Inactive crappies don’t elude an expert

He relies on a global
positioning system to locate his crappie holes, and he
usually marks the channels with floats.

By ART LANDER JR.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

ON KENTUCKY LAKE, Ky. — With the morning sun still below the horizon, Craig Hipsher positioned his boat facing a dropoff at the mouth of Jonathan Creek on Kentucky Lake.

On this well-known crappie hole, in the heat of summer, Hipsher was about to prove that hair jigs can catch crappies even when they are inactive.

“I call this stroking a hair jig,” said Hipsher, 46, a fishing guide since 1994. “It’s a finesse presentation that allows you to cover all different depths of water. Cast out your jig and let it fall, stair-stepping it down the ledge, hopping it over brush.”

By late summer crappies are typically suspended. “They lay over the deeper water [20-foot deep channel], and come up shallower [on the ledge top] to feed around the brush, then they go back out to deeper water in the heat of the day,” Hipsher said.

“It’s a timing thing, the fish are either there or not. They don’t live on the brush, they just come there to feed. If you’re not catching them, 90 percent of the time they’re not there.”

He targets black crappies, which are the lake’s predominate crappie species (about 70 percent), but he catches a few white crappies, too.

Hipsher said he believes the species shift is the result of the loss of most natural cover, clearer water and the growth of aquatic vegetation.

“Black crappie are just like smallmouth bass in that they are very spooky,” Hipsher said. “You can’t pull the boat right on top of them, you have to back off and cast.”

GPS

While white crappies like thick brush piles, black crappies often come to isolated cover, such as a single stump on the edge of a flat. Hipsher relies on a global positioning system to locate his crappie holes, and he usually marks the channels with floats.

Like the presentation, his tackle is specific to this type of crappie fishing.

“We tie all our own crappie jigs and have found 3⁄32-ounce to work best,” Hipsher said. “1⁄8-ounce falls too fast, and 1⁄16-ounce tends to get blown around with the wind.”

The hair tied on the jig heads is an acrylic blend, sold by Punisher Lures in Celina, Tenn.

The right fishing rod is just as important. “You’ve got to be able to set the hook [at depths to 20 feet] and handle 2 1⁄2-pound crappie,” said Hipsher, who fishes with a Loomis Bronzeback 750, a 6-foot, 3-inch rod with a medium light, extra fast (tip) action. He spools his spinning reels in 4-pound test monofilament line.

Late summer crappie fishing is usually tough, but this summer on Kentucky Lake has been unusual because of the prolonged high water temperatures, lower than normal lake levels and dissolved oxygen, and the lack of current. “It’s like the crappie are lethargic,” he said.

In recent weeks water temperatures have been up in the upper 80s at dawn and into the low 90s by noon.

Fishing will improve as fall progresses, but the best time is later than most people think, Hipsher said. “It really starts to get good about the second week in November.”

That’s when water temperatures fall below 60 degrees, and crappie begin schooling and following channels to the backs of bays.

Whereas in the spring, when crappies tend to move horizontally from drops to flats, in the fall they move vertically on a daily basis, up and down in the water column, Hipsher said. “They could be at 8 feet, suspended over 20 feet of water.”

Crappies find the bait and follow it.

“In fall, it’s all about feeding up for the winter,” Hipsher said.

Craft hair crappie jigs

Six years ago Stephen Headrick began selling craft hair to anglers that’s made from a blend of acrylic fibers.

“Our craft hair doesn’t absorb water, it’s very buoyant, and gives the jig a life-like action,” said Headrick, owner of Punisher Lures, in Celina, Tenn. “We’ve always sold to a few crappie anglers, but it’s been a secret for years, and hasn’t been written up (in the media).”

Headrick, who lives near Dale Hollow Lake, is perhaps best known for his 1⁄16-ounce and 1⁄32-ounce hair jigs with oversized hooks used in Float n’ Fly, the winter finesse technique that targets suspended smallmouth bass.

The craft hair is available in 16 colors. Some top colors for crappie jigs are: bubble gum, lime green, chartreuse, and white. A 12-inch by 4-inch strip sells for about $2.

To order craft hair, call (931) 243-6133, or visit the Web site at www.punisherlures.com.