Winter crappie fishing is overlooked by most anglers. Meanwhile, guide Eric Cagle tells us it’s one of the best seasons to catch fish. We join the former Crappie Masters National Champion to see how he catches them during the coldest time of year and invite you along on this episode of Pautzke Outdoors.
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Oh baby oh there we go come on in here of daddy there we go now he absolutely smoked it good little Fish all right guys welcome to poy out doors where it is winter time and we are crappie fishing a lot of you guys say what winter time crappie fishing not many people do that listen it’s not the most popular time of year we’re a couple months away from every Lake just getting
Absolutely infested with CPP angl but my good buddy here Eric Hegel is here to tell you that those of you in the know can still catch crappie during the colder months regardless of where you are now what happens during this time of year what do crappie do and what do you
Need to look for man I have I have people all the time ask me you know what’s the the best time to year to crappy fish and you know I say the same thing every time my favorite time of the year is in the winter uh we fish a lot
Of black crappy and uh you know these those fish when that water temperature gets in the 50s oh I missed him those fish cool up so you know they congregate and if you can if you can locate them then you can locate a lot of them and uh
So basically those fish are on brush they’ll stay on brush you know through the summer late summer and then you know in the fall they’ll they’ll remain on brush and and kind of load up pretty good on it when that water temperature gets in the 50s those fish will those
Shed kind of move out and those fish follow them and uh man when they scoot when when these black fish School up it’s not uncommon to to find SCS of 100 200 fish and now they don’t all bite but I mean with that many fish you’re going
To catch a few by accident I mean they’re uh they’re easier to catch when there’s that that many of them and that’s what we’re doing today we’re just out I I scanned and found a few scools of fish in in a little area uh-oh there’s one right there I found a few
Little schools of fish in area and we’re just throwing in there and floating a jig through them and seeing if one of them will come out and snap it but uh we just got started he just introducing it and I just found a little school and
There’s our first fish for the day not a bad one no I know a lot of you guys are going to ask one thing he keeps saying they’re going to school up the next question is where do you look I’m sure everybody’s asking that question right
Now you just said schooled up I’m on a big lake where do you look a lot of times man you know and and it’s different at different places but most lakes you can look in in Creek channels uh big Pockets off off the main river uh
If if you got pockets off the main river if it’s a a bigger pocket or slooh whatever you want to call it those places hold those fish because they act they kind of act like a creek those Bigger Pockets some of those Bigger Pockets kind of act as a creek channel
To those fish and they’ll they’ll get in there and just congregate but the other answer to that is wherever the the Shad concentration is if you can find the Shad in the winter you’ll find crappy because they’re in there feeding on those Shad but uh you know Creek
Channels main big uh-oh missed one big main Pockets off the main river and uh you know look for Shad yeah stroked on it not a bad one not a bad one make the grease putt nice fish and what of the things Eric will tell you is he does not use
Scent every day if the bite is epic you don’t need Scent you don’t need anything special today the bite is not epic we’re having to work hard and he’s making some changes immediately to be successful now I think he’s got pink pink we got a little pink Shad ball on there we’re
Going to try it out and I’ve said this aund times before but sometimes it’s not all about the scent I add color with those popsky balls too and uh you know they’ve got several different products but those balls kind of got it started that’s where it all started it started
Helping us catch some of those finicky fish so we still use them there we go finally thought oh a good one too finally caught one in the bike that’s a big come on in here baby God that’s a big that’s worth waiting on man look at that fish right
There there he is they starting to eat a little bit now I think we got a little something figured out that one had two balls on it little more scent oh yeah he’s a eater Bingo that’s a little bit better one he’s dancing for you Oho little chunky monkey oh yeah
On out of there yes sir what we came for hey guys we’re going to talk about our gear check this afternoon just what we used here this evening um first of all the rod uh I’m I’m going to talk a little bit about this Rod I’m proud of
It I designed it uh these things should be out in mid January this is a Dobbins EC special I got a six-footer and a 7-footer uh we we we worked a long time almost a year now developing these rods Gary doin and I and U I’m I’m proud of
Them I’ll go ahead and tell you I think I think it’s a great Rod balanced uh feels light as a feather in your hand I think you’ll like them and like I said they should be out sometime in January the uh the line that we use today is 6
Lb High vsk K9 that’s all I’ve used for a long time now the Reel is a any reel of work but this is a daa revos uh revos revos whatever you want to call it um any thousand series reel do the trick that’s about what we like to use a th
Series The Bait we use today is real simple um we’ve got a Grenade Lake Tacko company head 116 oce we’ve got a thermocline stinger Shad inch 175 and we’ve got it tipped with a uh Shad crappy Fireball from potsy Bay Company and uh that’s that’s basically
What we use today to catch these fish one we caught some pretty good fish today hooked up again baby another good one good fish yeah look at that really good fish oh yeah there look at there oh uh-oh uh-oh he hit he hit the old balls
Nobody can lie about that one he got that one pretty pretty fish that’s probably a 12 13 in fish that’s a very nice fish this may be a big one oh yeah it is that’s a crappie that’s a big one woo you said there was no big ones in this Lake very
Few oh come on in here baby Bobo got a little shower well that’s two Giants for this Lake that we’ caught on this little afternoon tripo if I can get him on coming off he ate it up look at that fish right there good Lord I me he is a dang look
How long he is as you guys know it’s it’s really not easy to catch him in the wind like this the wind kind of changes anything rain snow SLE hail it doesn’t matter it’s sunny days we can get them but when the wind is blowing like this boat position is challenging staying
There is challenging and you could hear the wind coming right behind me you could see it but we’re still able to be successful today here in the winter it just shows you hey mother nature might not be kind to you on that day but the fish can still bite oh baby to
Grandmother’s house we go I see him I I cast it three times with no scent I put a ball on he hit it uhoh look what’s gonna fall out of his mouth is he liked it the only time you’re allowed to burp on film well I mean like
I say you know and I’m I’m not we’re not throwing the sales pitch out I you know we try scent when the bik’s tough and the wind’s very bad today uh I mean as you can tell by looking out here it’s it’s gusting probably 20 uh every now
And then with a sustained 10 but when it’s tough we try scent and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t it seems to be working today though finally tossed another one into it that’s a good one too oh that’s a big one coming around town oh he’s fighting got the money jumbo oh
Jumbo on there baby man oh man hey guys we’re out here wintertime crappy fishing uh a lot of you are sitting on the couch this time of the year and let me tell you there’s one thing I do know you can’t catch these on the couch take them a look boys we have
Caught some absolute studs today it’s been it’s been a blast today’s episode of potsy Outdoors comes to you from the winter months we’re out here with fishing guide Eric Kagel doing a little crappie fishing in the dead of winter when most people keep their rods away now crappie fishing isn’t the best in
The winter fish are easier to catch other times a year however those in the know can still have a banner day catching plenty of crappie just like Eric Kagel showed us today listen to some of his tips go out there and enjoy it now what we did today is we used
Scent to our advantage we used mostly pink shrimp crappie Fireballs we had the chartreuse garlic in there but they were doing so well keying in on the Shad flavor that we didn’t hit over to garlic today now it just shows you sometimes you need sets sometimes you
Don’t today was one of those days you did now what we do is encourage you if you want to go out there in the winter months listen to some of Eric’s tips put them to use and you too can catch crappie in the dead of Winter Poky products are available at sporting good stores near you if you can’t find the specific color size that you want make sure to go to py. and as a thank you for watching Poky Outdoors we’re going to show you a coupon code to be used for 10% off your next order
