If you struggle to catch deep winter crappie, this video on vertical jigging tubes and shad jigs will probably help. I crappie fished with Daniel Ellis out of Paris, Tenn. on Kentucky Lake in early January 2019 to catch deep winter crappie just before a snow storm hit the lake.
We catch a lot of crappie in this video and talk about Ellis’s vertical jigging approach that he’s perfected over a couple decades of winter crappie fishing on Kentucky Lake.
Ellis talks jigs, colors, how to work the jigs, what depth to target, getting out and finding deep cover, and several other nuances to help you be more successful vertical jigging crappie on Kentucky Lake. He uses 10-foot jigging rods, 8 to 10-pound line and 1/16-ounce jigheads with jig skirts or shad bodies on them and large split shot to keep the jigs fishing vertical at depth.
The split shot can also help you knock the jig loose by dropping them quickly past a jig that is hung on a branch. You can do that a bunch of times and work the jig back off the branch.
Spot Lock on the Minn Kota Ultrex has been probably his favorite technology advancement in the last decade for vertical fishing deep crappie. “There’s no telling how many crappie I would have taken had I had Spot Lock 10 years ago,” Ellis said. Now when I get on a good pile I just hit the button and I can swing fish and retie and just keep dropping on them until they are done firing. That’s another reason a 10-foot rod helps because I stay way out ahead of the trolling motor when it’s moving me around automatically holding me in the wind.”
DANIEL’S EQUIPMENT LIST:
- Lowrance HDS and Structure Scan
- Minn Kota Ultrex
- 10-foot jigging rod
- Berkley Trilene 100% fluoro 10-pound
- Teezur 1/16-ounce Jigs and assorted Jig Skirts
- Bobby Garland Baby Shad
