Winter fishing for Crappie in Midwest Reseviors

[Seedy]

I want to catch more of these:




My father and I have a boat dock sitting in 10-26 foot of water on one of the reseviour lakes on the Grand River here in Oklahoma. The dock sits on the edge of a small cove on the "channel" side of the lake. The shore drops away rapidly to about 45+ feet off of the bluffs on both sides of the cove. We have sunk and suspended quite a few christmas trees and other brush/logs around the dock. Normally we fish with live minnows, attempting to suspend them just over the brush... What other strategies/techniques can you recommend for catching crappie in the winter time off this dock? Here's a few shots of and from the dock itself:







Stupid carp:
(but boy was it fun on my "ultra-light" )

[dahlberg]

hi seedy,
sounds like you've got 'em surrounded!
As fish attracting cover, I'd suggest using vertical bamboo poles about a foot apart, driven straight into the bottom. That way you can fish your jig right in the cover if needed, without getting hung up. Also, some kind of chum (if legal) like big cattle/horse cakes to keep the minnows around is a good idea. Anchor it right in your brushpile.
best,
L

[Seedy]

Hmmm...I like that bamboo suggestion. Just might have to give it a "go".

Thanks!

[andy r]

hi, I know it might be a little too late for this for the year, but I fish the same style lakes in MO. I have had great luck catching crappie from bolth boat and bank. bank fishing was just as succesful. I simply used black and chartuse tube jigs with a 1/16 oz plain lead head tipped with crappie nibles. i would make long casts with my ultra light and while feeding lie once it hit the water counted down from 20 seconds an just began a super slow retrieve. the bite was often soft but but the crappie nibble helped to get them to hold on to the jig. best of luck next winter!

[Seedy]

Thanks andy. As an update, the midwest icestorms this winter devastated the trees in NE Oklahoma (where this lake is)...Power was out for over 10 days and the water was shut off for 5...Every tree took "a hit" and many trees were completely destroyed by ice. I was told by some of the locals who stayed up there that it sounded like a gunbattle was raging in the forrest as all the limbs were snapping under the weight of the ice. Cleanup has been slow...FEMA money helped get the roads all clear again...the bright side of this is that we now have PLENTY of firewood for summertime campfires. We also took advantage of all the broken limbs by sinking quite a few of them (tied or wired with rocks) under the dock...

Well...the trees still look horrible, but the springtime spawn is almost upon us and we are already catching them staging up...should be a good year for fish.