Yamamoto's New Baits -
"They Put Panfish in the Pan"
November 4, 2008
Part II
(click here for part one in the series . . .)
Catching crappies is just plain fun and that’s not even to mention the taste tingling delight these panfish provide when they’re fresh out of the frying pan.
But you gotta find ‘em before you can catch ‘em. And as I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, that applies every bit as much to crappies as any of our other sport fish.
So how do you go about finding these silvery little buggers? There are a number of things to consider and one is the lures you’re throwing. If you read the first part of this series on crappie fishing you’ll recall I mentioned the testing George (Chief) Braswell, of Oklahoma, did with the four new panfish that have been added to the Gary Yamamoto Baits (GYCB) lure lineup.
Over the years I’ve talked to a number of crappie catching experts around the country. Sooner or later they almost always mention having used a Road Runner lure when they were searching for crappie hangouts. Many tell about using a variety of plastic baits in concert with the Road Runner.
Braswell told me much the same thing. But what he did so effectively was rig to rig his Road Runner with one of those brand new GYCB panfish lures.
“I love to throw the Road Runner when I’m looking for crappies,” Braswell says. “During the testing of our panfish GYCB baits I caught a bunch of crappies on a Road Runner that I rigged with our new 2-inch YamaMinnow.”
The Chief told me he’d had a hand in the design of this bait. Take a close look at it first chance you get. You can rig it with a variety of leadheads, but as those crappie catching experts I mentioned will tell you, the Road Runner is one of the best. Again, one of the best especially when you’re attempting to find where the fish are located.
If you don’t know what a Road Runner lure looks like, note the illustrations that accompany this story. The Road Runner is a small leadhead equipped with a single spinner blade that flutters and flicks beneath the lure as it is retrieved.
These spinner equipped leadheads come in a variety of weights and sizes. “I used the 1/16th-ounce and the 1/8th-ounce most of the time,” Braswell says. “My most effective YamaMinnow colors were white and chartreuse or blue and chartreuse.”
Every bit as important as the plastic bait you use with the Road Runner is what you do with it once it’s in the water. “Mostly,” the Chief says, “I just fished the Road Runner and the YamaMinnow with a slow retrieve. On occasions I just stopped and let it fall and jigged it vertically."
Old Hickory was one of the Tennessee lakes Braswell fished during his testing of the GYCB lures. “On one trip,” he says, “my partner was a fellow who insisted on picking up some live minnows before we headed out. That didn’t turn out to be necessary because I outfished him using the YamaMinnow on a Road Runner.”
Wally Marshall, the man they call “Mr. Crappie,” is a friend of mine. He has told me he often uses an approach similar to what the Chief talks about having done during his lure testing.
You’ll find that Road Runner heads are available in 1/32nd, 1/16th, 1/8th and ¼-ounce sizes. You’ll be wise to get all four. You can throw that ¼-ounce job way out there with light line on your spinning outfit. Once you start getting hits and determine where the fish are and the depth at which they are holding you may want to switch to a lighter size. This is extremely important if the fish are shallow water.
As I mentioned in Part 1, there are three great keys to successful crappie fishing.
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You've got to find the fish.
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Once you find the fish you must fish at exactly the right depth.
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Even at the right depth you won't produce much unless you are fishing your lure at exactly the right speed.
These three factors----location, depth and lure speed---are the keys to putting more of these great eating panfish into your boat.
Much of what I know about crappie fishing I learned as a kid when I fished at every opportunity in the Columbia River backwaters of Washington State. Later, I refined my tactics and techniques while I lived right on the shore of popular Silver Lake in the southwest part of the Evergreen State. Having a boat in the water all year long about 60-feet from my front door for more than three decades provided a wonderful opportunity to look and learn about catching crappies.
One thing I learned in a hurry - it was that in the sloughs, ponds, or most lakes I fished it was wise to look for crappie around wood. This wood might be in the form of downed trees, submerged logs, pilings, bridge underpinnings or abandoned docks. Crappies also like rocks. Some of the best fishing at Silver Lake, for example, always came around the lake's sunken rock piles.
I haven't fished any of the Columbia River sloughs in years but I can tell you how I'd approach such a trip if I were to head out on such a trip tomorrow.
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First off, I'd look for cover like that I've described.
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Once I found downed logs, dead trees or any other possible crappie holding spots, I'd fish them ever so carefully.
I wouldn't expect to catch a boat full of fish right off. As soon as I caught even one crappie I’d mark the exact spot so I could come back to it. Once I had a half dozen spots marked that I knew held fish, I’d simply move from one to the other and forget about trying to find fish anyplace else.
It’s well established that around10 per cent of all fishermen catch about 90 per cent of the fish. I guarantee you one thing - that top 10 per cent of successful anglers are fishing where the fish are. What some never do realize is that only about 10 per cent of a given lake or river holds fish. You can fish the other 90 per cent all day with little hope for success.
Fishing at the right depth is another key plank in a successful crappie catching platform. Even super crappie baits like those you’ll now find in GYB lure line up aren’t going to be as effective as they should unless you get them down where the fish are holding.
I’ll talk about that important aspect of crappie fishing in Part 3 of this series.
click here for part 3!