Try these simple tricks to increase your crappie catches on the Pearl River this month.
When the going gets tough, the tough go … crappie fishing?
That pretty much sums up Chas Champagne’s plan of attack for the first quarter of each year. One of Lake Pontchartrain’s noted speckled trout and redfish anglers, Champagne likes the change of pace crappie fishing provides — especially since the delectable little fish are more than willing to bite this time of year.
“February and March are well known across the Gulf Coast as being probably the two hardest months to fish speckled trout and redfish,” Champagne said. “But I personally enjoy crappie fishing, and it excels in those two months because that’s when they spawn.”
And the creator of Matrix Shad soft- plastic lures didn’t pass up an opportunity to create a Matrix Mini specifically geared to crappie fishermen. Champagne typically targets the East and West Pearl Rivers for crappie, and likes the I-59 river gauge to be between 8 and 13 feet when he plans a March trip.
“You want the river falling for sure,” said Champagne, who noted he likes focusing on tributaries off the main river because the current in the river itself can be too strong to fish. “We have some spots where it’s OK if the river is high, as long as it’s falling. What happens on a falling river is it pulls all of that cleaner, black water out of the swamp, and you’ll see that cleaner water mixing with regular river water itself.”
When water temperatures gets to about 60 or 61 degrees, crappie will move up to spawn, he said.
“Typically, they’re going to get closer to the banks as the water temperature comes up,” he said. “That’s when instead of jigging them up and down vertically, a little perch cork becomes very effective when targeting cypress knees and areas close to the bank.”
In colder weather, brush piles in deeper water are definitely go-to locations, and Champagne said many are visible above the surface — but that can change each year.
“Brush piles come and go and change from so much flow and debris. Some of them will get hung up right in the middle of a creek,” he said, noting that sonar is a great tool to have at your disposal to locate them. “What a lot of the river gurus do is go when the river is really low in the summertime and mark the locations of those brush piles. Then they come back and fish them when the river is high in the winter.
“They all look good, but you have to fish them all until you figure out where the fish are at. And every week is different, every day is different.”
Don’t make this mistake
Champagne spools up with 6- to 8-pound white Berkley NanoFil line, but always with about a 3-foot leader. He credited Brian Baldwin for many of the crappie tips he’s learned over the years.
“If I’m in the dirty West Pearl, a mono leader is fine,” he said. “But if I’m in any kind of root beer or black water, you want to use a fluorocarbon leader because crappie have really big eyeballs, and their vision is excellent. That’s crucial.”
One of the most invisible and durable fluorocarbon lines on the market is made by P-line.
If he’s fishing deep in 15 to 20 feet of water, Champagne goes with an ⅛-ounce Goldeneye jighead. If he’s under a cork, he goes down to a 1/16-ounce.
“And those little crappie pellets can be pretty effective,” he said. “I don’t mess with them much, but my crappie gurus are big believers. They swear by them.”
In root beer-clear water when he’s using a fluorocarbon leader, Champagne typically goes with a Matrix Mini in the ladies night color. In dirtier water, his favorite color is kryptonite.
Weather-wise, Champagne said the combination of cold weather and a low river can make for ideal conditions.
“Crappie couldn’t care less if it’s 5 degrees or not,” he said, adding that he targets deeper spots like the Lock 1 Canal in brutal winter conditions. “I’ve crushed them on days where I really couldn’t feel my thumbs — it was as cold and nasty as it could get.”
And one more tip if you’re heading to the Pearl for crappie: Champagne said it can be ‘Snag City,’ so take this simple step with your jighead and you’ll spend more time fishing and less time hung up on brush piles.
“We take a pair of pliers and open and close the hook a couple of times to make it more malleable,” he said. “Because a crappie isn’t going to straighten the hook — they’re not powerful fighters.”
