Re: School me on bluegill and crappie
big bluegill and shellcracker act almost like big bass. most people can only catch them when they are bedding and just like big bass big BG and crackers are predators after they reach about 8". theyll hit a fathead minnow or a 1" lil minnow plastic about as fast as a cricket. after the first spawn theyll head back out to deep weeds and then stage on the creek ledges and deeper boat docks. this is why there will be a lot of bigger fish caught at the beginning of the spawning season and as steve mcadams says, "they perform a magic tick and disappear". not really, they move to deeper water.
fishing without a boat in a large lake might be a little challenging but there are times when you can do as well as anyone in a boat. when i was a kid we used to sit on the rip rap under birdsong bridge and catch a 5 gallon bucket full of crappie in early spring.
february-april. if you can find some cypress trees around mud flats, fish the knobs with a hair jig or meal worm. reason being, they gorge themselves on the lake fly hatch(midges) and later on the black caddis hatch. any imitation of these two will work tipped with a meal worm(i use berkley scented). feb-march at reelfoot used to be killer, until the over harvesting started.
may -july. the spawn. aint gonna happen until the water temps are consistent and around 70-72 degrees and sometimes crackers a bit before that. ive caught shallow crackers shallow at the end of march. the first spawn is usually the best.
BG like peagravel/sand mix. find a gravel bank and you will usually find them. if it has wood the better. crackers like the same areas but seems like they like over hanging cover like willow trees. crackers are like black crappie and small mouth, they are spooky. get too close and cause too much commotion and they move off to the closest deeper water. cracker beds are more compact and feed off the bottom, so you have to set a slip float to match or fan cast a jig and drag it until you find them and when you find them, cast around the same spot. even 5 ft off and they wont hit. if you catch some and they auit hitting, come back later and theyll hit again. they get spooked real easily.
as far as lakes and ponds, if it has a good LMB structure there will usually be nice BG there as well.
crappie is a crap shoot shallow and it all depends on a 60-63 deg water temp, (in april normally) and water levels that will get them on wood. they lay their eggs on wood. minnows or imitations on jig heads work.
one tip that i can give you is buy a swimming pool or trout fishing water temp guage and when you go fishing that will tell you if the fish are getting staged to spawn. usually north to northeast banks(south facing) will warm first in the spring and thats were i always start first in the spring.
just remember with big bull BG, they are prone to over harvesting and stunting in some lakes. weve found that the old way of thinking that keeping only the bulls and releasing the mid size fish and females does more harm than good.
