Winter winners: A Crappie University primer
Fishing is the best when you are "fishing into the fish" – and you can learn how
Best among the fishing skills I have acquired over many decades is one I’m sure I share with many.
Provide me with all the gear and lures, point to the fish, and tell me where and how to cast, the type of retrieve required, and most likely I’ll set a hook and put something in the boat—most likely.
Yes, I still have the angling acuity of a 6-year-old.
A rainy-then-perfect-then-windy crappie fishing outing with a couple of true Oklahoma experts, George Toalson and Gary Dollahon, put all those tools in my favor Wednesday and I caught more fish than a bum like me deserves.
If your skillset has elements like mine—and I’m sure it does—there is something to learn here. Dollahon offered up the day on the water as a taste of the rewards that can come from what Toalson and other expert anglers will be teaching at three 2023 Crappie University schools this winter, two in the Tulsa area and one in Overland Park, Kansas. Check the attached breakout for all the details.
Crappie University Dates
Crappie Advanced Livescoping
Jan. 28, 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Tulsa Tech Health Science Center, 3350 S. Memorial Drive, $69 per person: Focuses on the use of forward-facing sonar. Instructors Jim Neal and Dustin McDaniel will teach optimal sonar settings, understanding transducer “view” and perspectives, dialing in on seeing a jig, and how to position a lure to trigger strikes. They will also share lessons learned regarding the installation and use, as well as how to troubleshoot common issues.
Oklahoma Crappie Fishing Unplugged
Jan. 31, Feb. 2, and Feb. 7, 6:30-9 p.m. Tulsa Tech Owasso Campus, $90 for all three sessions (single-session registration available). Expert anglers walk you through all the crappie fishing basics and their best tips and tricks.
SESSION #1: Oklahoma Crappie Fast Track to Success: Instructor, Tommy Biffle
SESSION #2: “Seasonal Hot Spots: When and Where to Go, and How to Catch ’em” Instructor, Robert Ratliff
SESSION #3: “Understand What Your Sonar is Showing: Instructor, George Toalson.
Registration for either or both of the Tulsa Tech courses can be done online at TulsaTech.edu or by calling the school’s number 918-828-5000.
Crappie Fishing Today!
Feb. 4, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas, 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. ($99 per person) Instructors Gary Dollahon, Mike Taylor, and Kirby Ham will cover everything about crappie fishing – from gear selection to sonar setup and use–and talk about the hottest techniques and places to go.
Register for the Kansas class online at JCCU.edu
All Crappie University courses include a free tackle pack upon registration with Bobby Garland crappie baits and other crappie fishing lures and items. Also, all attendees are eligible for classroom door prize drawings. For more information about the classes, topics, and instructors, visit CrappieUniversity.com
The electronics advantage
Toalson’s use of electronics and his experience paid off big Wednesday, which was not the easiest of crappie fishing days. The weather felt like March, but the water was a typical mid-January 42 degrees, which can mean finicky fish and a soft bite.
We started out sitting in the truck at the boat ramp waiting for a toad-choker to pass, headed out in light rain and solid breeze, fished through the calm transition, and ended up hooking fish against a steady 15mph south wind and a bright sun pushing the mercury up over 60 degrees.
No matter the conditions, we consistently adjusted and caught fish.
Garmin GPSmap units on the bow of Toalson’s boat, tuned in for mapping, down scan, and live scope, made all the difference.
“The electronics we have nowadays, you know for sure if you’re fishing into fish or not. It makes you try a little harder,” Toalson said.
Remember this, boys and girls, it is an important rule: Always make sure you’re fishing into fish.
Even with electronics that obvious point might not be as easy as it seems.
“A lot of guys don’t always know what they’re looking for with their electronics,” Toalson said. “Last year I was on a spot along the rocks and watched boat after boat come through and not stop to fish. They were holding tight and it just looked like a little haze on the edge of the rocks.”
Toalson has found that crappies can sometimes disappear among the brush with side-scan sonar, but he can circle back with the boat over the top and the down scan shows what might have been missed.
“With down scan, you can just about count every fish in the brush pile,” he said.
The one-two punch at the front of Toalson’s boat is two Garmin units, one running standard sonar unit with side-scan and down-scan modes, and the other hooked to a live scope transducer. On top of the deadly duo, he has a trolling motor with automated GPS positioning to hold the boat in place and the has the live scope on a separate turret, complete with a handheld remote and a long plastic green arrow on top to show where the scope is pointed.
At times the screen on the down scope showed fish piled up below us like white leaves blowing on the wind. On the live scope, the brush and associated fish shimmered orange (big ones) and green on the chart which indicated both their distance and depth.
Toalson situated the front of the boat about 10 to 20 feet off the brush and the chart showed a shimmering tower of crappies from near the bottom at 13 feet all the way up to 5 to 6 feet deep, with most at 8 to 10 feet.
“I use the live scope to see where the main body of the school is so I can make every cast count,” he said.
Light, fast gear is key
We all know that fishing into the fish isn’t all that’s required. Any angler who has sight-fished, or watched fish on live scope, knows that hours can be wasted tossing baits at fish that don’t want to eat.
Toalson’s go-to of late has been the Bobby Garland Slab Hunt’R in blue ice color on a 1/16-ounce weedless jig head. He paints the paddle-like tail of the minnow imitation bait with a garlic “dip” chartreuse pen.
The key was a slow retrieve and presentation of the bait as a slow swimmer. He balanced the speed against the natural sinking rate on his 6-pound-test fluorocarbon line by reeling just fast enough to let it sink slowly, jig it up a little, and yet keep it up off the bottom.
For a time, while the water was calm, Dollahon and I rigged our lines with floats and set the jigs 5 to 6 feet deep. That made it easy to keep the jig in the strike zone with a controlled speed on the retrieve—and to see those gentle strikes with the slightest move of the float.
Fast-action, ultra-light 6-foot G. Loomis rods, 6-pound-test fluorocarbon, and small reels completed the picture. Toalson said those thin, super lightweight, $200 rods and invisible lines make a difference on the light, winter bite.
“I want the most sensitive rod I can get,” he said.
The bite was indeed soft Wednesday, and especially hard to detect when the wind kicked up enough to push that lightweight into a curve. I had a lot more misses in the high wind. I was just a little slow feeling the bite.
Toalson’s experience really showed in those conditions. He missed strikes too, but he picked up on a lot that, it was plain to see, could have easily been missed with a little heavier, softer rod, or heavier line.
“I’ve had guys sitting right next to me in the boat who are very good fishermen and they're not catching fish and I’m catching fish every other cast,” he said. “They just didn’t have the right equipment and just weren’t feeling the bites. At the end of the day, you catch a lot more fish when you can feel everything.”
That and, of course, you need to be fishing into fish.