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John's Journal... Entry 104, Day 4

DOG DAY CRAPPIE

How, Why, and When to Change Water Depths Throughout the Day

EDITOR'S NOTE: Roger Gant of Corinth, Mississippi, has fished Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River for more than 40 years. Fishermen haven't historically recognized Pickwick Lake, located on the Alabama/Tennessee/Mississippi border, as a crappie lake. However, Gant guides on Pickwick Lake more than 200 days a year and consistently catches good limits of slab crappie. Most crappie fishermen don't successfully catch crappie during the Dog Days of summer. But, Gant catches more crappie in the summer than any other time of the year. This week we'll look at Gant's secrets to catching Dog-Day crappie.

Question: Describe a day of crappie fishing during the summer.
Gant: During the summer, I'll start out fishing in water 14-feet deep because the shallow-water crappie usually will bite first. By noon, I may fish as deep as 18 feet. By 2:00 p.m., I'll probably fish 22-feet deep. As the weather cools down in the afternoon, we'll start fishing shallow again. I don't believe that crappie change depths throughout the day. I'm convinced that crappie that hold at different depths bite at various times of the day. In the middle of the day, the fish that hold in deep water seem to bite more. In the morning and the late afternoon, the crappie that hold in the more-shallow water seem to bite best.

Question: What else have you learned about Dog-Day crappie fishing that has enabled you to catch crappie when the temperature rises to 90 degrees or above?
Gant: Summertime crappie will bite more consistently than at any other time of the year. During the hottest part of the year, the weather changes very little. In July, August and September and often into October, the weather conditions remain the most stable of anytime of the year. In the fall, spring and winter, the weather conditions and water conditions constantly change. I must move continuously to various areas and different water depths to find crappie. Fronts come through more often. The water quickly can rise extremely high or fall extremely low because more rain falls during those times of the years. During the summer months, fewer weather fronts move in, and the water fluctuates less than at any other time of the year. I believe that crappie fishing becomes easier once you learn how the crappie hold in the summer months.

Question: Why do you use Bait Mate on your jigs?
Gant: I know that Bait Mate attracts crappie. I also know that the scent kills the human odor on the jigs I fish. I've put Bait Mate on a cloth before, hooked that cloth to a bream hook and caught bluegills. The scent attracted the bluegills to the cloth. I know from experience that I catch more crappie on Bait Mate-scented jigs than I catch on the jigs not scented with Bait Mate.

Question: Once you hook a crappie, how do you get it in to the boat in the summertime?
Gant: As deep as we fish in the summertime, you can set the hook fairly hard on crappie because much of the force you put into the hook set dissipates in the amount of line between you and the crappie. Also, we use extremely limber rods, so you need to make a hard hook set. If you fish in shallower water, and you make a hard hook set, you'll tear the hook out of the crappie's mouth. But, the way that I fish, the water depth I fish and the soft rods that I use enable my fishermen to set the hook fairly hard.

Once you make the hook set, you must keep a bow in the rod to create tension on the line and keep the hook planted firmly. You must continue to move the crappie toward the boat. Crappie feed more actively in the summertime than they do any other time of the year. If you get any slack at all in your line, the crappie will shake his head and the jig will come out of his mouth. Just remember that crappie become more active in warmer water. If you let any slack get in your line, you easily can lose them. Don't let the crappie reach the surface of the water before you net it. If a crappie's head breaks the surface of the water during July or August, that crappie will get off the hook about 98 percent of the time.

Question: Why do you tip your jig with a minnow when the air temperature rises above 70 degrees?
Gant: To be honest, I don't know. I just know that when I tip the jig with a minnow when the surface temperature reaches 70 degrees or more, I catch two to three times more crappie than I do when I fish a jig without a minnow. You more easily can hook crappie when you don't tip your jig with a minnow. So, in the wintertime, I don't use a minnow. But in the summertime, if I don't use a minnow, I don't get the bites.

Question: Do you troll for crappie at a different speed in the summer than at other times of the year?
Gant: Yes, summertime trolling is like wintertime trolling. The fish prefer the bait to move in front of them at a slower rate of speed than in the fall or the spring when the crappie feed more actively. Crappie become finicky in the summertime and often don't want to bite. I've found that the slower you troll when they get in that finicky mood, the more crappie you'll catch.

Question: How do you catch crappie when they don't want to bite?
Gant: Crappie behave like children who don't want to eat. A child who doesn't want to eat will take the fork and move the food around on his plate, but he won't put the food in his mouth. When crappie don't want to bite, I go to the thickest cover I can find. Then I tell my clients that we'll have to force feed the crappie. Instead of setting the hook as soon as I see the crappie bite, I set the hook on the second bite. I'll see the rod tip jump when a crappie bites the first time, yet I won't do anything. When I see the rod tip twitch the second time, I'll immediately set the hook. I'll usually catch the crappie then.

Question: Why do you think that you can catch more crappie on the second bite than on the first bite when crappie don't want to feed?
Gant: Crappie don't have hands. So, the crappie can't feel the bait and decide if it can eat the bait. But, the crappie can come up and put its mouth on the bait to test it out before it eats the bait. The first time a crappie bites, it will feel the tail end of the bait. The second time the crappie bites, it takes the bait deeper in its mouth to get a better feel. That's why we catch the crappie on the second bite, even when crappie don't want to bite.

Question: Why do you use 8-pound Magnathin line?
Gant: A smaller-diameter line enables my jigs to fall deeper quicker and allows my baits to move through the water at the proper depth or better. Four-pound-test line probably gets more bites than 8-pound test line. I use 8-pound-test line because I'll often catch crappie that weigh more than 2 pounds. Sometimes I'll even catch bass that weigh up to 8 pounds. And that 8-pound-test line holds the bigger crappie better than the small line does.

To learn more about crappie fishing with Roger Gant, call him at (731) 689-5666 or (662) 287-2017. To learn more about Pickwick Lake, where to stay, where to eat and nearby attractions, contact Tennessee's Hardin County Convention and Visitors Bureau in Savannah, Tennessee, by calling (800) 552-3866.

TOMORROW: GANT'S 10 SECRETS TO CATCHING YEAR-LONG CRAPPIE.




 

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about P-Arrow Plantation...

Day 1 -Hot-Weather Crappie-Catching Tactics
Day 2 -Slow-Trolling for Crappie
Day 3 -Catching Crappie Throughout the Year
Day 4 -How, Why, and When to Change Water Depths Throughout the Day
Day 5 -Gant's 10 Secrets for Catching Year-Long Crappie

John's Journal