Page 13 - Crappie NOW - December 2018

CHRISTMAS TREE CRAPPIE

That’s why some fishermen use stealth my friends have sunk Christmas trees
when dropping brush. Once they have in seemingly ideal spots – the edge of a
placed the cover in a likely looking spot, drop-off, the mouth of a cove where we’ve
They punch in coordinates in their GPS caught fish before, the deep water off a
units to plot a course back. point –yet seldom have caught crappies.
What if a fisherman does not have all The point? Not all brush piles are
of those modern devices? He or she can created equal. You have to experiment
still sink brush and find it on return trips. with locations and hope you get it right.
The first tip is to avoid obvious landmarks, But when you do, it can result in a full live
such as a laydown, the tallest tree on the well or stringer.
bank or an odd-colored boulder on shore.
Those are dead giveaways to others that - Brent Frazee
there is brush in the area.
Instead, use obscure landmarks and
tri-angulate them to find your way back to
brush. One friend of mine uses a clothesline
in back of a lakeside cabin, the end of a
dock and a point as indications that he is
in the right spot. No sonar needed. He can
go right to his “honey hole” and catch fish
in a place that many wouldn’t think twice
of fishing.
Fishermen also can use Christmas
trees to provide valuable cover in farm
ponds. They often slide tree bundles and
concrete blocks onto the ice, and wait for
the spring thaw to sink them.

Christmas Tree Fishing
Even in spots where you have sunken
multiple Christmas trees, there are “hot
spots.” I follow my electronics to find
places where the crappies are suspended
in or above the brush, then fish according
to the season. In the spring, I like to cast
and slowly retrieve a twister-tail jig over the
top of the shallow brush. In the summer, I
often tight-line with a minnow on a light jig
head (often as small as 1/32nd ounce).
I try to pick off the crappies on the edge
of the brush first so I don’t disturb the fish
in the heart of the cover. Then I move in
to try to catch the crappies buried in the
cover.
If this sounds easy, it isn’t. Sometimes
I will mark fish and they refuse to hit. I
generally give that brush pile about 15
minutes, then move onto another one.
And then there are the brush piles that
seldom produce for some reason. I and

13 Crappie NOW December 2018