Lake Chicot is driving me nuts.....

[Big Muddy]

I can't get any field work done, so I sneaked (snucked, snacked, snocked?) off, or whatever, to Chicot after another deluge rain on Sunday....that lake is driving me crazy....the banks are lined with nothing but cypress trees, sitting in about 4-5 feet of water, and every one of them look identical.

The crappie spawn is on, and every time I've fished there, I try to fish a new area, and learn more about the lake....however, there are only 9 trees in over a mile stretch of bank that are holding crappie....all of those 9 trees are next to each other, within an area about the size of a football field endzone....for the past two days, I bet I've fished well over 200 cypress trees, without so much as touch.

Yet, everytime I return to those 9 trees, I catch crappie....and I'm talking big, fat, egg-laden, sow females....looking at those 9 trees, there is absolutely nothing different about them....neither, can I see or feel any structure or limbs underneath the water.

The only thing I can think of that might make that area different is, I've heard talk about some of the cabin owners, dumping pea gravel next to their lakeside property to make spawning areas for bream fishing....other than that, I haven't figured out why the area around those 9 trees is so productive.

I put nearly 2 gallons of crappie fillets in the freezer, last night, and all came from those 9 cypress trees....don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, just curious, bewildered, confused, and befuddled.

[BarryBobPosthole]

You'd have to ask a crappie, I guess!
BKB

[Bwana]

So what he is really looking for is a crappie (pronounced "crappy") answer? Should be easy to get one of those here as they are usually handed out at no cost whatsoever.

[Chicken Dinner]

Check the internet!

[Buckrub]

Same story for 50 years of chasing 'em for me.

There are days that a 'pattern' works just like bass fishing. If they are in 9 feet of water that's X temp, that's where they are all over the lake.

First, even if you find a pattern, they will NOT be in that pattern tomorrow. It'll be something else. Second, there are days that I can't find a pattern no matter what I do.

I know that most crappie fishermen do NOT fish like I do. I'm a single pole, bait fisherman. I might as well be black. I just try it my way, and if they don't hit it my way, I go home. Usually, I go home. Big time fishermen 'spider rig' (which just turns me off for some reason), and fish mostly open water. I fish blowdowns against the bank, even though I fish the deep sides of 'em.

Ed, this lake sounds just like every "non clear" lake that I know of. I don't know how it is where you usually fish..........heck, I don't even know where you usually fish..........but this is pretty much what I run into every time I go.

Now, if you want to sit in the back of a comfortable boat and stretch out and fish, holler.....I can be there in 3.24903 hours.

[Thumper]

Eddie, I went crappie fishing with a buddy (who's VERY good at it) a few years ago. I know you have tons of "sperience" and I don't know squat about it ... but he zeroed right in on crappie bearing cypress trees! We were in water he'd never fished before, but he had an uncanny ability to find those suckers. I remember at one point, he'd passed a zillion cypress trees, then all of a sudden zero'd in on one particular area and started filling the cooler! Of course I asked him what made THOSE particular trees better than the bazillion other trees in the area.

I may have forgotten some of what he said, but the two things I do remember are:

1) The area he fished was on the south (shaded) bank. He said, "Those girls like the cooler water provided by the shade."

2) His depth finder told him we'd just passed a deep area very close to the shallows of the cypress trees/roots. According to him, they like to have a "deep area" close by. I have to admit, I don't remember why ... an escape route maybe? I have no clue.

Anyway, those were the only two pointers he gave me that I remember. I'm sure there were more, but those are the only ones that stuck in my haid.