Decided to go see what the crappie were doing and see if I could entice a few wintertime slabs into the boat. the trip started out with launching the boat, and turning the key with nothing happening. I evidently left my accessory switch on from last trip and had a dead starting battery.. so I removed the wires from one of my trolling motor batteries (if its a 24 volt set up you have to remove the wires) or you will send 24 volts to your starter!!! so I jumped off the motor, and drove around the lake a bit trying to charge the battery back up., I went to the other side of the lake , killed the motor and it would crank, but not start. so I jumped it off again with my cables.. evidently these mercury optimax 2 strokes like alot of amps to start the motor. at this point im deciding what to do.,,. go home, go take the battery out of my truck, or just leave the outboard running,, so I decided to just leave the outboard running because if I ran the trolling motor batteries down, I would have nothing to jumpstart off of.
finally got some poles out and working on establishing a pattern for the day. I was using tandem jug set ups, with a new plastic called SHAD POLE in pearl white on the top and pink and white slab bANDITS on the bottom fishing under schools of shad in 22 to 35 feet of water
what I found was that the suspended schools of fish would not bite, but when I found fish along the bottom with some scattered baitfish above them, they would bite.
Ive heard of plenty of 2 pound crappie being caught in the central texas area, but havent got one yet. close but no cigar. The big crappie in the pic nailed the pearl white shadpole in 25 feet of water. 1 pound 14 and a half ounces.. a couple years ago I caught the same weight fish in the same area.. maybe next month they will be a tad heavier and I will get my 2 pounder.

Nice mess of fish

Nice post and fish. Good job.

...keep trying, she's out there..!!

looks like she was full of eggs. ?????

Well done!

yes large egg sac, and , just maybe 1 partially digested shad in the gut

im confident I will get one this year. I will honestly say that wintertime crappie fishing on our deep central texas lakes that have many , many creek channels coves , timber, bridges ect has been historically challenging for me. I recently read a book with a couple chapters dedicated to wintertime fishing and it has changed my whole gameplan. and im starting to get results.
heres one thing I have learned so far, LEDGES that are at the edge of deep drop offs but also have quick easy access to shallow water is a high probability spot. a large point that comes up to shallower water is a good place to look.. wherever there is a irregularity in the bottom topography . usually near where a creek channel comes out of a cove or slew. the fish are using these ledges along dropoffs as a travel beacon. my theory after many night fishing trips is that the gamefish such a. crappie s bass, whitebass. gaspers ect primarily feed at night,. as soon as nightfall happens crappie immediately leave the brush and timber and school up on ledges near where the shad will be herded or naturally want to go that night.. usually a shallow area that the wind has been blowing in most of the day. when they go into the shallow areas the gamefish follow them and try to feed heavily.. the shad move from area to area, trying to feed on plankton., this happens most of the night. once morning comes,. the shad mostly come out of the shallow areas and suspend and rest. my opinion is that the crappie that are willing to feed in daytime are crappie who didnt get much shad the night before. I think some of the crappie stay in the creeks. trying to feed on some of the shad that stay there.
Ive also learned that even with the best sonar on the boat, you cant always see the crappie when they are hugging tight to the bottom. if I see baitfish swimming along the bottom I fish the bottom 1/4th of the water column. often just kind of dragging the jig along the bottom.
There is a particular lake I fish in winter and the fish seem to almost be buried in the bottom. 24 to 35 feet of water.. what I noticed on my last trip is there is a grass growing abt 8 inches to a foot tall off the bottom,. they are sitting in the grass and ambush shad as they swim over. I let the jig fall until it hits the bottom, and as soon as I pull it off bottom, WHAM they nail it. The schools of crappie tightly bunched up, high in the water column are more in a resting, digesting mode. I dont spend alot of time trying to get them to bite.

Stay At'um LP..... Those big'uns are in most all lakes and are a treasure when caught..... Most don't understand how big a 2lb crappie is and for sure no clue of what a 3lber looks like..... They Are Big.....
Nice catches.....

one that big will probably go over 2 lbs in Feb , pre spawn,

good luck

MO

Awesome

Fatty!

Benbrook has a lot of 2 pounders! Hot summer days in the timber.

Attaboy. Caught my first real 2 this year. Yours is coming.

yes , lots of long crappie round here, I call em boat paddles. . and I hear people claiming 2 pounders all the time but have not seen one on a scale. a 2 pounder IS A BIG DAMN CRAPPIE FOR SURE. A long skinny crappie just wont do it,, Babys got to have back.!!! some roundness to her, ,, a full figured gal.. ha
what the secret sauce is I dont know because our centex lakes have ALOT of baitfish, long growing season .. I would assume the genetics are the same as most others. it doesnt get cold enough, long enough most years for huge shad die offs. lots of creeks for shad as well as deep water for them to go into.. maybe its a competition thing amongst the gamefish, like belton has a very large bass population , hungry 12 and 14 inchers most years. stillhouse has way too many white bass, its out of balance and has a poor nutrient inflow...
. waco has an immense population of white crappie and a fair amount of black crappie. waco has several bubblers near the dam that have been running for many years where shad congregate and thrive in the oxygenated water.
I have caught several thousand crappie in the centex area, from granger to LBJ, waco, stillhouse, belton, tradinghouse , and havent got that true 2 pounder.. I know a 2 plus pounder came out of tradinghouse a few years back. also can look at lake records and see that they do exist, but there arent very many,. theres several crappie fisherman way better than me in my circles that havent caught the true 2s yet either so I know they are very rare.... Ive seen some pics from our centex lakes of some nice pigs, with the claims, but havent seen one on a scale.. its like bigfoot, many claims but no proof... ha alot of sizzle but no steak...
somebody will claim a 2 pounder, then that gets changed to " hes catchng 2 pounders": , to " we caught a mess of 2 pounders"' its [censored]..
take navaro mills, its not too far from the centex, dont know if its still pumping them out but know 2 plus pounders used the be very common, many 2.5s ect.. very small lake. Benbrook is not too far north from the centex and I hear the 2 plus crappie are caught now and then.. interesting to my how lakes slightly to the north of us have heavier crappie consistently.
come springtime, the females are nice, healthy but not huge. somewhere between winter and spring they are just not able to feed as heavily for some reason is all I can think.