best crappie fly ?

fly_guy12955

fly_guy12955

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What are you guys catching crappie on when fly fishing ? Never targeted crappy that much with a fly rod and if you have fav flies or set up's I'd sure be interested in your methods.

Thanks
Michael
 
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chased

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Seems like the will hit anything a bluegill will in my experience. Right before dark they school up in the local city pond and go nuts. I love throwing little poppers to them.

Chase
 
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The best I have ever found worked so good it made the people fishing around me mad. It was fun. :D

All it is is a small wet fly hook, any you feel works. I did mostly 12's. If you need to get a little more depth, you can start off with a little lead wire. Then using red thread, tie in a tail using long fibered marabou where the ends are straight and webless, like fine hair. Use just the tips and go 1.5 times the hook shank. Tie in a piece of chenile and tie it off so there is a distinct red bandbetween the tail and the body after you wrap it forward. I make the band a fat 1/16th inch. (3/32") I tie off the chenille but not make a head at this point. I change to a matching thread, white or black thread and then tie down the red thread and make my head.

These can be fished a few feet below a palsa pinch on float or some other indicator. If you use one a very effective way to fish it is strip the fly at you for a couple of fett. This will pull the fly up in the column. Pause it long enough for the fly to hang directly below the indicator and repeat. They can be fished below a floating fly as well in states that allow that. You can fish them without a float at all. That's the way I generally do it.

The best color combination I ever found was white tail, chartreuese body. But orange tail purple body does well. White tail, pink body. Purple body, pink tail. They have all produced fish like it was Crappie crack. :thmbup:

It's a very easy fly to tie, works better than any I have found, and it is really hard to fish it wrong.

One of these days I am going to have to scan and post the photo of the Crappie I got on a 6" long Reynold's Pike Fly. Not a fish story. If you are surprised, Imagine how I felt when I saw what I had on.
 
bigjim5589

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I do fairly well with crystal buggers in size 6 or 8. I'll weight the buggers, with wire, cones, beads or barbell eyes depending on how deep I need them to sink

Another fly I like is a simple feather wing streamer/ wet fly. Hook size can be any you like, but I usually go with 4, 6 or 8.
It's nothing more than a hackle fiber tail, often I use red, body of silver or gold flat tinsel, ribbed if you like, but I don't usually, a wing of a pair or 2 of white hackle tips, and a sparse collar of any soft or webby white hackle you have. I tie these on streamer or nymph hooks of various lengths. On 2or 3X long streamer hooks it looks more like a streamer, but on shorter hooks, it looks more like a wet fly. Either way, doesn't seem to matter. I don't add any additional weight to these, as the weight of the hook is all you need. I cast them along edges & just let them sink slowly, counting them down & stripping them back with short strips of the line. Great for any relatively shallow water, say 4 ft or less, but can certainly be used in deeper water.
 
Rip Tide

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Crappy ? All my flies are crappy !

No seriously, you know those little cheapass cork size 10 poppers that come in the little round fly box ? Those are crappy ! They're also good for crappie.
Buy a box next time you see some.... just don't let anybody see you do it :eek:
 
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theboz

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Rip Tide said:
Crappy ? All my flies are crappy !

No seriously, you know those little cheapass cork size 10 poppers that come in the little round fly box ? Those are crappy ! They're also good for crappie.
Buy a box next time you see some.... just don't let anybody see you do it :eek:
Click to expand...
The box that you twist the cover to get to those fine flys! Your right Rip except they really work good on Crappies when the cork starts breaking up and the thread starts coming loose on those quality feathers! Once they are broken up and sink slightly they are deadly! Haha!
 
Rip Tide

Rip Tide

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theboz said:
The box that you twist the cover to get to those fine flys! Your right Rip except they really work good on Crappies when the cork starts breaking up and the thread starts coming loose on those quality feathers! Once they are broken up and sink slightly they are deadly! Haha!
Click to expand...
You don't have to wait long for the thread to come loose and the palmered hackle to unravel and trail like a shuck. I think that they're made to do that from the get-go. :rolleyes:
 
nick k

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Anything chartreuse or green will work well. Buggers, clousers, that sort of thing. They aren't too picky and most streamer/wet flies should work pretty well. I have great luck on crappie the other day using a briminator and MM minnow.
 
fr8dog

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Have a few colors handy. Some light, dark, and neutral.

Where the critters get picky is with depth and speed. Vary the speed. I've seen them go from chasing bass lures to just barely ticking a 1/32 oz stationary jig. When they are sluggish they will eat something in front of them, but won't move a foot to get it. In general, they also feed "up". Get a fly under them and they won't see it.

This time of year, look for rip-rap or shallow brush near deeper water. They can get really shallow. If no takers, start backing out and fishing deeper. They tend to bunch up and suspend. Find the depth and you're in business.

I use floating lines and short mono leaders for the shallow ones down to.about five feet. After that it's sink tips.
 
jimp

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on bright sunny days, use darker colors, blk/chart is a good one, on cloudy/overcast days, go lighter in color. Sometimes red/chart or blue/chart is the color of the day. Crappie feed on what is above them, if its below 'em, forget it. Anything that will mimic a minnow (minner here in E TN) will get some interest. The spawn is close to being over here, so fish will be/are moving back out to deeper water, and scattered. If you have a boat with depth finder, look for structure or ledges, humps, bumps, blowdowns, etc., and you could find 'em. Sometimes they hug the bottom, other times they are suspended at 7' in 10 or 15 FOW.
 
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