# Crappie



## bigruss (Oct 5, 2007)

I met an old man at walmart when I was in the fishing dept. I was asking him on what gear to buy because I seen him looking at freshwater stuff. All in All he told me he had a private lake and that I could fish it as long as I let the fish go. So I been going to his lake and there are a lot of small bass but they are really fun to catch. Also we were using bread to catch these crappies and these things are pretty fun. Most of the blue gill and crappie average 9-10 inches. They even bite our trick worms once and a while. Anyways thats my report. I got a question how come on some crappie the bottom is yellow orangish?


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## Brant Peacher (Oct 4, 2007)

I think what you might be catching are shellcracker. Crappie are very uncommon for apond. They are more of a river fish. Shellcracker look similar to crappie. I may be wrong though. I wish you had a few pics.


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## bigruss (Oct 5, 2007)

HMMMM I don't know. Some have the yellow on the bottom and some don't thats why I was wondering.


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## bigruss (Oct 5, 2007)

Brant you are correct I just looked it up and they are. They have different mouths than the crappie. Pretty cool though they look a like.


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## countryjwh (Nov 20, 2007)

i sure would like to have a mess of crappie or shellcrackers. man they are good. guess i am going to have to go to the river shortly and catch a few. shellcracker love to eat worms for your information. if you are catching thme on bread you can probably crush them on worms.


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## bigruss (Oct 5, 2007)

Well since I have this thread open I have another question. Does anyone fish a pond with a lot of lily pads? We fish this pond and we caught a couple of bass but there is a lot of grass and lily pads everywhere. Should I try using the frog lure? Or should I just not even try throwing a lure out?


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## countryjwh (Nov 20, 2007)

trick worm like i think you stated or a buzz bait. the frog baits work good to. i also like throwing a watermelon seed lizard ( wieghtless ) on top of the lilly pads reeling it across the top og them slow when it hits an opening. man i love lilly pads and top water action.


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## bigruss (Oct 5, 2007)

OK thats what I been reading on other forums I am just not sure how to work them across the grass and lily pads. Theres a lot of grass then on top of that there are lily pads.


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## bigruss (Oct 5, 2007)

I'm just thinking I'd get too much grass pulled it when reeling it. I never tried it though thats just the way it looks.


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## DLo (Oct 2, 2007)

If your going to fish pads right you need braided line(50# or better)and a baitcasting reel. The baitcasters are like winches getting fish out of the slop. If you don't have a baitcaster then you can try braid on a spinning reel. Like mentioned before, trick worms are good, also try soft plastic jerk baits like a Zoom Fluke. But for the most fun, get a couple packs of frogs and 5/0 WIDE gap worm hooks. Every tackle company has their own frog, find some that float amd get a couple colors so the fish can tell you what they like. Throw as far as you can across the pads and just crawl the frog back real slow. Stop it in openings and twitch it a couple times and then start the retrieve back to you. Sometimes the fish will just suck the lure down from underneath, but sometimes it will be like droping a cinder block from a second story window. This is the hard part, don't set the hook right away even though it looks like a stick of dynamite just went off on your lure, reel down the slack untill you feel the fish and then set the hook as hard as you can( cross his eyes is what we allways said) and get him out of there just as fast as you can reel. you want him to come up on top of the pads and you can just drag him to the bank or at least to open water. Be prepares to catch some bigger fish doing this, good luck.


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## bigruss (Oct 5, 2007)

OK thanks. I don't have any baitcasting reels. But would a stradic work? I have a stradic with 30 pound power pro. Or should I use a bigger reel with heavier braid?


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## MULLET HUNTER (Oct 3, 2007)

Crappie typically school up and prefer structure in moving water. Crappie also have very soft mouths and can get much larger that the shell cracker. shell cracker like brackish water hence their name, they eat barnicles of of the sawgrass.crappie on the other hand do not live up to their name..... they taste pretty dern good.:usaflag:usaflag:usaflag


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## surfstryker (Sep 28, 2007)

Big russ, Keep fishin that trickworm in the lily pads. Its the most weedless lure you can throw.


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## bigruss (Oct 5, 2007)

I think I'll try that the next time I go out. I worked the frog for a long time with out a bite. There are a lot of lily pads and grass in the pond I'm fishing at. It's kind of hard to fish it.


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## -WiRtH- (Feb 24, 2009)

I fish ponds with lilly pads occassionally and I always cast a frog at least a few times. Sometimes a live one but I always cast and artificial. Inspired by a story my step mom told be from when she was younger i always bounce on on top and in between the lilly pads also. Its cool to see a lunker bass jump straight up out of the water to catch the frog jumping back out, but if you are too fast you will miss him.. and be pissed too!


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