Fall Kayak Crappie Fishing

Fall Kayak Crappie Fishing

After a long season of awesome Yarpin (Kayak Carpin),  the water cooled and the carp and catfish stopped biting the way they had all year. I stubbornly went a few more times then I should have because I had such a great year. It was time to switch gears. Jc Crappie of JCs Castaway and Aurora Lure Company said “You need to change what you’re doing and stop being so stubborn!”

So I switched species to crappie and we made a plan to get some.  Crappies we know will bite in colder conditions so we just had to prepare. Before we did anything we made sure we were safe in our yaks. We had our pfds, safety equipment, proper layers of clothing, and dry suits from Mythic Gear. The saying is dress to swim and rig to flip.

We used an arsenal of baits. I wanted to catch some numbers so I had to be prepared. These fish at this lake are bigger than most ponds in our area. The lake is catch and release, this has kept most of the poachers away and the fish have grown to 7-12 inches. I know dozens of crappie ponds but most have small fish not much bigger than your hand. A 9-12 inch fish is huge for the suburbs of Chicago. Had these fish all been tiny, ice jigs with plastics and tiny minnows would be all I needed. Since these fish were larger this allowed us to use full size crappie baits. We used cranks from Aurora Lures, Tubes, Lake Fork Shads, Large Minnows, Crawlers, Crappie thunders. I used all light or ultra light rods with 4-8 lb line. About half of my fish came on a double minnow rig under a Thill float. I caught several on a white crappie thunder as well. 

I also did something a bit different, since we were drifting slowly across the lake and not anchored I brought a straight line ice rod with a 1/16 ounce silver cicada. This worked magically! I caught crappie, gills, and a bass on it. It was a breeze to use while watching my floats drag behind my kayak. I went two mornings in a row and I ended up with at least 4 dozen hook-ups. Jc had a great time as well. I will definitely fish vertical from my yak more often.

So it’s not too late to go out. Dress warm and don’t be stubborn as I was and switch species and spots when you should. I hope you all have some Great Fall Crappie Angling Adventures!!

Bring on the THUNDER

Bass fishing had been pretty slow in our area. Ted (Soonerbass), Chunsum (JC Crappies), and I decided that kayaking for crappie might be a better idea. A cold front passed just an hour before we started and I actually did not think we were going to do much of anything.

We put in and it was still dark with mist on the water, God I love that. Ted and a few others have been throwing crappie thunders for sometime. I have never liked the way they look or their action. These guys crush fish on them so I have joined the Thunder wagon.

Wal-Mart sells them pretty cheap in about three color combos. JC made a smart move and bought similar bodies from Strike king.This way he does not have to keep buying whole baits and can reuse the heads after the bodies get shredded.

The bite was slow but not terrible. Considering I was expecting the skunk, I was pretty happy to hook up. All three of us were hooking bass. I would like to say that bass was our target and in our genius we decided to use smaller crappie baits, but the truth is we only caught a few crappies.

I had brought minnows because of the cold front and my low expectations for the day but they only caught a couple fish. However, one of them was a beautiful 19 bass!

The crappie thunder out produced live bait even in tough conditions I was a bit taken back by that. I really thought I would be double minnowing it and only catching crappie.

I am now a thunder addict and it will be a go to on most of my crappie trips in the future.

Fall Trout Fishing 2013

Excitement took over the tired as 330 came and the alarm screamed in my ears. Brim Reaper and JcCrappie met me with their yaks in tow ready to hit the water. We had planned on Silver Lake but a forecast of high winds made us change locations. We chose Loon Lake at Silver Springs because it is a long narrow lake that runs east to west and the winds were out of the south. We did not realize just how windy it had gotten until we were finished and pulled out of the park and my van was blown all over the road!!

Loon was the perfect choice it totally shielded us. The south shore has a high ridge and block of forest which completely saved the day for a group of addicts in small yaks!

We arrived at 530 and a score of shore angler were already pounding the water in the dark. The shoreline was riddled in night bobbers and head lamps. We were unaware that you could start at 5.

Once on the water we had space for ourselves and only had a handful of other watercraft to share with.  The trout were grouped in schools. All swimming from 2-5 feet down I tried spinners but no luck. I watched a group of anglers score several trout quickly from shore. I paddled out of their casting range and dropped anchor. The school I marked on my Lowrance was much thicker here. That’s when the fun started, my floats disappeared quickly as minnows were attacked at 4.5 feet. At one point I had 2 on at once! Chunsum hooked a couple as well.

At one point I lost feeling in my ass and needed a break. Brim and I headed to shore. The great thing about Loon is that they were prepared for fisherman. Bathrooms, bait, and food were available. We enjoyed a hot dog and shot the shit as we watched the guys fish for a while.

Later Sooner bass joined our DuPage Angler Kayak Trout Party and scored a large trout.  I believe it was fooled by a sassy shad. We found a fish crib and managed to catch some crappie off of it before the wind was too bad on that end of the lake and had to move.

Back were we started, I finally got a Loon yellow bass! This was my first yellow in years since the die off in the Fox River and Chain. It didn’t matter how small it was, I was excited.

It was pretty cool to four guys from DuPageAngler.com on the water all in kayaks!! I had a blast and cannot wait until the 2013 fall opener.

Gearing up for Spring Podcast

The podcast are on a regular schedule now Wednesday at 830 and the site has a new chat feature to chat in questions and comments during the live show. There is always the option to call in as well!!

THIS WEEK CLICK HERE

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Two Days of Cold Search Crappies

Two Days of Cold Search Crappies

Chunsum Choi (JCcrappies From DupageAngler.com) and I met before sunrise. We were at the lake to begin prepping our kayaks for the cold water and hopefully some crappie.

I got the bright idea to ride my yak down the small embankment into the lake. I am not always the sharpest hook in the box. The kayak slid in, the nose dipped, and I started to roll. Thank God it was only two feet deep and I was able to stop with my arm. It is reasons like this I carry 3 pairs of gloves and a pile of hand-warmers.

The water was 36 degrees and the air temp was 32. A steady wind across the lake started to slowly freeze us to the bone. Four top layers, neoprene facemask and 3 warmers stuffed in my gloves and sleeves bought me some time. I turned Pandora radio on my phone to try to ignore the fact that I was freezing and the suspended fish swimming by at 4 feet were not biting anything.

Finally, as I lost feeling in my feet, my float slowly disappeared as I caught a beautiful 10-inch black crappie!! Unfortunately this would be the only one. I managed to scrape up one gill and lost one before the cold got to me and I called it a day.

The bright side was that this was the first time I used my Lowrance Elite 4X color fish locator! Let me tell you I was impressed. The resolution rocks! The setting selection is robust! I played with the fish id option and went through all of the settings again ignoring the fact that I was sitting in plastic in the middle of water with sticks and strings (this is how it feels yak fishing with no fish J) I was surprised to find an ice fishing flasher mode. Most locators keep this mode under pages or views. I know this because I went through every model at BPS looking for flasher modes. The flasher mode for the Lowrance is under sonar settings and it is really good. If I had known this, I might not of bought another company’s model for ice fishing! Live and learn.

The next morning I headed 40 minutes North to yak a private pond. You would not believe the difference in the ponds from the North of the county to the South. Every pond up North had ice! Bummer! I drove back home and tried one pond with Chunsum and we struck out. After warming up I went back out to a small pond and managed to catch 3 small crappies and missed a couple as well. I was just happy to catch something! Spring cannot get here soon enough…..

December Crappie Video

HARD WIND CRAPPIES

 DuPage Angler Sooner Bass calls and tell me he has gotten on some crappie and thinks that Sunday morning they might be even better. We get up at O'dark Thirty and get to the small lake before the sun had risen. The wind was already blowing hard but we would find out that it was just the beginning.

 When I usually fish crappie in high winds I use a McThill Waggler float that is designed to cut through waves and it works great. I cast up wind and let the float drift parallel from me across the water. I am fishing to cover a large area and it is a deadly set-up. Today was different.

 I started with this rig and quickly scored a beautiful white crappie and a of couple bass. The wind picked up, picked up, and picked up some more. Sooner believed the best bite would occur where the wind was the worst. Unfortunately for me he was right. Wagger floats are very light. They cut through waves but do not cut casting through very heavy wind. Sooner, I noticed was catching 2 to every 1 fish I landed. We saw that he was able to out cast me by 20-30 yards. This was do to the  fact that he had these cheap clip on weighted foam bobbers. Once we figured out this was the key to success, we went for a quick trip to the closest store to buy some. 

When we got back the action was amazing. Crappies fell like scaled dominoes. The wind got even worse. 2 - 3 foot white caps on this small body of water were crashing the shoreline. We needed a break from it and decided to try the opposite shore for a while. We were comfortable, but skunked. Sooo back to the wind tunnel and blasting gusts on the windward side we went. Once there we picked right up again! The action was awesome! We ended up with around 70 crappie, 15 gills, and 7 bass.

 Some of these fish were just gorgeous. I used minnows and he used a tandem rig with a mini mite with a tube jig trailer. The weighted floats saved the day. I am not a fan of fishing into hard wind and prefer to use the wind as a drift of sorts. But in this instance head on was the only answer. From now on I will be ready for hard wind crappies.

THIS WEEKS PODCAST FALL CRAPPIE

New FALL CRAPPIE PODCAST CLICK HERE New
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Fall Pond Hoppin for Crappie

 Well as much as I would like to ignore it, winter is on its way. I turn my sights to crappie often this time of year because they are active and closer to shore then the summer months in our local small ponds and lakes.
I call Bob (aka Brim on Dupage Angler.com) and we meet just as the sun is popping up. It is cold now so we are both bundled. Funny thing is 2 months from now we will think of this as a warm day. Not a good day for me to forget my dip net for my minnows. At our first pond the water is freezing in the minnow bucket, I bait as fast I can, dry my hand, back in to my gloves, and into my pocket were a warm hand warmer is waiting. (LOVE HAND WARMERS). My Thill disappears and after a short fight the first of what would be several nice gills appears.

 Brim sets his hook and has a funny look on his face. I look down and think he has a nice crappie but what I see is a beautiful dinner plate gill on the end of his line!! He said it may be one of the biggest he has ever caught.

We catch a some nice gills and some bonus bass in a flash. The bite died and the crappies are just not around here today. So we decide to move to another pond.

The second location was a small spillway that connects two ponds. The problem was that its had no flow. Bummer. No flow means no crappies here. Off to pond number 3. Pond number 3 is not the honey hole it use to be, poachers made sure of that. (Don't keep pond fish people. The damage caused by keeping fish is easy to do and takes years to reverse.) This pond is known for its summer weeds, the problem is the weeds didn't know to leave yet. Off to pond number 4. JACK POT!! Our floats disappear every minute or so crappies and gills are reeled in left and right. I am using Thill waggler floats, one rod with a ice jig/minnow combo and the other with a hook/minnow combo. Brim is using a small thill mini stealth float, ice jigs, and waxies. We must of caught 30 each. I even got a bonus carp that thought he was a gill to end a great day of fall pond hopping for crappie.