When the calendar rolls over to March, anglers can expect to catch crappie in a number of different ways. Here’s some tips to help you make the most of your outings.
Say what you will about the month of March, but for crappie anglers, this month heralds the arrival of crappie season. Crappie anglers who’ve been fishing year-round may scoff at the notion, but you can still expect the boat ramp to be filled this month.
March may not necessarily mean it’s spawning season, but seasonal movements of crappie this month are certainly going to revolve around the procreation of the species. Accordingly, crappie may move out of more generally recognizable patterns and be found on different patterns and in different locations.
To assist crappie anglers with making the most of the spring/spawn/pre-spawn timeframe,several Mississippi crappie anglers weighed in on what works best for them.
Fishing rocks
Although crappie guide Brad Chappell gravitates to standing structure in the shallows when crappie spawn, they may not start the day out in those locations nor will they end the spawning season there. Chappell has found that the first hour or two of the day is better spent fishing along the rocks.
“It’s a timing thing,” Chappell said. “Some lakes, like Ross Barnett, have a lot more vegetation than hard structure and it seems to warm up faster than the southern part of the lake, down near the dam. The first hour of the day is the best along the rocks. In fact, if you can get on the water before daylight you can fish the rocks as long as you want till the sun comes up.
“There is very little cover to shade the crappie from the sun, so they’ll move up on the rocks at dark and stay till daylight. A lot of anglers do very well fishing around rip rap by only fishing at night.”
Chappell’s theory is not that crappie move from the rocks to the grass after the sun gets up, but that the rock-loving fish move off deeper and are harder to catch with a jig pole while the shallow structure fish are there all the time. He has also found that since the south end of the lake warms slower than the north end, the last of the spawning fish to be found will usually be on the south end along rip-rapped banks.
Boat docks
Veteran crappie angler Shelton Culpepper loves to jig fish around boat docks when crappie start moving shallow in the spring. While some boat docks may be floating docks with little support underneath, Culpepper favors pier structures constructed on permanent driven pilings. Very often, cross braces are installed along these pilings during dock construction and that’s one of the key structures Culpepper looks for. He offers that most often he’ll find crappie suspending right along these cross braces in deeper water.
“You’re looking for the sweet spot,” he said. “That’s a little 3- or 4-foot diameter area that will hold a bunch of fish right in that same spot. You can put your jig all over that dock and not get a bite, then stick it down in that sweet spot and catch a mess of fish without having to move the boat.”
He offers that crappie may be drawn to these sweet spots due to the location of some sunken brush that was planted by the property owner or it might just be a natural corner with a broken cross brace or something sticking out that fish will get around. One quick way to locate such areas is to look at the dock itself. If there are rod holders and spotlights mounted all over the dock, it’s apparent the homeowners like to fish and very likely have sunken fish attracting structure under and around the pier. A quicker way is to scan the dock with forward facing sonar and see the fish in real time.
“Time of day can also be important,” Culpepper said. “Early in the morning and later in the evening, crappie may just be holding around the dock and mostly on the outside edges. Once the sun gets up, they’ll back up under the dock and will really congregate under the boat houses people have built on the ends of their docks. Those provide a lot of shade and cover. That’s when you have to get under there and jig them out.”
Wade fishing
Grenada Lake crappie guide John Harrison loves to wade at any of the Corps lakes that are lined up along I-55. When it comes to specific strategies for finding the best locations to fish these lakes, Harrison’s advice was to do a little homework before you head to the water.
“Get a topo map of the lake and the area surrounding the lake,” Harrison said. “Then just follow the ditches. Anywhere you see a ditch that breaks off a creek and peters out or a low spot that runs into the lake, both of those will be good spots. You need to know what the water level is first. Won’t do you any good to try to fish a flat that’s still out of water or that rising water has already covered up with water too deep to wade. Just be real careful. There are a lot of stumps and different water levels here.”
For getting back to these locations, Harrison claims there are multiple ways to get to where you want to go.
“You got to look at the water’s edge from both sides,” he said. “My favorite way is to launch my boat, just like I was going fishing and motor in as far as I can get, then tie the boat up, get out and wade. Some people even tether the boat to their belt and pull the boat along as they wade, but if you’re in the thick stuff where you need to be, just tie the boat and go.”
Harrison was quick to point out that you don’t always have to have a boat to catch crappie this month.
“The other way is look at a lake map that has roads marked on it,” Harrison said. “Drive as close as you can get, then walk down through the woods and wade in. If there’s enough shoreline available, a lot of people that fish these Corps lakes will unload a 4-wheeler at the ramp or someplace close by and go around the edge of the banks on 4-wheelers.”
Fishing current
There is some debate among crappie anglers as to exactly what the effects of current, either wind or water driven, has on crappie fishing. Some anglers claim that crappie avoid current like the plague and will only fish in areas where there isn’t a ripple to be found on the water. Other anglers swear that crappie don’t mind current, and as evidence, recount the times when they caught fish in 30 mph winds or drastically rising or falling water.
Tournament angler Steve Coleman claims that in areas of modest or temporary current, crappie will often use available structure to break the flow of the current and provide them with both rest and an ambush point.
“One noticeable advantage of areas that provide current versus more stagnant areas is the levels of dissolved oxygen,” Coleman said. “Moving water tends to fall on the cooler side and cooler or ‘fresher’ water, as in runoff, may hold more oxygen. Both baitfish and gamefish are drawn to areas holding more dissolved oxygen.”
Another debate often ensues over which direction the angler should present his baits when dealing with current. Coleman said one school of thought indicates that crappie always face into the current in order to minimize their profile.
“By facing into current, crappie can detect any possible prey that is blown in by the current,” he said. “You always want to go with the flow and not fish against it. It doesn’t look natural.”
Target black crappie
“A black crappie is my favorite fish to target in the early spring because they are so much more consistent,” said Magnolia crappie angler Hugh Krutz. “They are not as apt to migrate and move as fast as white crappie will. White crappie will move in and out of shallow water overnight. The black crappie are more reliable. If you find a good school or group of black fish, they’re going to be there the next day.”
Several aspects of black crappie behavior make them a little easier to target than white crappie. He said even though clear water is at the top of the black crappie’s preference list, it’s finding areas of stained water in a clear water lake that he prefers to fish.
Krutz also notes another trait that black crappie exhibit during the pre-spawn phase. The fish will transition from tightly packed schools in the winter pattern to a more loosely associated migration of fish into major tributaries that eventually will lead them to their spawning grounds in the shallows.
“As the water temperature rises into the low 50s and toward the middle 50s, that’s when these fish are really going to get into their spawning group and they’re really going to start to search,” Krutz said. “They’re going to be feeding heavily.”
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