OutdoorMissouri.com

i use them at Truman for the crappie spawn, but had good luck using it yesterday to jig around trees, had much better luck with the long pole 12', than the 5'6" ultralight.

Hi Dave-t

I use mine all summer long. Have one 11' and one 9'. I use them to tight line around trees at Mark Twain. I like them because they are so sensitive and you can pitch to your spots and don't have to wind in all the time.

Good Luck
N2

Dave...I have a 20 footer, but don't use it for jigging. Down south there is an old time bass fishing called "jigger poling"....you would have to see it done to believe it, but basically you attach a large topwater plug to the end of a long pole with a piece of heavy braided casting line and "whip" the end of the pole in the water, jerking the big lure along about a foot behind. When worked around heavy cover it makes a commotion like you would not believe. But bass think it is a small game fish chasing a minnow and come up to hit the bigger meal. On a limber long crappie pole (Black Widow 20 footer), a big bass is more than a handfull.....

CW - In the spring and early summer it's a blast to flyrod for bass. I've got an older rig set up for LM bass using a large hopper or other topwater. You hook a 2-3# LM on a flyrod and you've got yerself some fun!

I've actually seen that CW, the set up looks like somesort of joke, but you can place baits exactly where you want them.



Outdoors-Fly fishing ponds for bass/panfish and streams for smallmouth was a great pass time for me as a kid. But any more I just take the boat out and harrass the crappie. I still get out with the fly rod a few times a year, but nothing like when I was younger.

Dave...that's a fact. When I show my rig to guys and tell them how it's used, they laugh their butts off....until I pull out the half hour video cassette of a fishing show made down in south Alabama....this guy is knocking off 5, 6 7 lb bass one after the other fishing the edge of a hyacinth bed. Works great around blowdowns or any kind of dense cover where bass can hide and ambush bait that swims by. This is not to be confused with a fly rod....the pole is twenty feet long extended, and the butt of the rod is right at an inch in diameter. There's only the tiptop guide, and the line itself is only about a foot to 18" long between the tip of the rod and the big topwater plug.
I haven't tried it yet, but I suppose it would be an ideal way to fish around the weed line of the average pond that has a "ring" around the bank. This year I intend to try it on the Pomme de Terre river above the lake. Lots of logs and trees down on the banks from high winds and a couple of tornadoes that passed through. I'm not sure where you might find such a rod up here. It took me three months of looking around in sporting good stores in Louisiana before I found what I wanted. My rod is a 20 foot Black Widow made by B&M Rod Company, somewhere in Mississippi....the folks who make a lot of the crappie rods. It's wound fiberglass, not graphite, and cost less than twenty bucks as I recall.
I fish a local pond with a fly rod in the spring and early summer. There are some hawg bass in there, as well as monster bull bluegills. I go after the bass with big clipped deer hair mice that I tie, and the bluegills just love foam bugs and "sto bought" popping bugs. Just about anything that floats will draw a strike. My son in law had never fished with a fly rod before I took him over to the place, and we filled a large cooler with bull 'gills in less than an hour. The kids will be here in another two and a half weeks, so better get the fly rods out again.

CW-I use the big B&M pole for crappies, 13' but I have also seen the 16' at wallmart. They run about $13-15, but the one I have I would be worried about hanging into a 6+lb bass. They are wonderfull for slabs though. Truman, and even up here in KC, I get great presentation and sensitivity with the long pole and 10lb fireline (chartruse) then tie to a snap, and go with 4lb leader of about 2-3'. With the 13' that I modified set up this way I really think I can feel better than the average guy fishing with a long pole. The B&M has no cork or foam handle to dampen the feel, and I have the line running through the pole (inside the tube)so that wind doesn't effect me so bad.

Still I'd like to try a couple more sectional poles, and see if I could improve me set up.

From what I was able to find out about my 20 footer, they are intended to be used for catfish and buffalo (freshwater drum) in the deep south, i.e. Ark, La., Miss. & Alabama.

They are definitely not a little slender rod designed for slabs and smaller panfish. The butt end is probably an inch in diameter, and the tip end is still pretty stout. The average river cat or big buffalo will run 25 lbs or more, so they have to be tough to stand up to that kind of power. Anyway, with this warm weather and getting the boat running again, it is almost time to hit the river and work some jigger poling topwater plugs around the blow downs.

Yeeeeee-ha.

BTW, have you tried the B&M all graphite crappie pole? I took one of my dad's when he passed away and haven't used it yet, but it has a great feel. I would think that taping a small Uncle Buck's reel to the handle would make a fine crappie rig.

No I haven't used their other equopment, but B&M is making a name for themselves with their products lately. I do need to pick up another long pole before the spawn gets here. I'd like it to be a 12-14', or even longer.

I haven't tried those uncle Buck's reels, but I have seen them, and came this close > < to getting one. Maybe on the new set up....

Looks like walleye chasing on Stockton is out this Friday, so I will probably end up on the river above Pomme de Terre. That's a perfect place to give the jigger pole a workout.....probably scare the crap out of my fishing partner, but what the heck....it should be warmed up enough by mid morning to bring it out and put a big topwater on the swivel snap and foam up the water around some blowdowns.
If I end up using it, will put a report here.

I have a long pole and I do use it often...

Let us know if the bass are up and active CW.



I have been chasing crappies, but with the electronics on the fritz, its been more like joy riding, without all of the joy. We've caught a few, but they've yet to move up into the shallower water, and are out in the main lake still.



We have a few good spots in 10ft up to 4' of water that they stage in pre and post spawn, but its still too soon. We did better catching them on the staging spots, than off the beds last season by a long shot.



What surface temps should I be looking for to start the crappie spawn? I know I'm 6weeks early, but want to be catching those staging fish as soon as they get there.

Anybody use a FlyRod for crappie?

Plannin' on using a 8-10 footer with either a jig or fly and see what happens. The ideas is sound and should work fine w/o spooking the fish once the water clears up.

Anyone else use this method?

You can get a real slow fall with the flies on a fish bed (bluegill or crappie). I haven't targeted crappie with the flyrod often, but I have made do with what I had at the time, and it can work.

dave-t, do you use a reel? or tie off at the tip?