Crappie Fishing Trip Lake LBJ

On August 18, of this year – 2016:

I arrived at Lake LBJ at 6 am to get the boat ready and to catch some live bait with my cast net.  I caught some spot tail minnows which we refer to as “special spot bait” with ease and got everything ready for the day’s Crappie fishing trip.  At 7:30 am I met Tyler and his three kids Colton, Landyn and Case on Lake LBJ at Blue Briar Park in Granite Shoals, TX.  The weather that morning was overcast with possible thunderstorms in the afternoon.  The water temperature was 83 degrees and the air temperature was 72 degrees with light winds.  These conditioned boded well for a perfect day of Crappie fishing – especially with young kids on the boat.

After the kids put on their life jackets, we headed out on Lake LBJ to do some Crappie fishing.  I scanned the first brush pile which was located in 18 feet of water in Lake LBJ that I wanted to fish, but it wasn’t looking to good so we moved on.  The next brush pile I scanned was completely loaded with fish in 20 feet of water.  I set the GPS anchor on the Motor Guide Trolling motor and we were locked in and ready to fish.

I then proceeded to get the Crappie rods and their jigs tipped with “Crappie nibbles” out for Tyler and his kids.   The first rod went to Colton, Tyler’s oldest son.  After a quick explanation on what to do he dropped it down into the water.  I then rigged another rod for Landyn and started to show him what to do – and then I hear the sweet sweet sound of a drag pulling out from the front of the boat: Colton already had one on!  First Keeper in the boat!  I finally set up Landyn’s pole and now he was ready to start catching some Crappie also.  Tyler in the meantime was helping Case (Tyler’s youngest boy at age 4) get his pole set up.  Whew, now all the kids were finally setup.  Time for a drink of coffee. (or so I thought!) Nope,  all three rods went down at the same time!  All the fish were landed with ease.  This was exactly what I wanted to happen: every kid on the boat had a keeper already. We stayed fishing on this brush pile for about 20 minutes and boated 8 keepers and 10 undersized Crappie.  We ended up leaving after that because the kids needed to go to the bathroom.  So we headed into the park for a restroom break.

After the break we headed to another brush pile located in 24 feet of water.  This is usually one of my favorite fish producing spots – but it just wasn’t happening today.  I could see the kids needed to get some more fish-catching action to keep their interest up and less stagnant pole action.  I scanned another brush pile just off a steep drop-off in 22 feet of water.  Yes! It was loaded with fish.   It was now around 9am.  Everybody but myself was fishing and they were pulling in Crappie right and left.  This is where we had a double hookup by Landyn and Colton. Tyler and all his boys ended up with 12 more keeper Crappie from this brush pile.  We left this pile around 0930 due to the smaller Crappie we started catching.

I have a spot that I have been regularly catching several large Crappie on along with some big blue catfish using the spot tail minnow AKA “special spot bait”.  I asked the kids if they wanted to use the special bait now and they all got excited.  We pulled up to the spot and the graph was lit up like a Christmas tree with fish. Colton got his rod out first.  It didn’t take him long and he caught his personal best Crappie – 13 inches. Case, Landon and Tyler all were catching very nice Crappie 12 inches and above pretty quickly also.  After about 30 minutes Tyler hooked into what I believe was a big blue catfish.  The pole was bending hard and the drag was screaming.  Line was peeling off his reel like he had Moby Dick on the other end. The big blue catfish started to roll and by doing that it eventually broke the hook off.  The special spot bait had worked again today.  The fishing finally died down on this spot after boating 10 very nice Crappie.  The action wasn’t as fast as it could have been, but the fish they caught were very nice.

By this time the two youngest boys were getting ready to go.  I asked Tyler what he wanted to do and he said lets go to one more spot.  I drove the boat towards the upper end of the lake to a honey hole I knew of that was in 16 feet of water.  I didn’t even scan this pile as I knew the fish would be there.  Now it was Colten and Tyler fishing while the other two boys were playing on the boat.  They fished about 25 minutes and caught 10 keepers and 15 undersized Crappie.  This brought our total catch to 40 keeper Crappie on Lake LBJ.  Tyler said it was time to go so we headed back to the boat ramp.

I loaded up the boat and pulled the fish out of the cooler for some kid photo ops.  The kids played in the playground while Tyler and I cleaned and bagged the fish.  This was a great day on the water with Tyler and his boys.  These boys will have some good memories of this trip.

I specialize in being a “kid-friendly” Crappie fishing guide on Lake LBJ or Lake Buchanan. I love to teach them how to catch fish and to watch their faces light up when they do.

If you have kids you would like to take fishing or just yourself and/or some friends, give me a call today. I would love to show you how a professional Crappie fishing Guide on Lake LBJ operates and show you have to have a great time catching some really good eating fish!