Canyon Lake- Crane's Mill Dock: Minnows or Lures?

Ok guys, even if you haven't been to Canyon lake and fished the crane's mill dock, you may be able to help me out.

I know for a fact that there are quite a few crappie in the area around sunken trees/brush. The water is in the 25' range, and it's a cooler water lake. (55* or so right now, cold for this part of the state).

During the springtime/early summer, stringers full of 12-15" crappie come out of this hole.

However, I've been trying to fish it for the past few months and have only been able to get one or two each time. I've been using minnows on an aberdeen hook with 2 small split shots to get the line far enough down and to keep the minnow from swimmin around too much.

Should I be using some type of a jig instead? Maybe a larger or smaller minnow? The minnows we use are approximately 2.5-3" long. They sell a sm, med, and lg, and this is the medium. Should I change sizes?

We have used green lights, and we end up with quite a few fish on the surface. The cord on the light is only about 15' long, so it isn't going all the way down. How deep should the light be? I wouldn't think you would want it too close, it would scare the fish off.

I have seen crappie swimming in the lights everytime, and I've tried pulling my minnow shallower and letting them look at it, and they glance, follow for a second, then turn around. They swim in circles in the lights, I assume picking off the shad and minnows that are also swimming in the lights. Would I be better off trying a lure to snag the fish in the lights? They aren't very spooky...and I could easily jig a lure in front of them. I tried a roadrunner last time, and he looked at it a lot more then the minnow, but I didn't try just a jig.

Any ideas on how I can catch a few more of these guys? I finally kept one keeper last time out, and it was great eating! I want a stringer full!

I plan to give it a shot tonight, so any help before then, AND after, is of course, aprreciated.

Take care
Shawn

I'm sure someone better equipped to answer your question will answer, but here's my .02 worth.

I believe most persons who fish with lights, fish just above the light.
Also, I believe they fish just outside of the light.

I think I would try getting the light down to a reasonable depth and position my bait (minnow or jig) just above the reach of the light and just outside the edge of the lighted portion.

Preferably, I also would try two rod/reel combos. One holding a minnow, and the other me holding it with the jig.
Try different colored jig/roadrunner combinations.

Hopefully, someone else will chime in. I never catch anything after the sun goes down...with or without a light. Well, I always catch some zzzzzzzzzzzz's.

Good Luck,
-Jeff

PS. Don't snag those critters. It's against the law.

I managed to snag one last time, in the corner of it's mouth

I'll try the two reel deal and see how it goes.

Thanks for the help, and any more is appreciated!

Shawn

First you need to take off one of those split shots off because more movement the minnow has the more of a chase that the crappie will bite it. About the green light I got one I always let the light go all the way until the cord runs out. These fish are very spooky. When I go crappie fishing that is all I use is jigs. You just need to find out what color they are biting on that is all. You should use the smallest minnows possible. I hope these will help you catch more of those critters. Good luck let me know how you do.

I recently saw those fishin fins (the Linders) on satelite and one segment was fishing the green lights. I could see smaller fish in the edges of the light and he demonstrated fishing out past what you could see until you found the bigger fish. You don't know how long it took to film that episode but what aired was impressive especially for northern waters.

crazy cajun,

I see you are in Austin. Ever fished Canyon before for Crappie, or no?

I will take a split shot off and see how I do.

I will also buy a few of the smaller minnows just to compare.

Thanks for the tips, keep 'em coming! Planning to leave here around 5pm to head out there.

Shawn

I've never fished canyon lake but
crappie r crappie ! I put a minnow on the jig. hook the minnow behind the lower lip, up through the top of it's head so it's swiming rite. works 4 me

I fish crappie at Medina Lake at night under lights and they seem to spook easily due to the clear water and can be pretty picky at times. Things I've found increased my catch are...

-use a clear low diameter line. Low visibility line helps reduce spook factor and limpness allows minnow more motion. I usually fish 4 to 6 lb test.

-use a thin #2 hook. reduce spook factor, allows minnow motion, and if you are using high quality line you can bend the hook out on snags so you don't loose your rig.

-use one split shot just heavy enough to get bait down. place split shot 12 - 18 inches above minnow, again to allow it motion.

-I hook my minnows behind the eyes, running it in one side and out the other. Doesn't kill the minnow and it allows for some good swim action.

-use some sort of count method to keep track of your depth. when you catch a fish, that is usually where the rest are going to be too. some people count reel turns from the bottom on the way up. I feed my line out in foot handspans on the way down.

-Chuck

Chuckles,

Do you fish your own lights, or does the lake have boat docks with lights? When I went out there, the only thing I saw was a lot of 50+foot cliffs right next to 80+ft water

We didn't have much luck last night. We bought 3 dozen minnows and used about 5 of them. I know for a fact that I had 2 'thumps' that were most likely crappie, but I was too patient and waited on them to hit again before i set the hook.

Hopefully the spring/summertime will be better.

Shawn

I HAVE HAD PROBLEMS AT NIGHT FISHING WITH LIGHTS IN CLEAR WATER. HAVE YOU TRIED WITH OUT THE LIGHTS? JUST A LITTLE SURFACE LIGHT SO YOU COULD SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

HOW IS THE FISHING THERE DURING THE DAY?

A VERY SMALL FLY FISHING NYMPH WITH A TINY PIECE OF CUT BAIT ON IT AND A SMALL SPLIT SHOT WILL SOMETIMES WORK FOR SHY FISH. (SMALL) THEY BITE IT OUT OF CURIOSITY MOSTLY.



------------------
GOOD FISHING.


ERNEST
972-245-9311
www.catchcrappie.com
I LIVE FOR THE THUMP"

Shawn,

I used to have access to fish on a floating marina close to the damn. We would place a 60watt bulb with metal reflector about a foot from the water to draw in the bait fish. The manager of the place had suspended xmas trees on ropes from the marina subfloor at different depths to help hold fish. It was awesome. The place has since changed ownership and I am not sure what it is like now.

Currently I'm fishing from a little jon boat on the upper end of the lake near the river. I use a floating car headlight dealy. There are still spots on that end of the lake as deep as 50ft (near Turk's Head) that should hold crappie in the colder months.

Right now I'm having too much fun targeting white bass and hybrids that are starting to stage in that area of the lake. My 8yr old daughter caught a nice 20incher last weekend in 5 feet of water on a windblown shoreline. A friend noticed the birds and waved us over for a little action. Thanks Freddy if you read these boards!

-Chuck

Ernest,

This time of year, they dont seem to catch much at all, during the day or at night.

During spring/summer, they bring them in by the stringer full in the early morning hours.

We have tried without the light...but may have to do it again. The water was very murky last night. We usually have a good ball of baitfish swimming around the top, but they were few and far between last night. Wonder if that had something to do with it? The recent rain is what got the water dirty..

Chuckles,

What area of Medina are the whites in? Are they still hanging around Goat island?

Shawn

Shawn,

I used to fish Georgetown and Travis alot at night with a 36" green light. When we used just minnows we didn't get a whole lot of bites. Never had much luck when the water was murky either.

What to do is get the shad. The way we would do it was put the light on top of the water and wait for the shad to start swimming in a circle. When they are doing this you can almost bet the crappie and whites are there too.
We would turn the light off and someone else would have a net (either cast or small skimmer net) and when the light goes out the shad start going crazy on top of the water and you just scoop or throw your cast net for all the shad you want.

Some people say that will scare the fish away but they always seem to come back in about 10-15 minutes.

Whites usually seemed to be closer to the top than the crappie. I would usually start at the bottom and then work my way up until I started catching.

One time my buddy and I had a contest.
I caught 8 straight whites on 1 piece of shad before it finally fell off the hook.

It sure is fun when they start doing that.

Shad boy (good name for this type of fishing I guess),

I had meant to ask that. It seems that the minnows that we buy at the baithouse are not native. I was wondering if I caught the minnows that we see in the light, if we would have better luck. There usually aren't a lot of shad, but every now and then you see them.

When we went to LBJ, we had a lot of shad going in circles, like you said.

Thanks for the tips.
Shawn

If you can catch the ones in the light they work almost as well. I always called those ghost minnows. Don't think they will jump when the light goes out.

If you have a greenlight I would go up the river a little ways and I bet the crappie and whites will be thick this time of year.

During summer time we would get on the main lake before dark and find out where the whites were schooling and at dark set up the boat and lights and we were in business.

Thats my lazy man way of fishing.