Latest / Sac-A-Lait Talk / TEXAS -SIZED SLABS
Transcript
- jeffreyowensaudio2: Welcome back to Sacolite Talk for today's slab bike segment. Today we are crossing state lines to talk shop with a man who has truly mastered the art of chasing slabs. He is a fierce tournament competitor, an elite crappy guide, and the mastermind behind the heavily followed Texas Crappy Assassins YouTube channel and guide service. Welcome to the show, Jeffrey. thank you, Duane. Appreciate it and glad to be here. Yeah, man, I I have to follow you across state lines. I'm glad we we finally got you on the show. Nah, for sure. I follow ya. I follow anything in the Sackolade, crappie, crappy, whatever you want to call I follow it all. Yeah, I don't care what you call Jeffrey. They're all I know is they're good eating. You know that. I know that's right. Okay, Jeffrey, we're locked and loaded, man, so let's get started, okay? Yes, sir. Jeffrey, for anyone who hasn't followed your YouTube channel, Texas Crappy Assassins, give us the backstory. How did you transition from a weekend angler to a tournament pro and elite crappy guide? I just honestly I just kinda fell in love with crappie fishing and I I really never started fishing crappie till about ten years ago when I moved down here. And man I just something about it, you know, they you think you got figured out and then the next thing you know they're they're making you very humbled. They're they're fun, fun fish to go after and man I just I'm always up for a challenge, you know. I I like a good challenge. I'm very competitive. So man, I was like, These fish, man, they they're tricky. So I just felt like, you know, I wanna figure these things out. I wanna try and master but yeah, you ain't never gonna master I mean you think you got figured out and whatnot. And and it and it ain't it ain't there. So Just kinda got into it, got hooked into it. I loved the community, the fellowship and the crappie world. And you know, I started a YouTube channel just pretty much wasn't for money, wasn't for anything other than leaving something behind that my family could watch if something happened to me, you know. They knew I was doing what I loved to do and really just kinda went from there. Yeah, they're they're definitely a challenge to catch. People they go catch in the spring, they'll give you a false sense thinking they're easy to catch, but they're very challenging fish to catch. And and that's why I like Sackolae crappy fishing. I like the challenge of trying to figure them out, locating and and catching you know. I they're definitely very challenging and when you when you catch them, they're they're also rewarding too. yeah, for sure. Absolutely. And I you know, when I I was just gonna say when I got into it, you know, I started tying my own hand ties and everything else with different colors, trying to figure out what worked the most and the best and you know, I just it's kind of an addiction, really it is. Right. it definitely is, yes. All right, Jeffrey. Let's move on. coming from the Texas side of things, what is the biggest difference you notice in how Texas anglers target slap crappie versus what you see across the border in in Louisiana? Well, right off the top of my head, I think the biggest difference is Over here we're we're really into the live scope scene of everything. I mean I know it's over there as well, but I think the water's you know shallower for the most part. There's a lot of you know pitching bobbers or corks, whatever you want to call over here on this side we got some deep deeper water and I don't know, I just I see it more and more most of the most of the people around here are using live scopes more than I think across the border. 'Cause y'all have deeper lakes on on average than than in Louisiana, right? Yeah. That's that's what I fly, yeah, scoping is more it's more prevalent. Yeah, down in South Louisiana they do we do a lot of slip quarking, pitching quarks to suspend it, you know, cycle. Sure. Or using little indicators, just popping it, you know. I I watch it. I see it all. Don't get me wrong, I'd I'd do some slip corking myself here, you know, in the right time of year. Right. Yeah. Jeffrey, what makes Lake Conroe a great c crappy fishery? Well, you know, there's some really good fish out on Conroe. It's it's loaded right up. certain times of year it could be one of the toughest lakes that you'll ever fish for I mean summertime they slow down quite a bit. you know, you really gotta downsize your bait and everything, but all in all it's a great fishery. It's become more of a recreational lake. So winter time. You can't beat Lake Conroe. The bites there, the fish are there, it's awesome. Summertime I don't suggest you go out there in a small boat because you're gonna get filled up. You're gonna get ran over or something. It's it's a it's a hazardous lake. But it is a good fishery. Right. A lot of a lot of recreational boating in the summertime. Yeah, for sure. It makes it challenging, especially if you're out there and you gotta hold a jig really still on a fish's head and You got a three foot, four foot swell coming at you from a weight boater. It's tough. Right. Right. Jeffrey, moving on, what is your absolute go to blueprint for finding and breaking down a bottle of water like Lake Conroe when the water temperatures finally start dropping? Well, you know, pretty much any lake that I travel to or Conroe in itself. I mean Conroe's my home lake, so I I've been all over that lake. I know it in and out. I mean my mapping is my my blueprint. I know what to look for, the contours, the points, the secondary points, the you know, places that I know people are gonna drop structure. You know, people are pretty predictable when it comes to that. You know, and structure holds fish. Conroe's full of structure on its own. but mapping is huge. It's one of my keys for any lake I go to. I'm studying the I'm studying a map before I get there. I know what I'm looking for already. And you know, it don't take long when you get on a lake to see what the pattern is. You know, you got areas that you want to look. Check, you find it, and then that pattern is typically gonna be the same all around that lake. So you can eliminate a lot of a lot of water and areas that you don't you know that you don't even need to go look at. So mapping is huge. Mapping. Awesome. Mapping. What is your signature setup and technique for catching crappy in the fall? Well kind of transitioning from summer. I'm still using smaller baits, so in the summer they like a plastic more, I've noticed over the years. So small plastic or a minnow. I mean you can't go wrong with minnows in the summertime when they're real lethargic and all that. But transitioning when they start to transition and they're starting to feed up, that water temperature gets back. Coming down that thermocline is disappearing, water's mixing back up like it should be. they're gonna start feeding a little bit, and I'm slowly seeing that now because the daylights are getting shorter as well, which kind of helps. So my setup is still gonna be a small bait, but I am gonna go from a plastic to a hand tie, and I know in the winter time, typically hand ties were Really well around here. but I'm talking a one thirty second ounce, probably a chartreuse and white is my favorite color to go to. a twelve foot salters, unless I'm in open water and then I'm breaking out the eighteen footer, 'cause boy, you can get that reach on them. And but yeah, just a small bait, slow presentation until unless they're really active, which They're slowly gonna be getting there. but yeah, slow movements, small baits. What size what size line are are you using? I'm using fifteen to twenty pound solid braid. Now if I'm on a a a clear lake and say I'm casting to them like wintertime a lot of the black crappie are gonna school up in open water and I'm gonna be able to cast to them and if I'm doing that, they're typically in the the the cleaner water, so a lot clearer water as well. So I'm gonna use like a four pound test mono and I'm gonna cast to them with like a seven foot rod. Right. And but for for long polling or jigging or whatever you want to call it with live scope and all that, I'm typically using 12, 14 to 16 and 18 foot rods with solid braid, 15, 20 pound. Okay. Now Jeffrey, you mentioned open water earlier. what type of technique are you using for open water? Are are y'all do y'all do like spider rigging or or something similar to to that? no, I'm I'm ro I'm chasing I fish live scope and that's that's just how I do it. So I'm I'm gonna chase some open water fish around. and the Using that eighteen footer that Salters has is been a game changer because I'm you know, if I'm sitting in the seat of my boat and I drop it drop it straight down, I'm I'm reaching fourteen foot with that eighteen footer. So if that fish is moving and I'm chasing if I got heavy enough weight, I can just keep it right in front of his face and he's gonna eat it eventually. but also on other lakes I say open water. A lot of these fish they'll break away, they go they'll chase that shad and they'll get in that open water where the shad are and they'll school up. And you can't get too close to So I'm casting fifty, sixty feet away and that's where I use my seven foot rod with the mono, so I can cast that small jig that far. Right. It's my favorite kind of fishing. I I love open water fishing. I know you talked about using you're heavily dependent on live scope. but do but do you still keep old school tactics in your box and in your back pocket? absolutely, when the time's right. I mean yeah, you can go out here, I'd say, you know, February, springtime, they're all over the banks. You can you can go out there with a slipcork. We're just casting a jig and bringing it down the bank line and that's fun. you don't need live scope. I'll give you an example. I fished a tournament here on Lake Conroe. my trolling motor and my live scope went out. Now it was either go back home, call the quits, or go do old school. And I went and did it old school and I ended up calling three fish, doing it old school, and I end up second place in the tournament. So, you know, a lot of people say that you fish live scope. You couldn't catch fish without live scope. I hear it all the time. But I'm gonna tell you something about Live Scope. That live scope is one teaching tool and it has taught me so much over the years of the fishing behavior. You know, it's it and it just makes you a better fisherman all around. Alright, moving on, Jeffrey. For the weekend warrior tuning into Sacklight Talk who might be intimidated by the tech, what is the number one mistake you see people make when trying to read open water crappie on a graph? not really understanding what crappie in open water look like. is if you're saying like in Live Scope, a lot of times your crappie are just gonna be a ball and they're gonna be sitting still out there. Not every one of but you know, they'll they'll chase the wrong kind of fish, they'll drop on the wrong kind of fish just because they don't recognize what a crappie really looks like out in open water. I mean and and to all the beginners that are gonna try it and get into open water fishing and they're trying to figure out, just look for those fish that are sitting still. They're sitting up there suspended, just a circle sitting on your graph, ease up to nice and slow. Drop that jig on You'd be surprised. I mean then when you start recognizing them, then you can recognize the ones that are moving as well. 'Cause they'll do a swim and then they'll kinda glide. They'll swim and then they'll glide, you know, and you can chase them, and they're gonna stop again for you, or they're gonna go right to the bottom. They will come back up. Right. So how do you recognize bait fish on on the screen while live scoping? bait fish are they just look like a cloud. I mean a bunch of little ones are all together. You know, I'm up to Yeah, sometimes they'll take up the whole screen and other times there'll be little clumps of But you you can recognize you know. My biggest thing with people If they keep their settings consistent, like I'll run my live scope twenty feet depth, no matter what. If I'm in five foot of water, I'm still at twenty feet. And our range are usually about twenty five twenty-five feet out, unless I'm fishing open water, and then I'm I'm going out forty five, fifty, and then I'm zooming it back in once I find the fish I'm after. But if you keep your settings the same, you'll start recognizing the size of fish. If you if you think you're on crappie and it's actually a school of shad or something or a few of drop your jig down there next to Look at the size of your jig compared to those those shad. You know, you're gonna see the hey, this isn't a crappie. Because your jig gonna be the same size. Right, okay. All right, moving on. Jeffrey, you are known for being a master of the dead sticking technique. Can you walk our listeners through t the precise mechanics of a perfect dead dead stick presentation? Well, I mean just holding it as steady as you can right above their head. It's really all there is to it, you know. you drop it down there, you're gonna wanna get their attention. Either you hold it still, you're gonna watch that fish's reaction. if he ain't if he ain't reacting on it, you're gonna give it a little little shake until you see flutter a little bit, and then you know he's seen it. And then you just wanna hold it nice and still. and it's hard. You get on some waters. Like I said out here on Conroe, you get three, four foot wakes from wake boaters. And you ain't holding it still. No matter what you do, it's hard to hold still. So Right. A lot of times a lot of times we you know we don't we don't care to dead stick it, but sometimes that's what it takes. You know, if your boat's rocking, you try to keep your arm going with it to keep it as still as you can. So let me ask you this. How long do you keep it still before you move on? I'll tell you if that fish if I see that fish flutter and then he don't want he don't want it. There's so many fish out there, I'm gonna move on. Unless I'm in a tournament and it's a real big one, I'm gonna give him I'm gonna give him a little bit of time, maybe five minutes or so. I'm gonna try everything there is in the book. I'm gonna bounce that jig off his head. I'm gonna do whatever. I'll spook him and I'll chase him out in the open water and see if he'll bite. But I'm not staking on a fish too long. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna keep moving. That and that's another thing I see with a lot of a lot of people fishing. They they'll stick on, you know, piles or something. They this is what I notice. They'll stay on a pile too long. You know, they'll catch a catch one or two. They may see fifty of down there and them fish just ain't active. They need to move and move and keep moving. Okay. Jeffrey, in full blown fall transition mode and the fish are feeding aggressively, do you upsize to bigger lures to match the bait fish profile of the local shad, or do you stick to a standard finesse jigs? I I pretty much stick to your finesse jigs. Okay. If they're not w if they're not wanting a smaller bait, I'm gonna ch I'm gonna try whatever I think might work. You know, if I upsize and it gets hit, that's what I'm gonna do. If I need to downsize, that's what I'm gonna do. It's pretty much the fish are telling me what they want. And I'm gonna move accordingly. I mean right. We we have lots of baits and okay stuff in our boat, so Okay. When Jeffrey, when you pull into a spot, what are two to three things you're l you're looking for to determine if you're gonna stay or move on? Well, first thing I'm gonna look for is I'm gonna I'm gonna pull into a spot because I've already studied my map and I'm I already know that I'm I'm feeling that there's either structure in here, a river channel. I'm I'm I'm a lot of times I'll fish a river channel. depending on the lake. But yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna hit points. River channels, I'm gonna drop it down. I'm gonna I run perspective and forward together. And I can cover an area really fast. So if I pull into a a spot where I think there should be fish, I'm gonna cover it in a matter of no time whether it's got fish there or not. And then I'm gonna say, all right, that didn't that that didn't work there. I'm gonna move on. Check some other other contours or a different part of the lake. Okay. All right, Jeffrey. When you're out on the water with clients, you're not just fishing, you're teaching, right? What is the single biggest misconception everyday anglers have about catching trophies, Sakalay, crappy? And what's the one habit they need to break to put more slabs in the boat? All right, so they my clients will constantly do this. Constantly trying to jig it. You know, back in the day, maybe without the live scope and what it's told us about this fish reaction, that's not what you want to do. You know, I brings me back to dead sticking. You want to ease it down to that fish, see his reaction, shake it, maybe get his reaction. A lot of times, if he don't hit it sitting there, you're gonna wanna pull it up nice and slow. He's gonna follow it and he's gonna hit it. A lot of the times, but I see that a lot. or I'll hear, man, there ain't no fish left in this lake. Livestopes done took them all out of here. And then when I get on the boat and I show the thousands and thousands of crappie that that they they just don't bite like they used to. Their their techniques I think you gotta change it little bit because everybody can see now and they're they're throwing everything at the book at You know. Well too much action to answer your question. I think I think people are still giving it too much action and the fish aren't liking it. Okay. That that makes sense. w what you used to do twenty years ago that may have worked as technology changes, you know, different techniques change. No, absolutely. They can't hide from you like they used to. Right. All right, Jeffrey. we love closing out our episodes with actionable advice. If you can give the Sacolade Talk community just one golden rule to turn a frustrating slow day on the water into a into a heavy sack of fish, what would it be? Don't sit in one spot too long. Move. Catch catch some, move. You go to a spot, catch a few, bite bite stops, keep moving. You want to get a boatload of fish, right? Especially on them tough days. I'm gonna say slow everything down. Downsize most likely. Lot less action and move. It's it's huge. Moving to different spots, having a bunch of spots marked up and just keep moving. You're gonna catch one or two off a pile. You you hit ten piles, that's twenty fish. You know, that that's the way I look at it. I mean it sometimes you might get lucky and you might get on a pile and catch some good ones, but you're talking about a tough day. So I say, you know, that that's the biggest tip I can I can get. Don't don't sit on one pile too long if you're having a rough day. Just keep moving. Move on. Move on. Okay. Yeah. All right, last question, Jeffrey. Where can the Sakalay Talk community follow you and book a trip with you? you can I'm on Facebook, Jeffrey Owens. I do have Texas Crappie Assassin Guide Service on Facebook. also YouTube. I have I think over 200 videos out there that you might pick a couple things off of that might help you, might not. But Texas Crappie Assassins on YouTube and I mean my number if y'all want to book a trip. nine three six or wait, yeah, nine three six two one seven five zero three six. And give me a shoot me a text message or give me a call. We can we can put you on the books. Hey Jeffrey, I can't thank you enough for for giving us a few minutes, man, and and dropping and dropping your expertise with our listeners. No, absolutely. I appreciate having me on and keep doing what you're doing. We all watching ya. Yes, sir. Yes, I appreciate it. I'll talk to you later. I'd love to get some fishing reports from you. Absolutely. Anytime. Okay. I'll talk to you later, Jeffrey. Later. Bye now. Bye-bye. That is going to wrap it up for this week's slab bike segment of Sackley Talk. A huge thank you to Jeffrey Owens from Texas Crappy Assassins for stopping by and dropping absolute gold mines on tournament tactics and slab catching secrets. If you want to book a trip of a lifetime with Jeffrey or level up your fishing game, make sure to head over and subscribe to his Texas Crappy Assassins. YouTube channel and check out his guide services. To all our listeners out there, thank you for tuning in. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button, leave us a five-star review, and share this episode with your favorite fishing partner. Until next time, keep your lines tight, look for that thump, and we'll catch you next week on Sackolade Talk. Got its own hill, a song of the bow, the brave and the grim. Every drop of shine tells a tale.