 Camer's in here, baby, yeah! Fish and Freaks, hello, great to see you. Well, I can't really see you, but you know what I'm talking about. We're still in quarantine mode, isn't it crazy? Isn't it wild? This is a strange time. This is the oddest time I've ever lived through. I am by myself today. I've been doing a lot of building back home at the treehouse, working on getting the hens and the duck and everybody safe and comfortable and everything. And yes, I am wearing a shirt that is just Flair's face right now. I've been thinking about setting up just a cardboard cutout of Flair, like holding an animal up, like holding a bobcat or a fox or something. So that way, it's like the ultimate scarecrow. All the animals will stay away from my chickens and my duck. But if you also want to get your hands on Flair's face and some of our awesome new merch right now at Guggen Squad, we've got a lot of new things, including this hat too. It just busted this one out. This looks like it's going to be the perfect summer hat. And also get yourself a face mask, you know? But the reason I'm standing here right now at one of the legs here at the Battlesprings Ranch, the owner was letting me know the other day that there was some crappie that they had visual on up shallow. So that means to me that they were spawning. They had some flooding and they had some washouts and like they could see crappie swimming around. And it is that timing here that the crappie should be spawning, bass are spawning as well. And I planted brush piles out here. If you all remember, if you watched some of the last videos that I did out here, there's about six or seven brush piles. But right now the fish should be around the reeds and they should be spawning. Using some of our jinging poles and using some casting techniques to see if we can catch a slab. My goal in the crappie scene is to catch a three-pound crappie. I can see them all in the electronics. So I'm looking for like potholes and things like that. Looks like there's some structure out there to my left. But oh, and we're marking fish. Goodness me. I don't really know. This lake is kind of a mystery to me. I caught crappie out here one time and planted brush piles when it was colder. And now the fish should be really biting. I've never devoted much time to figuring them out. But I am today. I'm going to figure these crappie out today and I know some of them are big. But just hold the phone. Just take your gander right there. Look at that. What on earth? That's a school of something. Fish on. First fish, first little stop and cast. What is this? Oh, it's a crappie and he has got it deep. Oh my. We found the schools, y'all. We found the schools. That's actually on a mini recon. Okay, so maybe they're not in the reeds. There is a nice keeper crappie. That's a white crappie. Okay, we're going to keep this guy. I'm not going to keep very many out of here. This isn't a big lake, but we're just going to manage a few. I'm kind of close to where I planted one of the deep brush piles. It's got a ditch around it, but that's a pretty aggressive crappie hitting a crankbait like that. Okay, I'm going to switch my rigs up since this is my 8 foot jigging pole and it's got braid and it's already rigged up with a fluorocarbon leader. I'm going to take this crankbait off. I was using this to long cast for white bass the other day. This is kind of an essential bait for me. My Guggen Squad essential baits box and because I just, I don't know, I catch fish on that just about everywhere I go. It's a good like go-to if you're not sure what's going on. What I think what I'm going to do here is I'm going to take one of these little bobbers that I can just attach to my line and then I'm going to put a jig head on there. Basically something like this. This is just your standard little crappie jig. I think that's maybe a 130 second and then I'm going to take another rod and I'm going to rig up something like this. But what I'm hoping for is that these waves are going to act as natural action for me. They're going to keep the jig head moving. So I'm just going to like fan cast it out and watch it. There's the brush pile that I planted and there is the fish just in front of it. Let's try the old crappie jig on a cork here. Oh, got him, got him. Took it, took it under. Woo-hoo-hoo. Oh, that was sweet. Thumped it good. Oh yeah baby. Look at that baby. Yeah. Nice crappie. There we go. Fish and Freaks, crappie number two on a different method. That's a nice one. He just slapped it under. That was so cool to be able to see on the mega imaging the crappie off from that brush pile and then I got bit on the jerk bait and then that one just sucked it under. Just for curiosity, let's just check it out. This is probably going to be an 11 incher. That is a 12 inch crappie. Really nice. They have to be 10 inches to keep. So far, y'all, my fish have come from seeing them on the electronics. So I thought I was going to, I had two more bites right there on that brush pile. I thought it was going to be lights out. There was like a dozen fish on it at least. But I'm going to idle around because I really didn't get to look very much and just see what the deal is. Are the fish going to be in the more shallow areas? I can actually see beds on the graph. So that's a good thing. Or are they going to be in these like random weird ditches that are kind of out in the middle? That was very strange. And the biggest obvious piece of cover is the reeds that surround the lake. So I also need to look at that. I am interested in all the divots, all the beds that I'm seeing off the banks. It's very, I don't know, this seems strange. So if I could find like an offshore spot that has a harder bottom, that could be the key of what is holding these fish away from the reeds. You can see them that well, but these are all beds. They look like old beds and there's little groups of fish. You can see, most don't look as big as the marks I was seeing, but like there's a rock, there's more rock, there's some big pieces of structure in here. It might hold these fish, but mainly what I'm looking at is the abundance of these holes. Okay, folks. I see a bass that is guarding fry. There's not many bass in here, but I see one. So if we have a bass that's guarding fry, that means the crappie may have spawned quite a long time ago. Now, this is a small lake so it can heat up and cool down really quick. They shouldn't all be spawned, but it's definitely a sign that we're farther along. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna throw into this little pot of fry. And if you don't know what fry look like, they look like, like if you sprinkled cinnamon on top of the water, there'll be thousands of them. There'll be about, in a group about the size of a softball to a basketball. And you can throw like a weightless bait or topwater in there and you just let it sink through them and you get them. Now, this is a male bass right here that has already spawned and has just guarding those fry. This is what I love about this time of year is you can really get both species or many species in there together. And I'm gonna return this bass that's gonna guard those fry and prevent the crappie from eating it. That's what happens is the crappie spawn first and then the bass spawn later and what a lot of times ends up happening is the crappie eat the bass fry. And that's why this lake right here has kind of been taken over by the crappie. So if you're gonna try to manage a big bass pond, there's another one out here you guys have seen a lot of videos from. A lot of great bass, but there's no crappie in there. So you usually end up with small bass in a lake that's got a lot of crappie in it. So let's let this fish go. Whoo! I don't want to speak too soon, but I think I might have just found the crappie. Here we go. Here we go. Found a bedding area. I just hope it's a crappie. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Again, baby. Oh yeah. Man, I just threw out there with a minnow and didn't get anything. I threw a little rooster tail out there and got him. So that's three crappie, three different lures. So there is a bedding area identified on my electronics. It looks like a hard bottom. Like everywhere in here is sand. And then you hit this hard bottom right here. It's three foot, it's off the bank. And it just looked like craters all over it. And I could see some fish in there. And I was wondering if their bass or not, but it appears that at least some of them are crappie. So some of them could still be on beds. Oh, she's got another bite right there. Oh, gosh, I had him on. He's swimming towards the boat. God, a crappie is so tricky with their bites. Very soft. Oh, there's another bite. Oh, got him, got him that time. Okay. Felt like a couple of bites. Oh, yeah. Good crappie, baby. Oh, that's a giant. That's a giant. Oh, it's so big. It looks like a bass. Oh, baby. That's what I'm talking about. Inhaled it too. Ah, you're so big. Got a lippie. Yeah, baby. Oh, he's not that big. I got pretty excited. That thing is inhaled. Okay, so this is definitely a bedding area here that we have found. That dude on hook, so that is four fish. I think I'm only going to keep five out of here. So I need one more, but that is a solid fish right there. Okay, I'm going to stay with the rooster. See if they... Oh, no. Oh, my gosh. I just threw my rooster tail like a hundred yards. The line broke. Oh, dad, got it. That sucks. I don't know if I've got another one in the boat. The rest might be in my truck. I wonder if my line just got super twisted. I don't know what happened there, but I'm going to cut a big chunk off. That's a six-pound line. I'm going to go with a little road runner and a little sickle tail swimbait. This little LFT baby shad. It's like a micro grub style tail. Okay, I'll see if we can get that on this little road runner swimmer. Oh, here's a bite. Got him. Got him on the road runner. There we go. They like it just moving. Another solid crappie, man. Just hammers. Hammer's in here, baby. Yeah! Whoo-hoo! Absolutely gulp, too. I had some crappie goodness right there. I got my five crappie in the box. So that is all I'm going to take out of this lake. I'm going to fish a little bit more, though, and see if I can get that big one, that big one I'm going for, three-pounder. We're getting fired up. Phew! No corona here. No, no. Yeah, some of that oak pollen. Man, that wind is blowing. Important thing to note is that they're not always spawning on the bank. I thought they totally would have, but I just paid attention to my electronics and I was able to find them away from the bank. And what I love about crappie fishing versus bass fishing is when you find one, you're normally going to find a mess. There's a good fish right there. Whoo! Son! Son! That's an even bigger one than the last one. Oh, my gosh. These slab units right here, just beautiful fish. That's awesome. That's Instagram worthy. That's fish brain pick worthy. Get a pick, get a sniff, and get back out there. I just hammered. Oh, that might be the one. Oh, just bing-bonged it. Oh, my goodness. That big thump I felt was it just smacking the back of its throat, y'all. Look down there. Look out there, look out down there. It's deep. It's not even a big one, but look. Look at this. Sorry, the sun is terrible, y'all. That tail is bloody. There's a bloody tail right there. So just like a bass, when crappie spawn, they're going to get those bloody tails. So another thing to pay attention to, I already knew what they were doing just from seeing those, they look like craters. It's also interesting to me that I'm essentially bed fishing, but they like this moving bait. Whereas a bass would not really hit that. They would just see that. They wouldn't feel the need to defend their nest. It's moving so quick. These are very aggressive. There's another bite. He floated me. Came in. Came in hot. Oh yeah, sucker. Oh yeah, sucker. You were good. Y'all, crappie are fun. Any of you bass guys that are just looking for a new challenge. Crappie fishing is it. I'm telling you, they're tricky. I've fished around these things my whole bass fishing life. And it's just in the last few years I've discovered how they're in the same areas but they're hidden. They're like little hidden gems of awesomeness and they're so tasty. Very awesome. Very awesome. It's really good to see this lake healthy with crappie. All these are good keeper crappie and we planted structure in here in the winter. And I think post spawn when these fish are done they'll move all to these brush piles that we've planted out here because the reeds just don't seem to hold them like I thought they would. Can we get just one more nice slabola and then we'll call it a day? Man. Oh gosh, there's a spot right there. They just hammer down on it. Don't feel very big. You're just coming right at me. You're a keeper but you're not huge. Alright y'all, another nice fish. That is awesome right there. I am going to take it in. I don't think today is the day I'm going to catch my three pound crappie but I am ecstatic that I've figured out where a lot of these fish are setting up out here and can come back and be able to get on them again and I'm excited to go fish some other crappie places. This is a telltale sign right here of what's going on everywhere else. Finished product of the day. There's a good string of crappie right there y'all. Flair, what do you think? Catch and cook brother? I think so man. Flair does not talk like that but I can almost guarantee you he would be saying you better get those in some grease. Oh yeah y'all. The smell of success. And you better believe we're going to take them home and cook them. That is Steph's favorite fish. Well it's everybody's favorite fresh water except for the wall islands. The most golden, crispy king of all. Well I do gotta say it does feel good to get on some crappie y'all. I really enjoy catching them. I hope you guys enjoy watching the crappie videos. Let me know in the comments. I know some people I met at the Bassmaster Classic were like crappie fanatics. They were like you gotta do more crappie videos. I'm not going to do a personal quest. I just want to learn more about them and learn how to catch them more. You know right now is the spring. It's like the most obvious easy time to catch them. So if you want to get into it. Right. Fish just jumped right there. Go ahead and just catch one real quick. Hang on. Okay dad got it. That was the fishing freak and me kicking in y'all understand. Six pound test. This is a six pound test. And I'm using a I think this is a six foot. It is no. It's a five eight. I'm sorry. But a six foot medium light is really good for this type fishing. Throwing small rooster tails. Little crankbaits. Like this little road runner that I'm using here. And I believe this is an eighth ounce. It's an eighth ounce road runner. And that's just a LFT sickle tail baby shad on there. You know googen baits we don't make say that like for trophy lures. I make some really, really good croppy fishing baits. And the easy thing to do y'all is just get you a buck and a minnows and toss them out there. And I could probably catch a lot more in various areas out here doing that. But I really enjoy the challenge of trying to catch them on artificial. And it's really cool when you get some crossover like fishing jerkbaits and crankbaits. You just don't catch near as many. Most of the time they're feeding on small minnows very small shad top minnows that you see swimming around. Key thing to take away from the day. Hard bottoms y'all. I don't care if you're bank fishing or you've got a boat. If you don't have a depth finder stick a rod down in the water in the ground and try to feel a difference in the bottom. If you can find that little gravel feeling or just a harder bottom that was the key out here. And I'm telling you that's the key all over the place during the spawn for bass, croppy and a bunch of other species. Easier for them to lay their eggs. They don't have a bunch of silt and sand getting all in their eggs that they like that hard bottom. Y'all better hit the thumbs up for tasty big slabs y'all. Subscribe so you don't miss a single video more fishing coming at you soon. I'll see y'all on the next one. Y'all bless.