Pike & Crappie!!!!!!!!!!

[Frozenfish]

We have a 8X8 shanty that we built this year with some nice size holes in the floor that are prolly larger than most home aquariums. My first bait was in the water around 5:15pm last night. It was about 2ft down I was getting the bobber ready to put on the line. I gave the minnow a little twitch to turn him upright as he was flaoting down on his back. Soon as I did that WHAM a nice sized pike came out of no where and scared the crap out of me. Long story short I lost him. It all happened in about 30 seconds, broke the line off. So after all that my buddy(jigawhat) comes down and drops a line in and goes to get a flag that has just popped up. As he was pulling up the line the a fish broke off. He then quickly dropped the bait back down. With the line still in his hands he felt a tug and said oh "crap". I thought he just almost fell over in the slush. I look and he is fighting a fish on that line. He pulled a nice 26in pike out onto the ice. :eek: It was great his first Pike out of this lake. The 3rd for the Shantina. Anyhoo-on to the crappie-We prolly had a dozen Crappie on our lines but only managed to land 3 of them. We were both using small jig hooks with a walleye minnow on. I couldn't believe it. I mean when I say we had a dozen on we had a dozen almost out of the water from 12ft down. Prolly another 5 or 6 hits that spit it out down on the bottom. Is there a trick to catching this loose lipped fish?:confused: let me knwo. However we caught 2 decent size and one monster crappie. All in all it was the best night we have had out there yet. Not the most we have taken home at a time but the most consistant action. We were getting hits every 20 mins or so. And sometimes hits every 3 mins. It was a great time. Can't wait to get out there again.

[Frozenfish]

What is the trick to catching Crappie??????

[DaveW731]

Is there a trick to catching this loose lipped fish?:confused: let me knwo. However we caught 2 decent size and one monster crappie. [/color]

If the problem is losing fish that you have hooked, try going to a larger hook size, or use a really small treble hook, either plain w/ a split shot, or one that is part of a jigging spoon. You could also use smaller minnows that a crappie can more easily swallow. The goal is to get a barb farther back into the fish's mouth.
Hope this helps,
DaveW

[Jigawhat]

treble hook. hmmm.. thats what we need to try... Tks

[bigbite]

I hope you don't mind sharing, but on which lake are you fishing? I have been searching for the elusive crappies for some time now.. haven't even seen one all winter. Any info will be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

[steelhead05]

small treble gets the job done very well

[Jigawhat]

I hope you don't mind sharing, but on which lake are you fishing? I have been searching for the elusive crappies for some time now.. haven't even seen one all winter. Any info will be greatly appreciated.

thanks.
Frozenfish and I have access to Elizabeth Lake (Private) in Waterford. We built a permanet shanty for the lake this year. Don't ask us how we found the crappie. It's more of a 'blind squirrel finding a nut', kinda thing. :lol: We pulled the shanty out in 5 inches of snow. After the 6th time of digging it out (from plowing snow), we finally said 'screw it' this is where it stays for now. turned out to be a decent spot. 10 crappie or so and a few pike. Better than last year, SKUNKED! :bash: