Kayak Crappie Fishing Tactics on Lake Lanier

Kayak Fishing for Crappie Tactics

Spring is just around the corner and that means one thing to me. Crappie Season!! The wintertime bite on Lake Lanier can get slow for Stripers and Bass so I mainly target Crappie from January to April! If you are looking for a fun fishing trip that can literally load the yak with fish, then why not give crappie fishing a try! In this article I will cover spring and winter tactics that I have used on Lake Lanier with great success for over 7 years!

Gear:

Leave your heavy bass gear and striper gear at home! All you need to target these fish are a couple of 5-6ft ultralight rods paired with some ultralight reels. A mid grade shimano reel and rod combo works great! Other essentials for crappie fishing include a minnow bucket and aerator if you plan to use live bait. A good stringer or cooler if you plan to keep fish. Lastly a good fillet knife if you harvest fish, I personally use and electric fillet knife and will cover my technique for fast filleting in another article!

Lures/Tackle:

If you only take one lure for crappie it would be a selection of small round jig heads in 1/32 and 1/16 ounce sizes. Get a variety of colors as some days a bright colored jig head will produce results in stained water. For live bait use a light wire crappie hook and get some weighted bobbers, I prefer the bright orange bobbers with the lead weight on the bottom. Plastic curly tail grubs are essentials in a variety of colors, bright colors seem to work best on Lake Lanier. Chartreuse is widely known as the most popular color for crappie. If plastics aren't your thing then hand tied marabou jigs in the same variety of colors will produce great results and can catch many fish on just one lure!

Crappie Nibbles:

I may get in trouble for posting this tip but tipping your jig with a berkely crappie nibble is a killer combo! There is something about adding that little nibble that will draw you extra strikes. I do not leave home without my crappie nibbles and prefer these to live bait.

Gulp! Alive Minnows:

You have probably seen these on shelves at local tackle stores. From experience I can tell you that they work! I use the 1 inch smelt variety and have caught hundreds of crappie with gulp alive minnows! I fish these in two ways. The first way is in spring just like a live minnow, rig the gulp minnow on a crappie hook with a weighted bobber several feet above the hook. The second way I use these is deadly on shooting docks and fishing brush. Take a small "no collar" 1/32 oz jig head and rig the minnow on the hook like a tiny fluke.

Winter Tactics:

Winter can be a great time to target crappie. On Lake Lanier the crappie start to migrate towards docks and brush in a variety of depths. Start shallow and work deeper to find out where the crappie are biting on a given day. On sunny days I always target docks. The crappie will move under the shadiest spots of docks during a sunny day and "shooting" the dock is deadly in these conditions. I am utilizing the dock shooting technique in this video: Cold water Kayak Crappie fishing Lake Lanier

Spring Tactics:

Early spring is much like winter and docks shooting on Lake Lanier will continue to produce. However as the water temps warm and the days get longer you should target shallower docks. Docks with pontoon boats and old styrofoam floats are good targets. The pontoons provide a ton of shade. The styrofoam floats grow algae which attracts minnows and crappie. Of course as spring progresses and the water warms the crappie have spewing on their minds!

Each year is different but in North Ga lakes the crappie tend to spawn in late March or April. Of course the spawn lasts a while and not all fish spawn at the same time. During spawning season tactics switch to hitting the shallower docks, banks and blowdowns. A blowdown is a tree that is on shore that has fallen into the lake. Each year the blowdowns provide good spawning habitat for crappie. Casting and retrieving a jig and casting a minnow under a weighted bobber are two key methods of taking spawning crappie. Look for prime locations in the backs of creeks around channels and pockets. With a lack of natural cover on Lanier many crappie will spawn under and around docks as well.

The Kayak Advantage:

Fishing for crappie during Winter and Spring from a kayak can give you several advantages. The most important advantage is stealth! You can catch these fish right under the kayak, there is no trolling motor or large hull to spook these fish. I have caught spawning crappie in three feet of water right next to the kayak. While I don't recommend fishing this close know that the kayak allows you to sneak up on these fish!

The kayak allows you to get back into shallow creek channels that boats cannot go into. Many times the crappie will move back into these channels to spawn. Timing the crappie spawn just right and you can literally paddle into a fish every cast situation!

So what are you waiting for? Give Kayak Crappie Fishing a try this Spring!

For more kayak fishing information visit the LAKE forum at : www.lanierkayakfishing.proboards.com