Eight-year-old Walker and his dad were on a comeback trip after rough spring weather cut their spawn crappie fishing trip short. Their guide, Aaron Barton, with Crappie Guide Service Barton Outfitters, wanted to make sure when the enthusiastic young fisherman came back, the fish and bite were ready.
“Early June is usually a slam dunk time to pull crankbaits on the North Mississippi Flood Control Reservoirs,” Barton said. “The fish are chasing in shad in open water, and advanced electronics, dialed in trolling reels and racks, and quality baits like Bandit 300 crankbaits make it easy to catch good numbers of keeper fish simply by going straight and avoiding tangling your baits. One of the most common things I hear when non-crankbait crappie fishermen see the rigs we have on our boat is that they never knew crappie would hit a crankbait or a crankbait that big.”
Understandably so, as many anglers crappie experience is rooted in minnow and jig fishing, with the occasional incidental catch on worms, bream or bass fishing set-ups. Fish long enough in areas where crappie are known to roam and you will find that they will bite just about anything. That was the case last week on Sardis Lake for young Walker, who found that catfish of all sizes would hit his pink and yellow Bandit 300 just as readily as crappie. Part of the reason the Bandit crankbaits are so effective is not because they are “so big” but rather, because they are “so close” in size to the typical forage shad you see in the bellies of these fish when you are cleaning them. Those “match the hatch” characteristics that make crankbaits ideal targets for crappie also make them easy targets for catfish. Very few days go by that our incidental catch (even Livescoping but definitely trolling minnows and pulling crankbaits) doesn’t include catfish, sometimes close to 1:1 on the crappie we are targeting. Catfish tend to be deeper than crappie, but that doesn’t mean they are always on the bottom, they will suspend, and can be caught in the month of June in the same 18-33 feet of water folks are catching crappie in. Among the variables (location, color, size, trolling speed, amount of line out or depth of presentation) we have found that switching from crappie to catfish is far more a matter of depth than size, speed, or color. Fish deeper than you would for crappie, but not as incrementally deep as you might think. If crappie are biting well fishing 18′ in 33′ of water, try fishing 22′-24′, rather than hugging the bottom to catch some blue cats often found in the Big Four Reservoirs. Those same depths can be productive with various natural or prepared baits.
Mississippi Trophy Crappie Fishing
Aaron Barton
Barton Outfitters
469-763-1885
bartonoutfitters.com
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