Trying to target larger crappies

[Thumbs]

Not meaning to sound harsh here, but if your after big crappie, the important thing is to fish the big crappie lakes, not just the regular ole hohum lakes. Also your idea of a big crappie may be different from someone else's big crappie.
What I would call a big crappie is a 3 pound crappie, but I'm lucky to fish Grenada Lake, Ms. The crappie have to be 12 inches to keep em here. I've guided folks that mount 2 pound crappie, but that's a big crappie on there home lake, and that's all well and good.

 

[Shoemoo]

Dude, I live in Idaho. My choices on where to fish for crappie nearby are very limited. I'm sure it's different down there, but this is desert sagebrush country and there there are only three crappie lakes within 100 miles. One of them is contaminated with heavy metals and agricultural runoff. One of them is managed for flood control and has severe water fluctuations that can wipe out the entire reproduction for the year. Only one of them has steady water levels with safe water and is known to contain big crappie, the one that just went through a boom/bust cycle. So my question pertains specifically to targeting larger crappie on this lake. Furthermore, I don't care what people somewhere else consider a big crappie. For where I live, 2 pounds 11 ounces is a huge crappie. The biggest one I've ever caught. I was fishing with a buddy and he said if he had caught it he would have it mounted.

Not everyone has the pick of choices on where they get to fish for crappie.

 

[Ron Don]

The tactics for targeting the largest crappie in the lake are pretty much the same all across the country. This is why a pro can come to a lake and win a tournament fishing it for the first time. Very few locals win major tourneys. Obviously the best is large live bait where legal. (I don't really understand why live bait is illegal in some lakes as long as limits on size and quantity are in place. I know some places do it so no new species are introduced)

 

[Shoemoo]

I know there are tactics for targeting large crappie that work wherever they are, which is why I asked. I appreciate all the helpful advice people have given in this thread. What I don't appreciate is someone pissing all over what I consider a big crappie and choice of lakes. For my area, this is the "big crappie lake" and there aren't any others close by. Unless I want to move, it's the only choice.

Live bait minnows are illegal in all the Pacific Northwest states, and the vast majority of California because the biologists don't want people introducing potentially invasive species and spreading foreign diseases and parasites to native fish. With all the threatened and endangered runs of wild salmon and trout, the rules are probably never going to change. So it is what it is and we just have to deal with it.

 

[Thumbs]

Dude, I live in Idaho. My choices on where to fish for crappie nearby are very limited. I'm sure it's different down there, but this is desert sagebrush country and there there are only three crappie lakes within 100 miles. One of them is contaminated with heavy metals and agricultural runoff. One of them is managed for flood control and has severe water fluctuations that can wipe out the entire reproduction for the year. Only one of them has steady water levels with safe water and is known to contain big crappie, the one that just went through a boom/bust cycle. So my question pertains specifically to targeting larger crappie on this lake. Furthermore, I don't care what people somewhere else consider a big crappie. For where I live, 2 pounds 11 ounces is a huge crappie. The biggest one I've ever caught. I was fishing with a buddy and he said if he had caught it he would have it mounted.

Not everyone has the pick of choices on where they get to fish for crappie.

Shoot dude come and visit me in Ms. and we catch some big crappie, you can put on your wall...BTW I wasn't pissing on you at all, your lines are tangled...Good Fishing

 

[Jig Man]

Hey shoe, just try to match their everyday diet. Haven't seen ya post what that is. And don't be afraid to make it 3 or 4 inches long. A big crappie can eat that no problem and you wont catch many little ones. I would also look at my line, the older fish could be seeing it and not bite. I would bet your fishing gin clear water, so I would go light with fluorocarbon...