp to get me in an ambulance and took me to the hospital. I thought I was having a heart attack, but it was dehydration. Today, I try to educate and remind people to drink. If you hydrate but still get too hot, get into the lake.”
Shooting Docks
Russ Bailey, from Ohio is the well-known Brushpile Fishing TV host. He says, “I love July because the spawn is over and fish are in a solid summer pattern with almost no fronts moving through.”
Bailey loves to shoot docks.
“The lakes in Ohio are 15 to 20 feet deep so I look for 10 to 15 feet of water. The fish are under pontoon (boats) for shade and fish are super aggressive. On cloudy days the fish may be on the outside edges of the pontoons but on sunny days they’ll be under them. The back has the motor with a cutout section on each side of the motor. One side may have gas lines and transducer cables, so I shoot under the side without the cables. It’s important to shoot as far underneath as possible. Get to the darkest, shadiest area you can get to. Get to the right spot and it will be lights out, fast action.”
Bailey helped develop and uses the new Roo jig body by Crappie Magnet, featured in CrappieNOW not long ago. The bait has two tails and a pouch similar to a kangaroo, made for sticking an attractant like a Slab Bite or Crappie Nibble. He uses a B’n’M Sharpshooter 6 rod for shooting, bending it like a bow and arrow to shoot. He will also use his signature series 10-foot pole and flip under the dock or pontoon. Line is four-pound-test for more bites, and high-vis to make bites easier to see.
“Some fishermen like pointing their rod tip toward where they’ve shot the jig when they retrieve, but I want my tip up in the air with a big arc in the line to see more bites.
“I use Garmin electronics. I’ve used LiveScope religiously with my face toward the screen all the time. Today, not so much. I’ll side scan a row of pontoons to see which ones have fish and learn their depth. After that I don’t use electronics. I still enjoy the excitement of not knowing when a fish is going to bite.”
Jigging in Rivers
Steve Brown, Alabama fisherman and B’n’M pro staffer, says, “The Alabama River gets on a regular generating schedule and weather becomes stable in the summer. River fish will move out of the creeks and into the river. A fisherman can come here, look for treetops and stumps anywhere from 8 to 22 feet, and have a good time.
“Summer is not a tough month because of the stability. The fish get on wood and they’ll stay there. The river fish are different than lake crappie because they know when water starts running it’s time to get into an ambush spot to eat shad coming by. The catching is good.”
Brown started using forward-facing sonar (FFS) for tournament fishing to stay competitive. FFS allows him to find and catch bigger crappie. He uses different techniques while scoping, but jigging is one of his summer favorites.
His jigging rig consists of using jigs, jigs tipped with minnows, or plain minnows.
“Minnows are always a good choice for summer crappie,” says Brown. “You can keep it simple with a minnow and slip cork, or you can vertically fish a minnow rig or jig/minnow combination.”
Fireworks Crappie
Experts agree that crappie fishing is good in the summer. A fisherman can successfully use a variety of techniques and tactics based upon the type of water being fished. All agree that fishing daybreak to late morning is the key for safety, enjoyment and success.
Senior CrappieNow writer and Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame member, Tim Huffman, has several books, including his newest, Papermouth, Modern Fishing Techniques, available in Kindle or paperback at Amazon, or link from his website, www.monstercrappie.com
