Stan Fagerstrom
06-09-2002, 06:15 AM
Part Three
Columbia River Crappie
By Stan Fagerstrom
While spinning gear is effective for most forms of lower Columbia River crappie fishing, there is one time when the fly rod provides even more fun. You can, of course, catch crappie on a fly rod using bait or light lures any time, but that's more pain than pleasure. When I say fly-fishing, that's exactly what I mean.
One of the highlights of spring in the Pacific Northwest is the annual Rose Festival in Portland. As you are likely aware, the event was held just last week. My experience is that this period right around the Rose Festival is the best time to fish a fly for crappie in the Columbia River sloughs. Evidently water temperature, intense feeding and spawning activity come together during this time frame. Whatever it is, the fish come up near the top and are suckers for the right flies fished in the proper fashion.
I tie my own streamers for this fishing. I favor a number six or eight hook. I use red and yellow hackle, white bucktail, and a yellow chenille body ribbed with tinsel and a red tail. The fly is a winner.
Keep the need to fish slowly in mind when you present this pattern. Make your cast and let the fly settle through the surface film. Once it's down a foot or so, begin a slow, steady retrieve. Forget about twitching or jerking the fly. Just keep it coming along slowly. Watch your line. If you think crappie take a jig easily, wait until you see how gently they latch onto a fly. I've been with fishermen who never did learn when to set the hook. They couldn’t tell when a fish was there. It's almost a sixth sense sort of thing, but you'll get the hang of it with practice.
http://www.ifish.net/sfcjg.jpg
Stan says these Columbia River crappie are great fun to catch and just as enjoyable in the frying pan.
Remember that Chinese gentleman I told about in Part One of this series on Columbia River crappie fishing? The one who called and asked me if I wanted to “takee picture of his beega croppie.” Well, I did take his picture that night. The crappie he had caught weighed 2-pounds, 8-ounces and that's a big one for this part of the country. Though the Washington state record for black crappie is 4-pounds, 8-ounces, I've never seen white crappies like those usually found in the Columbia anywhere near that size.
But the Columbia River does have crappie---lots of them. If you're visiting out this way, bring your panfish tackle along. Take a whack at our wonderful salmon and steelhead fishing, but save time for some crappie catchin'. It will keep you from getting homesick and chances are you'll wind up loving to fish lower Columbia River panfish as much as I do.
While crappie flesh bait is an effective bait in late winter or early spring, I rarely mess with it once the water warms and the fish become more active. Then it's time to start pitching small jigs. I've used them to take countless crappie out of the Columbia. My favorite jigs are 1/32nd or 1/16th of an ounce. They are tipped with miniature plastic worms or dressed with marabou feathers.
http://www.ifish.net/sfcjg1.jpg
These tiny jigs dressed with marabou feathers are deadly crappie lures.
There are two essentials to catching crappie once you've got them located. You've got to fish your lure slowly and you have to fish at exactly the right depth. What that means is using lures that will enable you to do that and an outfit light enough to let you cast them adequate distances. Most of my crappie fishing is done with an ultralight G. Loomis spinning rod, an open faced spinning reel loaded with 4-pound test line. I might vary this set up when fishing down through the thick cover of downed trees, but even then it lets me do what I need most of the time.
You'll recall I mentioned the need to fish at exactly the right depth. I wish I had a couple of bucks for every time I've had that proved to me. I recall the first. I had been fishing bass in one of the Columbia's sloughs all morning. The action had been slow so I decided to try for crappie. The problem was I had forgotten to bring my spinning outfit. I decided to give it a shot anyhow. I attached a quarter ounce bead chain swivel to the end of my casting line and hung a little spinner-fly behind it. I cut a strip of bass size pork rind down to a half inch and hung it on the hook of the fly.
I threw that lash-up around a huge downed tree for 20 minutes. I'd caught fish at the tree with jigs the last time out and I was certain some fish were still there. Finally, wanting to get closer to shore, I made a cast that resembled the Hungarian hammer throw and wound up with a pea dinger of a backlash. I sat there picking at the resulting tangle for five minutes while my little spinner-fly with its strip of pork rind sat on the bottom.
http://www.ifish.net/sfcjg2.jpg
Here's another of the best of all crappie lures. Fish a miniature jig like this slowly around good crappie cover and you're a cinch to get fish.
I finally got the mess of line untangled and started to reel in----bingo! A nice crappie had the lure before it moved three feet. I sat right there in the same spot and caught 25 dandy fish without moving the boat. The crappie had been there all the time. I hadn't been giving the lure time to get down to the 20-foot depth where they were holding.
I've had fishermen tell me color doesn't make a difference in the lures you present to crappie. I disagree. My best colors in the lower Columbia have always been combinations of yellow and white, mixed with a tinge of red. Remember, I said these were my best but not only choice. I've also caught plenty of fish on plain black, red and black, plain white or yellow and sometimes blue. But none of these shades have been as consistently effective as the yellow, white and red mixture.
That’s about the size of it. Crappies aren’t going to tear up your gear or wear out your wrist. Anyone who tries to tell you they fight like a bass or even bluegill has rocks in his head. But they are fun to catch and I love ‘em. And that applies just as much to the eating as the catching.
Columbia River Crappie
By Stan Fagerstrom
While spinning gear is effective for most forms of lower Columbia River crappie fishing, there is one time when the fly rod provides even more fun. You can, of course, catch crappie on a fly rod using bait or light lures any time, but that's more pain than pleasure. When I say fly-fishing, that's exactly what I mean.
One of the highlights of spring in the Pacific Northwest is the annual Rose Festival in Portland. As you are likely aware, the event was held just last week. My experience is that this period right around the Rose Festival is the best time to fish a fly for crappie in the Columbia River sloughs. Evidently water temperature, intense feeding and spawning activity come together during this time frame. Whatever it is, the fish come up near the top and are suckers for the right flies fished in the proper fashion.
I tie my own streamers for this fishing. I favor a number six or eight hook. I use red and yellow hackle, white bucktail, and a yellow chenille body ribbed with tinsel and a red tail. The fly is a winner.
Keep the need to fish slowly in mind when you present this pattern. Make your cast and let the fly settle through the surface film. Once it's down a foot or so, begin a slow, steady retrieve. Forget about twitching or jerking the fly. Just keep it coming along slowly. Watch your line. If you think crappie take a jig easily, wait until you see how gently they latch onto a fly. I've been with fishermen who never did learn when to set the hook. They couldn’t tell when a fish was there. It's almost a sixth sense sort of thing, but you'll get the hang of it with practice.
http://www.ifish.net/sfcjg.jpg
Stan says these Columbia River crappie are great fun to catch and just as enjoyable in the frying pan.
Remember that Chinese gentleman I told about in Part One of this series on Columbia River crappie fishing? The one who called and asked me if I wanted to “takee picture of his beega croppie.” Well, I did take his picture that night. The crappie he had caught weighed 2-pounds, 8-ounces and that's a big one for this part of the country. Though the Washington state record for black crappie is 4-pounds, 8-ounces, I've never seen white crappies like those usually found in the Columbia anywhere near that size.
But the Columbia River does have crappie---lots of them. If you're visiting out this way, bring your panfish tackle along. Take a whack at our wonderful salmon and steelhead fishing, but save time for some crappie catchin'. It will keep you from getting homesick and chances are you'll wind up loving to fish lower Columbia River panfish as much as I do.
While crappie flesh bait is an effective bait in late winter or early spring, I rarely mess with it once the water warms and the fish become more active. Then it's time to start pitching small jigs. I've used them to take countless crappie out of the Columbia. My favorite jigs are 1/32nd or 1/16th of an ounce. They are tipped with miniature plastic worms or dressed with marabou feathers.
http://www.ifish.net/sfcjg1.jpg
These tiny jigs dressed with marabou feathers are deadly crappie lures.
There are two essentials to catching crappie once you've got them located. You've got to fish your lure slowly and you have to fish at exactly the right depth. What that means is using lures that will enable you to do that and an outfit light enough to let you cast them adequate distances. Most of my crappie fishing is done with an ultralight G. Loomis spinning rod, an open faced spinning reel loaded with 4-pound test line. I might vary this set up when fishing down through the thick cover of downed trees, but even then it lets me do what I need most of the time.
You'll recall I mentioned the need to fish at exactly the right depth. I wish I had a couple of bucks for every time I've had that proved to me. I recall the first. I had been fishing bass in one of the Columbia's sloughs all morning. The action had been slow so I decided to try for crappie. The problem was I had forgotten to bring my spinning outfit. I decided to give it a shot anyhow. I attached a quarter ounce bead chain swivel to the end of my casting line and hung a little spinner-fly behind it. I cut a strip of bass size pork rind down to a half inch and hung it on the hook of the fly.
I threw that lash-up around a huge downed tree for 20 minutes. I'd caught fish at the tree with jigs the last time out and I was certain some fish were still there. Finally, wanting to get closer to shore, I made a cast that resembled the Hungarian hammer throw and wound up with a pea dinger of a backlash. I sat there picking at the resulting tangle for five minutes while my little spinner-fly with its strip of pork rind sat on the bottom.
http://www.ifish.net/sfcjg2.jpg
Here's another of the best of all crappie lures. Fish a miniature jig like this slowly around good crappie cover and you're a cinch to get fish.
I finally got the mess of line untangled and started to reel in----bingo! A nice crappie had the lure before it moved three feet. I sat right there in the same spot and caught 25 dandy fish without moving the boat. The crappie had been there all the time. I hadn't been giving the lure time to get down to the 20-foot depth where they were holding.
I've had fishermen tell me color doesn't make a difference in the lures you present to crappie. I disagree. My best colors in the lower Columbia have always been combinations of yellow and white, mixed with a tinge of red. Remember, I said these were my best but not only choice. I've also caught plenty of fish on plain black, red and black, plain white or yellow and sometimes blue. But none of these shades have been as consistently effective as the yellow, white and red mixture.
That’s about the size of it. Crappies aren’t going to tear up your gear or wear out your wrist. Anyone who tries to tell you they fight like a bass or even bluegill has rocks in his head. But they are fun to catch and I love ‘em. And that applies just as much to the eating as the catching.