Nice day on 6

Ma and I hit the river this morning on pool 6 and found some nice crappies and a few, not many, really nice sunfish. She actually got the largest crappie she’s ever caught today with a 12 3/4″.

We worked our way thru several plastics and a single color of gulp minnow. Right off a guy couldn’t get hit unless a waxie was part of the deal….even on a darned gulp minnow!….but as the day woke up the waies weren’t needed nor was the gulp. The best fish all fell to plain plastics but color and profile had to be toyed with to stay on the fish. Overall, chartreuse of some sort was the hottie.

It was a fun morning. Relaxing without any wind for a change. Around 11 Ma mentioned being warm and wishing we had some breeze and just like that we had some. We pulled off the water at noon and made a couple stops on our way home. I think she’s pretty happy with that crappie but she hasn’t yacked it up yet. Yet. She’ll wait for the grand kids to ask how her fishing went today lol.

We kept enough crappies and two nice sunfish for a meal and tossed maybe 40 back. As I get older days like this one get rarer but I savor every one of them. She’s a darned good fishing partner. Had to laugh a little today….she finally started talking like a worthy angler: damned fool thing hold still!, why you prickly little schnit!

Fishing around wood? Going to try and get out on P4 this weekend. Last night on a local lake they were ALL over deep brushpiles. Good to here they are still going crazy down that way

Wood was in the area but not needed to catch the crappies. Sunfish were sitting close to wood.

On pool 4 I’d be working along the rip-rap on the MN side.

What depth were you working in. I really want to give the crappies a try. I took my 2 4 years old out last week and nailed the sunnies on the wingdamns. Look for inside corner windgdamns with slower current. That worked for us.

Any info on finding crappies on the river would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

Even with the mostly clear skie. light winds and hot water the crappies hit right around 3′ down early on and slowly got deeper as the morning wore on. I don’t think we ever set a float or let a jig drop beyond 5′ of depth even thought the water in some places was over 30 feet. The fish where we were at were quite high in the column.

On pool 4 where we fish we keep the boat out from shore about fifty feet as we drift along the rip-rap and let our casts get to within maybe ten feet of the rock, then drop to the bottom. We want to target that area where the rock and the softer bottom meet. We find our crappies in that deeper pocket. Right now there will be tons of larval crawfish in and among the rocks and they make pretty tasty treats to crappies and sunfish. Huge shoals of pin minnows will start to focus on the rocks about now too.

One good thing to watch for is feeding schools of white bass. If they are seen concentrated along the rip-rap instead of more open water, fish your crappies up stream or down stream the area of surface activity. The bass activity will push the small prey into rock crevices and move on. The crappies and sunfish lurker in those spots to pick up hurt and injured prey the bass leave behind or those that come out of hiding.

Another sure thing to keep an eye for are bluetinsel tail jigs with tail pieces of Trigger X minnows tied to green 832 braid hanging in shoreline brush.Jason Halfen leaves a few of these ornaments when the bite has been good. Check areas below La Cupolis, but ahead of where the Chippewa River enters the Miss. Last year I added several of these jigs to my collection but I don’t use them with Trigger X….never have needed to. Jason has been noted in this area again this year too.

Also, on pool 4’s crappies that are found along the rip rap, don’t be afraid to up-size to maybe a 1/4 jig and a 3″ twister tail or paddletail. One of my most productive presentations along the rip rap has been a 1/8 purple head holding a 4″ Bass Slider-type worm with a paddle tail, junebug/chartreuse tail.

Thanks. I’m actually going to be trying pool 6-7. I fish out of trempealeau. Thanks for some info though. I’ll be checking it out on Friday!

A friend and I returned to pool six again with his son in tow. The water was dirty today, lots of stuff floating including grass and coontail. Plenty of boats were out too and all seemed to have what we had on our minds on theirs.

The crappie bite was not what it was on the previous trip and all of the sunfish were dinks. Seven crappies went home with the buddy and they were all decent fish. 13″ was the largest today.

We had some fog this morning to go with cooler temps but when the sun burned the fog off it burned our fishing too. As soon as the sun was hitting the water directly the fishing went right down the pipes.

My weekend plans got changed so I wasn’t able to go, but my dad went on 7 yesterday evening. He did ok with the sunnies. good size and fair action. Brought enough home for a 2 person meal.

Great information Tom…..going to try crappie hunting today. I’m going to try to use your tips.