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How to Catch Sand Bass and Crappie from the Creek Shore
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May 22, 2024
Ever wonder how to catch crappie and sand bass during the spring spawn? It’s absolutely the most fun you can have shore fishing, and it only lasts a few weeks each spring season. This video covers when, where and how to fish the creek spawn, including what gear and lures to use. Essential creek fishing gear... Red 1/8 oz Roadrunner Jig Heads (8 Pack): https://amzn.to/3tjlDhN Wiggle Shad White Swimbait Lures (6 Pack): https://amzn.to/3cvgMUx Daiwa 6' Spinning Reel and Medium/Light Rod Combo: https://amzn.to/2MpgWCj Fish Stringer Set (3 Pack): https://amzn.to/3rcZBv7
View Video Transcript
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Hey everybody, Simon from LakeHub
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We're sharing the joy of lake life and today we're going to be talking about how to catch fish from the shore in the springtime in Texas
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So today we're going to be covering when, where, and how to catch fish from the shore
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So when do you go creek fishing? Every spring when the lake temps get between 55 and 60 degrees, it starts to warm up a
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little bit and you have a few rains to start the creeks really flowing into the lake, that's
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when the spawn happens. So in Texas the rule of thumb is when the redbud trees are in bloom, that's when the
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spawn is starting to happen. So the redbud trees are ornamental trees, they're little trees, they're the first ones
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to bloom and they bloom like flowers first, they're really hard to miss
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So when you see flowering trees, then you know it's on, it's time
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That should be your trigger and your indication to go hit the creeks. So where do you go
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Every single creek that feeds into every single lake that has crappie and has sandbass is
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going to be fishable during this time of year. What you need to look for, the hardest part, especially for shore fishing, is access
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So what I tend to look for is I'll get on Google Maps, I'll drive around the lake and
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look for bridges, those are usually going to be your best access point, bridges, parks
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things like that. If there's a trail that goes along a creek, then that's perfect
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If you can just get to an access point and then expect to hike a mile or two, or sometimes
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more, you can get to some really good fishing holes if you're willing to put in the miles
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Sometimes you'll be fishing a creek that's 30 feet wide and you can drive a boat up
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Sometimes you can cast all the way across with no problem. The fish are always going to be there
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It's just a matter of when they're going to be at different points in the creek
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You have to think about the migration as kind of a bell curve
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It's kind of like this, at the very early end there's going to be male sandbass and
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then females and the crappie will all be in this mass together and then there'll be bigger
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females and hybrids too. You can catch hybrids in the creeks, kind of on the tail end
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Where they're at in the creek, that to me is the hardest part of creek fishing in the spawn
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One thing you can do is just try different spots, trial and error
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Fish lots of different spots often and try to do as much as you can
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If you keep going and keep going up creek, down creek, trying to figure out where they're at, you'll run into some fish
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The other thing is just to talk to people. You see people out there fishing
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People fishing, they're pretty free with their information. They're pretty friendly and they just like talking about fishing
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You see other folks out there, strike up a conversation, see what they're doing, see what's working, what worked yesterday, what worked last week, where were they fishing
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last week. Then that'll kind of give you an indication of how far up creek you need to go
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How do you do it? I like to use light tackle. I'm going to be using a really inexpensive crappie rig or just a kind of off the shelf
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small spinning combo rod and reel. You really don't need to overthink creek fishing
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You just need to get out there and start fishing. As far as lures, jigs, that sort of thing, I tend to keep that simple as well
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I'll do a six pound test, eight pound test, and a jig head with the lure
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You can kind of mix it up. Generally what I'll do is I'll start with some kind of white body and a red head
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What you're trying to do is you're trying to look like a minnow
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That's really it. You can change the body, change the colors, change the action
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Generally I'll always start with a white body with a red head, a jig head, and throw
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that as often as possible. Then if you don't get a single hit, then I might change the body to pink or an orange
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yellow, chartreuse. And if any of those aren't working, then I move in locations
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Other jig heads I like to use are spinners, spoons, anything that's going to flash and
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make a lot of action in the water but can also have a soft body
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So road runners, spinners, things like that. Those also work really great
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In addition to changing the body, you can also change the color of the jig heads
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I try red, I try chartreuse, pink, and white and really stick to those colors
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So fishing for sand bass in a creek is a little bit different than fishing for crappie in
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a creek because the crappie are going to move but they're not going to be as ferocious and
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hungry as sand bass are going to be. So the crappie are going to kind of move and find structure just like they would in a lake
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They're going to find structure in the creek. And so look for brush along the edges and things like that, kind of deeper holes
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That's where you're going to find the crappie. Sand bass, they'll tend to kind of school and hunt together and chase bait up to beaches
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So I always try to look for kind of wide bends with a big beach
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That's a great spot to catch sand bass. For both species, the limits could change every year potentially, but generally you
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can keep about two dozen. And it depends on, from one lake to the next, what length they might have to be
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For a lot of lakes in Texas, you're going to have a 10 inch rule, 10 inch minimum
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And so on all my fishing rods, I take a piece of duct tape and tape it 10 inches from the
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bottom of the rod so that I have a quick measuring stick on the fly, always at the ready to measure
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a legal fish. Now if you do want to keep them and haul them back, sometimes you might be miles into the woods
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And so I definitely carry multiple stringers. And if you do happen to just lay into them and you want to have a big fish fry or something
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like that, load them up on two stringers, find a big stick, and carry them over your
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shoulders just like a caveman. That's the way to do it. I mean, that's the best way to haul a bunch of fish out of the woods
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So that's it. That's creek fishing in the springtime in Texas. You don't need a boat
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All you need is an inexpensive rod and reel, inexpensive lures, get out there and have
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some fun. We're going to have links to everything that we recommend down below
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You can visit lakehub.com to find a lake near you and everything you need to know about
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creek fishing in Texas
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