Mississippi lakes are mostly empty of fishermen come winter, but they’re still full of slabs. Here’s how a handful of pros fill their coolers when the weather’s cold.
Many people consider the time between the “fall feed-up” — when crappie gorge themselves to prepare for winter — and the spring spawning season a poor time to catch crappie. However, even on the coldest days, action can be hot in the right spots.
“It never gets too cold to fish for crappie in Mississippi,” said Brad Taylor, a professional crappie angler and guide from Greenville. “The winter months are some of the best months to crappie fish in Mississippi — as good or better than the spring. In the winter, people normally don’t catch the size crappie they can catch during the spring spawning season, but they generally catch better numbers.”
As the weather cools, recreational boaters, jet skiers and even many fishermen disappear from state waters. In addition, hunting seasons pull thousands of Mississippi sportsmen away from fishing. This leaves crappie to a hardy handful of intrepid souls.
“December and January are great times to catch crappie,” said Terry Stewart, a professional crappie angler and guide from Quentin. “The secret to catching crappie in the winter is finding them and slowing down the presentation. In the winter, I downsize my baits to smaller minnows and jigs. Often, crappie will hit a jig better than a minnow.”
To find scattered crappie, many anglers turn to old reliable tactics like spider-rigging and long-line trolling. In the past few years, however, many crappie anglers have started pulling planer boards. Essentially brightly colored, floating plastic blocks designed to run either to the left or right when pulled behind a boat, planer boards allow anglers to search significantly more water in less time.
For a typical planer-board rig, run two lines without boards directly behind the boat. Also, deploy two to four off each side, each rigged so the boards run at varied distances from the boat. Push the boat forward slowly with the trolling motor. Under the boards, anglers can dangle almost anything that might tempt a crappie. Try several lures of different sizes, configurations, colors and types worked at varied depths to determine patterns.
Electronic advantage
More recently, many anglers have put away multi-pole rigs in favor of using single spinning rods to cast at individual fish they locate with high-tech electronics like Garmin’s LiveScope that provide such incredibly detailed images that anglers can identify fish species or even watch them swish their tails, all from sound waves. With the transducer mounted on the trolling motor, the sound waves go in whatever direction the motor points.
“When using LiveScope, when we see a big fish on the screen, we pitch a jig to it,” said Stewart (601-502-5699). “If we can put it right on the fish’s nose, it’ll bite.”
With the technology, anglers can scan a brush pile and pick out the individual fish they want to catch, casting specifically to that fish. Tracking the bait on the screen, anglers can maneuver it close to a particular fish. Sometimes, they can watch a large crappie gingerly taste a bait. An angler relying solely upon the sensitivity of the rod and line might never know a strike occurred.
“LiveScoping has changed the way we fish,” said Brandon Fulgham from Grenada, who guides on the “Big Four” lakes — Sardis, Arkabutla, Enid and Grenada, plus Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson. “Now we just put the LiveScope in, drop a jig or a minnow in front of a fish’s mouth and watch it eat it. In the winter, crappie are much more likely to hit live bait than plastic jigs.”
Deep is relative
When temperatures turn cold, most people naturally think crappie head deep. That’s true to some extent, but in many Mississippi lakes, crappie won’t find terribly deep water. Sardis holds some of the deepest water in the Magnolia State, plunging to 70 feet in places.
“Everybody thinks that they should look for crappie in deep water during the winter, but I’ve never caught crappie deep at that time of year,” said Fulgham (662-417-9117). “I’ve always caught them up shallow, even in really deep lakes. On Grenada, Enid and Sardis, I hardly ever fish structure. Those big, white crappie in Grenada are often out in 20 feet of water suspended 6 feet down around nothing. They are just chasing shad.”
Starting in the fall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers draws down the four flood-control lakes in northern Mississippi. By winter, only the deepest channels and pools remain. The annual drawdown concentrates fish and makes them easier to catch in the winter — if anglers can launch their boats.
“We can have some really good fishing in December and January in Enid and Sardis,” Fulgham said. “Most often, the water is really muddy in the winter. Many people get discouraged by muddy water, but crappie in those lakes live in muddy water all year-long, so they are used to it. Muddy water puts fish high in the water column. They suspend about 2 to 4 feet deep out over deeper water.”
To find big crappie in the winter, look for the bait with electronics or visually. Lower water levels also concentrate shad. Crappie won’t stray far from their groceries, particularly in the winter. When people find shad, they start spider-rigging.
“If someone didn’t have LiveScope, I recommend spider-rigging with double-minnow rigs,” Fulgham said. “When the water is muddy and cold, we spider-rig with eight poles out and use double-minnow rigs. I put a hook at the top. Then, I drop down about 24 to 30 inches and add a 1/2-ounce egg sinker weight. Below the weight, I’d put another hook. We drop the minnow rigs down to about 2 to 5 feet deep to find the suspended fish.”
When the lakes become too shallow to launch large boats, many people hit the river tailraces below the dams with small boats. With single-pole rigs, they fish the shoreline drop-offs, rocks, stumps, river-bend holes and similar places. Drop a single jig or a jig tipped with a minnow next to structure.
Don’t move that jig
Don’t add much extra movement. In cold water, lethargic fish usually want something extremely subtle, but use brighter colors. Many people use small hair jigs because they give off the most subtle action. With the slightest water movements, the hairs on a jig quiver just enough to attract a crappie’s attention.
“Underwater, the hair kind of moves,” Stewart said. “Some people use feathers or various types of hair that move a little differently. Small jigs seem to do best in the winter. In really clear water, drop the jig slowly or it’ll spook fish. If the water is muddy, get it down quickly by using a slightly bigger jig and a color they can more easily see. When fishing muddy water, orange and chartreuse is one of my favorite color combinations. Gray is always good as well as silver. My favorite hair jigs are Crappie G Custom Hair Jigs out of Louisiana.”
Approach any cover as quietly as possible. Some anglers use poles 14 to 20 feet long to reach spots without spooking fish. Drop the bait as close as possible to an object. During the winter, anglers almost need to tickle a crappie’s nose to make it bite. Many anglers add a scented pellet for more flavor and enticement to provoke finicky fish in cold water. Whenever possible, fish completely around any object or hit it from multiple anglers to locate fish.
Besides Sardis, Arkabutla, Grenada and Enid, Ross Barnett can also provide great winter action. Much of the lake stays shallow, but the original Pearl River channel and some associated old oxbows inundated by the reservoir hold waters 25 to 40 feet deep. More known for numbers than quality, Ross Barnett can still produce some 3-pound crappie.
Ross Barnett’s allure
“Ross Barnett is an awesome winter lake,” Fulgham said. “Crappie will be hugged tight on the stumps along the river channel. Fish deeper on ledges and structure on the edges of the channels. Crappie suspend around structure. Most of the time in the winter at Ross Barnett, we fish 10 to 12 feet deep. Structure and bait are the keys to fishing Ross Barnett.”
Many people spider-rig along the river channels during the winter. As conditions turn colder, use smaller baits and move more slowly. If all else fails, go to small live minnows.
Some other good Mississippi crappie waters include oxbows off the Mississippi River, like Tunica Lake, Lake Washington, Eagle Lake, Chotard Lake and Albemarle Lake. Small waters can also hold big fish. Try Okatibbee Reservoir near Meridian, Lake Tangipahoa in Percy Quinn State Park or the lakes along the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
Mississippi offers crappie anglers some of the best fishing waters anywhere in the nation in diverse habitats. During the winter, anglers who bundle up might find themselves alone over the hottest honey holes on the coldest days with nobody to keep them company, except a boatload of slab crappie.
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