I was re-watching a video my friend Russ Bailey had sent to me a couple of years ago. Russ hosts Midwest Crappie, and since I don’t get the show on any of my satellite stations, he mails me his shows on disk. On this episode Russ was shooting jigs under docked pontoon boats. After I saw this particular show, I decided to head over to one of my home lakes and give it a shot.Russ’s explanation on the video was that crappie are drawn to the pontoons during late summer because they offer cover at night when the water starts to cool and shade during the day when the water warms up again.
On this day I also wanted to try shooting 1/32-ounce jigs tipped with Berkley Gulp! Alive minnows. The folks at Berkley sent me some of these to try and the 2½-inch smelt looked like a dead-on imitation of the threadfin shad that were moving around the lake.
What a day! Just as Russ explained, the crappie were under the pontoons. We found them really stacked under a small private marina loaded with pontoons that were tarped and tied for the season. The Gulp! minnows caught fish 5-to-1 to what my buddy was using until he switched over. The water was about 10 feet deep so we’d shoot under the bow end, count to five and start a slow, steady retrieve. For some reason, the bite would come just as the bait was about to clear the pontoon, which was fine by me. Some of these fish were better than a pound and a half, and I doubt we could have boated as many if they’d bit the jigs farther back under the pontoon.
Phillip Gentry
pgentry6@bellsouth.net
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