Timber

Is there a preferred time of the year to fish timber or is it good all year?

Days that end in the letter "Y",......

Better months are during the spring, summer and fall. You can catch fish off them year round though.

This!! That said it’s usually stacked up good by now on Palestine and Fork and I’m having to move a lot and pick them up here and there. Timber on pines is loaded up good. Can’t speak for Tawakoni cause I haven’t been there lately.

Iam listening / read guess op means deep water I have been on ray hub & lavon last week fished timber in 2o -22 ft caught fish suspended 14 ft My 2cents. So jim & slew is that what you'll ment in reply ??? always like talk or reading crappie catchin.

I don't know what op means. I've tried fishing timber before (not much though) and never have caught any crappie. Do y'all scan trees for fish first or just fish each tree that you see above water?

hey lollygagger iam no compooter / hi tech fisherman put I learn a little for a ot ld. OLDER THAN DIRT lol. any way op means original poster. . sometimes I scan them, but I have a few that are reliable. so I hit em . one thing I have learned is post spawn they move to deep water and usually I start fishing at 12 ft work my way deeper till I get thumped.Stuff I learned from better crappie guys than I . know length of your rod. Say 8ft, then have jig like 2 fr past rod length. [10ft lower jig down. Put rod tip near water. [ if you are holding rod level with say your waist, you aint fishin 10 ft] more like 7ft. if you don't get bit pull 2ft more line out[ have a mark on rod 2ft from reel. fish it for a minute . no bites go 2 more ft. & so on, sometimes they may be near bottom. Anyway just know how deep you are when thumped. Usually you will catch most of them at that depth. Important to know HOW Deep. Now go get you some. hope I helped ya..

Days that begin with "T"!


Today and Tomorrow!

You can catch them year round.

I agree with start at 12 Feet and work deeper.

All trees have potential.

I was fishing trees on Fork in 20-22 Feet and I always start at 12 feet and work down the tree.
Our bites were most consistent at 16 Feet we did catch some hanging out at 20 Feet.

We were using 12 Foot ACC rods.

To determine depth place jig at base of your rod so for us that was 12 feet. Then take your line and do a "Pull". We use baitcaster reels but it works with spinning as well. Trip your line and pull towards your rod tip...the very first eye your hand comes to is where you stop that is a "Pull" and a Pull = 2 Feet. So on my 12 foot rod with the jig at the base of the rod is 12 Feet and one pull I'm at 14 feet and 2 pulls I'm at 16 feet.

On an 8 Foot rod with my jig at the base. One Pull I'm at 10 Feet, Two pulls is 12 Feet and so on.

On an 8 Foot Rod it would take 4 pulls to get to 16 Feet as an example but only two pulls on my 12 Foot.

Fishing Timber really has a lot to do with what's under the water that you can't see like limbs and root balls.

You might fish 20 trees and get nothing.

Then fish a tree and you could catch 1/2 dozen or more off one tree.

That's fishing timber.

If you don't get bit after trying different depths move, and move, and move.

Feel free to call later I'll be happy to help.

I'm working today but can talk after I get off work.

Hope your enjoying retirement.

Good advice here! I do the same 12 to 15’ seams to be the best for me. Now I got a couple brush piles in 8’ of water that are right off a creek bend that is 15’ deep that I catch them on to. Like Hogon what’s under the water really makes the difference! I catch a lot in the 7’ to 10’ range down no matter what the depth is. But wind and water clarity seams to be the real difference to me. I have gone to 9’ and 10’ rods. I like them both.

Thanks everyone for the help! I've fished more BPs and concrete than timber by far. I always make sure that I know what depth my jigs are at. I used a "back or reverse crank" method as opposed to the "pull" method. On my particular reels, it's basically 2' per crank. I've even gone as far as making a laminated sheet that I keep in my tackle box of the depths of my double jigs per "crank" or turn of the reel. In my shop, I back cranked 5 turns and then measured the length of both jigs from the rod tip. I then let out 6 cranks and measured that and so on. The only thing I then must take into consideration is deducting the approximate distance my rod tip is above the water from the depth my jigs should be at per the number of back or reverse cranks that I did. I do the same thing when fishing concrete as far as starting off at a certain jig depth and then go down a crank at a time until I find out about what depth they are most active. I'll start fishing some timber with each outing.

Do y'all prefer braid with a leader or no leader or for timber do y'all prefer mono line? And on timber do any of y'all use a double jig or just a single? HOGON, you got me using the ACC rods and I really like those. I really never liked a two piece rod but these are awesome! I generally use an 8' rod for concrete and have a 10' rod that I designated for timber but I may add a 12' for timber.

I use 20# PP yellow superslick braid tied (uniknot) to 10/12# Berkely Trilene clear blue mono.
I like 20 feet of mono because I mostly fish 15-25 feet of water. By using the knot as reference for depth
I can tell within about a foot exactly where my bait is all the time. I use 8/9 foot rods for all my crappie fishing because they are
the easiest to handle in the boat, both for traveling spot to spot, and usability.
90% of the time when I jig fish I'll use 1/8 jigs, and almost always my jigs will have chartruse or spike it on the baits.
Double jigs are ok, but if they are biting one is fine,...plus losing one a time is better.
Timber is hard to fish for me, I prefer brushpiles. The timber I fish are whole trees under water, or Bois d'arc trees that stick
up out of the water. I avoid underwater structure that has all broken off at the flood pool level that is congested because I dont like
hitting my transducers, props, and the posibbility of damage to my boat.
I also love using minnows, especially my does wife. I rig a drop shot , 3/16 oz weight about 12-18" below a light wire 2/0 hook tied with a loop knot.
Hook them through the jaw and out the middle of their head, or just below the dorsal, either or...let the weight down slowly to find the bottom
or the brush and stop, and come up about 6" and hold for a few seconds, raise a little, stop, repeat for 4-5 feet,....repeat.
Hope some of this helps,...pm me with any questions,...jim

You can switch to a much shorter leader if you wish, and still have a depth reference. On the yellow PP, put a black 1 foot stripe at 15 feet, one at 20 feet, and one at 25 feet, also accounting for whatever shorter leader you would like to use. Shortening up on the mono part will greatly increase sensitivity. In your typical fishing depth range, you'll easily be able to spot those 3 reference markers as you let line out.

Jim Sr., what you said about the possible damage to my boat (glass boat), transducers, props, etc., is what has scared me off of fishing timber regularly. I have fished some but not much for that very reason. I thought the same about using only a single jig while fishing timber or brush piles. I have insurance that covers hitting anything underwater but I hate the downtime of not having the boat available while being fixed. I've had damage to the hull from Fork on two different occasions (one while beaching the boat where I just followed someone else beach theirs and another time when it obvious hit something but never knew it). I'm very cautious fishing around timber and frankly have stayed off of Fork for the most part because of all the timber.