Awesome haul! I'm gonna have to come down with a contagion of some sort now!

Quick question for you experienced creek crappie guys. When fishing for crappie in the creeks do you fish it like you typically would for sand bass/hybrids? By that I mean, do you fish the bends/riffles etc. or is it more structure fishing, just in creeks?

I just bought a kayak and will be hitting the creeks this year and have no clue how to go about it.

I usually try to find visual structure next to a drop off, trees that slant in the water, tree stumps, tree piles... Pretty much wherever u can get hung up at, kuz "you ain't crappie fishing if you ain't getting hung up" - mr crappie

With hybrids and sandies in the creek I look for drops, holes, and look at how the current is. There are times where I catch crappies while fishing on bigger plastics lol

Im hitting structure that can be seen from the bank. They're holding very tight to it where im fishing.

What's y'all favorite color ? My go to is always the monkey milk. Seems like no matter which lake or creek
Monkey always make em wanna taste . Lol

Structure is one of the main keys when fishing for crappie in the creeks. As for colors, Black/Chart and White/Chart are good starting colors. If the fish are there and will bite they shouldn't be too picky.

This is the type stuff you look for in winter creek crappie fishing:











Key is structure, in the water, cuts in banks with overhanging roots, debris piles, slow moving or reverse current eddies created by the brush. Also debris piles near deep water for more consistent action. In the dead of winter, sometimes shallow water debris piles will draw crappie up shallow because during the warmest part of the day, the shad and minnows will appear around the brush and debris and the crappie can become easy prey to a jig. Most if not all creeks of any size or length will offer these types of locations.

Hope this helps.

Rudy

Let`s go Rudy!

I stay ready Bonz!

pic look's like at rowlett creek.

Would love to take my kayak down that creek but would be afraid of people chunking lures at me Q

Of course from what I have learned on here, those rules really only apply to shallow lakes, on deeper lakes the crappie and bait fish head for the deep water instead of the creeks. Please correct me if I'm wrong !

So here is my question. Just to help me narrow things down. It can't be any creek right? Or at least not every part of every creek. I have creeks all around me where I live. They may have some little bait fish but nothing else. Now some of these creeks finally feed a lake or the trinity. So I assume if I fish close enough to the convergence of the creek and river or creek and lake I can find fish. The pictures above look so promising but I'm betting they are within a few miles to a few hundred yards of a major body of water. Am I wrong?

Nice mess sir...

It has to be a creek that is connected to a lake or at least a body of water with crappie in it. The fish will also only go so far up a creek depending on depth, bait and water temp. I have caught good crappie about 2 miles up a creek from a lake and this is because this creek has pretty deep water the whole way. There are a lot of factors that come into play when it comes to crappie moving up a creek.