Fished with Paul today and caught 2 limits in just over 4 hours. Released that many short fish. Caught them all on 1/16th ounce white/chart jigs fishing hardwoods. I think we fished one Cedar the whole trip.
Roberts is probably the best lake in North Texas for Crappie fishing during the summer.
If you want to learn how to fish standing timber or just catch alot of fish, give Paul a call.
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How long does this timber pattern last during the summer?

Do they eventually move out to brush piles or are they pretty much in the timber until they move out to suspend during the winter?

Jerry, me and my buddy fished trees in the Buck Creek area, west of the launch and bridges, from 9-11:30 and the bites were really light the whole time, so light that they were really hard to catch since they were only pecking it. We fished 1/8 ounce jigs tipped with minnows the whole time and ended up only landing 2 crappie, 1 sandie, and a small perch. Fished about 10 ft down in trees 15-20 ft. The crappie were there, but did not bite agressive. What time of day typically do they bite better? What area of the lake is really good right now? Any tips are really appreciated. I enjoyed going to you and Paul's little seminar at Advantage Marine last year.

Jerry:

It was nice to run into you and Paul out there on Sunday and I can attest that they had their limit (even though we didn't). And even more remarkable that you did it w/o hitting any cedars. I also have to thank you guys for talking me into buying the Lund Pro-V 1900 as it is a fishing machine and makes it a lot more comfortable out there. Tell Paul that his "fishing hole" will remain a secret with us. I also would recommend booking a trip with Paul at ray roberts especially if you want to learn to jig fish

Hey - jtc30, we crappie fish raybob almost every weekend and I'd suggest finding a little deeper water this time of year as surface temps are now 85 deg. I'd look for water that is closer to 20-25' deep and fish at 15-20' deep. Hard to find crappie suspended at 10' deep this time of yr. Just my $.02.

Me and a buddy fished east of bridge at Buck Creek today and very very slow. Caught 5 crappie, one keeper. Tried minnows and jigs. Stupid question but how can you determine a cedar tree?

We never fished in less than 18' of water yesterday and caught most of our fish about 14-16' deep. We did fish some 30' timber in the main lake and caught fish as deep as 25'.
These fish will stay in the timber all summer long.
I think the biggest mistake people make is they stay in one spot too long. We watched a guy that was fishing the same area as we were. We would fish 7-10 trees to his 1. If the fish are there, they will bite. Once they quit, we move.
Paul made the remark yesterday that if you catch 1 keeper at every tree. You only have to fish 25 trees. We probably fished 30-50 trees yesterday.
Cedars look like Christmas trees without needles. They like to eat jigs and big Crappie......

Great information Jerry.

Yes.....thanks Jerry.....

Couldn't stand reading about RR crappie any more. I booked a trip with Paul for next week.

TP you will enjoy that, I did it last week, caught lots of crappie but more important Paul is a good teacher.-Joe

I have fished with Paul and Jerry on that pattern and I will tell you it is a BLAST! You wont regret booking that trip. I have never caught crappie so consistantly in the middle of the summer.

ScottB

Thanks, Jerry!

i fish roberts all the time i'd probably catch more crappie but i'm too busy fishing for shark

Hey Jerry, we tried our luck again in the brush east of bridge in Buck Creek and had much better luck. We caught 4 keepers in the first 15 minutes. I have been using your technique of tree hopping and I'm hooked. Bonus feature is my 10 year old is not near as restless since there's a new tree every 10 minutes or so.

Fished again with Paul yesterday and it was slower. We managed 50 keepers but it took until 1:30pm. We tried some new timber. Some paid off and some didn't. Lots and lots of Black Crappie this year. They are growing up finally.
I don't book trips on holiday weekend on Lavon but Roberts was not bad at all. NO ski boats just fisherman make for a nice day on the lake.