Keith Lusher 02.15.24
It’s not usually that crappie anglers begin utilizing corks this early within the yr. For many anglers, the corks come out when the climate warms up and the crappie are heading into the shallows to spawn. Forrest Inexperienced of Lacombe, LA is an admitted cork fishing idiot and mentioned he’s been utilizing corks to focus on his crappie though the fish are nonetheless in deep water.
“Don’t get me fallacious, I take pleasure in tight-lining a jig straight down in 15 ft of water however generally these fish hunker down into some severe construction,” he mentioned. “A cork permits me to hover that jig proper over the construction and never get snagged a lot.”
Inexperienced has been fishing Bayou Lacombe in Southeast Louisiana. The Bayou is teaming with crappie. Sadly, it’s additionally plagued with loads of fallen cypress and picket trash piles. And whereas these are immediate sac-a-lait attractants, the comb piles can result in many misplaced jigs. Throughout February, crappie are sometimes grouped tightly within the construction, and getting snagged can spook the varsity of fish, which in flip, trigger the crappie to vacate the construction. When dealing with this example, Inexperienced errs on the facet of warning. “If these branches on the underside are simply too thick for me to bounce my jig via, I’ll put a cork on my line and rig it so it hovers proper over the construction,” says Inexperienced. “That enables the tube jig to be within the strike zone of the crappie whereas staying simply above the branches.”
When fishing with a cork Inexperienced adjusts the depth and says he’s been recognized to make use of a cork in water as deep as 12 ft. Like most fishermen, Inexperienced may be choosy in terms of how his fishing tools performs. When utilizing a cork for crappie fishing, he makes a small modification that permits the float to develop into extra buoyant. He buys two weighted corks. Certainly one of them being a 2-inch cork and the opposite, 1.5 inches. “I take away that lead weight that’s wrapped across the backside part of the 1.5-inch cork and put the lighter lead on the bigger cork,” he says. This prevents the cork from being weighed down an excessive amount of once I add the 1/16 oz. jig head to the tip of the road.”
In February, Inexperienced fishes the primary bayou and mentioned he’s catching anyplace between 20-30 sac-a-lait per journey by staying in the primary bayou and finding big brush piles in 10-15 ft of water. Whereas the fish are in deep water now, Inexperienced mentioned it gained’t be lengthy earlier than they head for the shallows for the spawn.
