Ok... I keep reading these reports of people catching their limit on Travis.

I guess I'm gonna have to haul the boat down there and give it a try. Can anyone give some pointers on where to find some decent crappie on Travis?

Thanks guys...

Rob

You jut gotta study your quarry, get to know and fish with a few people on this fourm, perhaps hire a guide or two if your very new...especially if you expect to fish Granger.

What I have found is that crappie move often to find structure and habitat that suits them.

I have found them up and down the lake under docks in 20-40 ft. Sometimes in deeper water suspended on sturcture that is much shallower.

During the day..if the sun's out in force, you would find them in the shade of trees and docks just waiting to ambush a tasty jig or minnow.

Georgetown can serve as a good place to practice locating crappie.

If you don't have a place, get to know someone on the lake with a place that will let you set out some habitat or just put some artifical reef(crappie condo) out where you feel they may stage.

ERNEST PATY and others have some great info on crappie fishing. Videos are available on locating and catching crappie.

I don't think anyone is just gonna hand you a spot that you can go to and just start catching crappie when they have done all the up front work to research, learn, find, and keep a good crappie hole.

Here's a few links to help you get started:
http://www.spindleguideservice.com
http://bigcrappie.com
http://www.catchcrappie.com/howto.asp
http://www.crappie.com/articles/spider.htm

Tight Lines!
R

RAM,

Thanks for the reply...

I'm sorry if it sounded like I wanted people to give up their specific locations. That is not the case...

Was more interested in tips and thoughts on general areas, depths, techniques...

BTW... I just purchased an Eagle FishMark 480, and I find myself questioning whether I should 'look for fish' with it. I just don't know the technology and it seems like someone could get hung up searching for fish on the screen. But I guess if you really can trust that it's fairly accurate then you shouldn't waste time fishing where you don't see any fish???

Thanks again for the response...

Rob

No worries...we'll get on Travis and get you catching crappie if you want to. Just a bit of advice from Uncle RAM.

The fishmark is a great tool..I have fishelite480...whatever the difference is, I'm sure it's not much. You just look for drop offs changes in bottom structure, pockets of shad, etc. When you find 'em, you slow down and take a chance.

I have been able to locate crappie trolling for whites...by accident. Free line trolling a deep diving crank bait did the trick for me. I would get a fisn on then it would come off. Then I realized that I was not hooking whitebass... I was hooking "paper mouth". Then I stopped and jigged the are and viola.

Sometimes you just get lucky...fish a lighted dock in deep water and sometimes you do.

Crappie move a great deal and don't like fast moving water...I have heard anyway.

Unless you're ready to drop 2k like sabot did on his reality clip fish finder, then the eagle is just fine. I liken the eagle to the humminbird as follows....it's like being partially blind for most of your life and someone finally gives you a pair of glasses....I can see, I can see! IMO...the eagle/lowrance units are incredibly accurate if you have them setup right. You can download a demo software from lowrance that will help you play with the features on your computer. That will minimize the time you spend fiddling with it on the water.

Fish On!
R

RAM,

Is that really an offer to go fishing with you?

If you wouldn't mind I would love to make a trip to Travis with you. I'd like to see what your looking for with your electronics, how you present the tackle/bait, how long you work an area versus moving on, what kind of areas catch your eye, etc...

I've got a pretty flexible schedule and would be very excited to have the opportunity to learn...

I would love to be able to pick up enough pointers to hopefully be able to take my friends back to Travis and have them catch a mess of fish.

You're right...better not, lest I disappoint you and expose the amateur that I really am.

R

RAM357,
The FishMark 480 is a very good unit. My suggestion would be to set the grayscale at 55%, sensitivity 75%, turn off the fish id, turn off the auto sensitivity, set the depth range at 20 feet max. These settings will do a very good job on Granger. Next step is learning how to identify what you see on the screen, ie fish, brush, humps and drop offs. If you are going to fish Granger a good GPS is essential (unless you are Tommy Tidwell). Spend alot of time just looking for different structure to fish and mark productive spots on your GPS. Granger is difficult to learn but if you spend the time to learn the lake, you will have very consistent success.

GuyM,
Thank you for the feedback. I will definitely be experimenting with the setting on the 480.

I have a Magellan GPS (actually belongs to my dad, but he doesn't use it much so we've dedicated it to the boat). I had never used it on water until last Saturday when we went to Granger. I was disappointed to find that the basic maps on the unit just show all bodies of water as solid black. Is there a decent (but not too expensive) set of maps for lakes that can be loaded on a GPS?

RAM,
Didn't mean to scare you off. You had me all excited there...

You had me thinkin' I was gonna have to sweat bullets of worry and work the whole trip.

OK then...just some realtime relaxation is OK with me!

I'm not a guide you know...just fish for fun.

R

FUN is what it's all about, dude...

Sorry to make it sound like I expected the world of you. I'd just like to tag along and see how you go about it.

I consider myself a complete newb and think it would be fun and very helpful to tag along with someone who is having some success.

If it's a possiblity let me know...

i fish off a friend dock, we hung trees in jan, about 8 or so,last tues i went every time i dropped a minnow or jigum jig in before i could count to 10 fish on.......

fishin' couple...

That is too cool. What kind of depth did you hang the trees?

we staggered em , is 35 plus feet, so we have some on bottom, half and shallow

what kind of trees?