Shoot dock and spider-rig around brush piles for a cooler full of North Carolina crappie this fall.
When the dogwoods bloom in the spring, it’s traditional for fishermen to crank up their crappie-fishing efforts. How ‘bout when the leaves start to turn in the fall?
For veteran crappie pro Danny Sisson of Rural Hall, that’s an easy question. Get after ‘em.
Sisson, who grew up and cut his fishing teeth in Warner Robins, Ga., a city that has produced many of the Southeast’s top crappie anglers, said that September means fish beginning to leave the deep water where they spend the summer and starting back to the shallows, where they’re easier to catch.
“The first part of September, the fish will still be deep, and you’re fishing along the main river (of a reservoir), around docks and brush piles, for scattered fish,” he said. “The latter part of the month, they start to move up out of deep water, following shad, and you catch a lot of them around the mouth of creeks. Then, you’ll catch ‘em shallow after the lake turns over.”
Sisson, who has won two tournaments on national crappie tours and is headed to the Crappie Masters National Championship on Mississippi’s Lake Washington near the end of September, has two main strategies he employs once fish start to make their move: shooting docks — on lakes that have such structure — spider-rigging around brush piles or stumps.
“A lot of people still fish at night; you can catch ‘em at night in September, and if you’re on a lake that doesn’t have any docks, you can pitch to blowdowns or even cypress trees — if there are any around,” he said. “And a lot of people will fish bridge pilings, because you generally find deep water around bridges.
“There are so many blame ways to catch crappie.”
If docks are a reservoir’s primary form of cover, Sisson will search out docks and piers on the main lake or just back inside the mouth of tributary creeks as Labor Day arrives. He’s looking for docks that are close to deep water, 8 to 10 feet at least.
Some docks are definitely better than others for the technique he employs called “shooting.” Using a spinning outfit loaded with light line, Sisson will let out about four feet of line, pinch a mini-jig between his thumb and forefinger, pull the jig back — which causes the rod tip to bend like a bow-and-arrow — and releases the jig to flick it along the surface of the water back up under the dock where the crappie are hiding.
“I’d rather fish floating docks, because most of (their platforms) are closer to the water, and the sunlight doesn’t affect fish as much,” said Sisson, who moved to North Carolina nine years ago in a tobacco-company merger and has resumed tournament fishing since he’s retired. “There’s more shade under a dock like that, and I think the main thing is, it gives crappie ambush spots — and the water is a little cooler.”
Sisson will try to line up “lanes” where he can shoot his jigs well back under the dock. If it’s a floating dock, he’s looking for openings between the plastic floats through which he can shoot his jigs. If it’s a permanent dock, he looks for the longest lane where there are no crossbeams or supports under the dock to impede his cast. If a pontoon boat is tied up to the dock, he’ll shoot under the boat, between the pontoons, or between the pontoon and the side of the dock.
“If you any little opening at all, that’s all you need,” he said. “They’ll get under a pontoon boat, or they’ll get under the floats, and they’ll suspend under them and come out and hit a jig. You’ll get about two good casts up under there, and if you don’t get bit, he isn’t there. And usually, the first fish you catch under a dock is the best one you catch.”
Sisson will circle a dock or floating platform, shooting into every opening or lane he can find, because the direction of the cast and retrieve can play a big role in success.
“You’d be surprised how much difference it makes sometimes just moving from one side of a dock to the other,” he said.
Sisson shoots docks with a 1/32-ounce mini jig. He prefers a mini-jig tied with chenille or mylar over a soft-plastic jig because it will fall more slowly, giving fish that are tucked up under a pontoon or a float plenty of time to see and strike the bait before it falls too far below them.
“You’ll never feel him bite,” he said. “You just watch the line, and if it stops or jumps or anything changes, that will be him. If it’s a big fish, the line will really jump or just totally go slack.”
Sisson likes to spool his reels with 4- or 6-pound Stren blue monofilament because he can see it better.
Sometimes, it doesn’t take many productive docks to fill up a cooler with fat slabs or fill out a daily limit on those lakes with creel limits.
“As the fish move out of deep water later in the month, they will gang up more, following shad,” he said. “I’ve been fishing docks and caught more than a hundred crappie off a single dock — all keeper fish.
“One time when I was fishing with my dad, we were fishing (Georgia’s) Lake Jackson. The limit was 50 per person. We pulled up to the first dock, and we were back at the boat ramp in an hour with our two limits — all from that first dock.”
When shooting docks, jig color often matters a great deal — and sometimes not at all. Sisson has had days when a simple change in color has resulted in bites from under a dock when fish wouldn’t hit the first color he had tied on. And he can combine several colors by using different-colored jigheads, jig bodies and tails.
“Anything with chartreuse is hard to beat, but Chartreuse is always good, but I’ll change to chartreuse/chartreuse/white, or black/white/white or red/white/white, or red/pink/white,” he said. “I was fishing (Georgia’s) Lake Oconee one time and not catching any fish, and when I changed from chartreuse to red/white/white, for 20 minutes, I caught ‘em every cast.”
Sisson is rigging a bass boat he bought this past spring — partly with winnings from a Crappie Masters tournament on the Alabama River – for spider-rigging, a multiple-rod technique that works best when he’s searching for crappie around brush piles or other cover close to creek channels as they make the move out of deep water.
He fishes six rods from the bow of his boat – three in rod-holders on each side. He likes 12- to 14-foot Wally Marshall rods, but he said many crappie fishermen will fish B‘n’M poles; it’s a matter of personal preference. The rods are pointed out at angles from the bow, and by watching a depth finder he has mounted just in front of his seat, he can spot structure directly under him: stumps, brush piles, rock piles — anything that might hold a crappie or two or a dozen.
“Spider rigging is fishing straight down, looking for brush in 10 to 15 feet of water that might come up to 8 or 10 feet from the surface,” said Sisson, who uses his trolling motor to move his boat along creek-channel drops or main-river channel drops for brush or stumps holding crappie. “You’re just moving along until you find something, then you can fish all around it.”
Sisson said spider-rigging mostly involves fishing with live minnows. The most-popular rig consists of a 3-way swivel with a 3/8- to ½-ounce egg sinker and two hooks or one hook and one jighead spaced out along the line. Live minnows are threaded onto both hooks, or a soft-plastic bait can be threaded onto the jighead. Sisson likes to “push” his boat along at about .5 to .7 miles per hour with his electric motor, slowing down to completely cover any brush pile or stump field he comes across that might be holding crappie.
“Anytime you can find a brushpile along a river channel or creek channel, those are the best,” he said. “With these new sidefinders on your (depth finders), you can be trolling along and see brush piles or stumps an stop and fish them.”
Sisson can move his boat and his baits back and forth over stumps or brush piles, or he can slowly circle them until he’s able to better pinpoint where a concentration of fish might be holding. It’s a deadly way to catch crappie once they’re located, and a great way to cover plenty of water.
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