Crappie on the rocks

Jimmy McGuire pitched a couple of jigs out just off the dam and let them sink a few feet before jigging them slightly. McGuire whipped his rod back and set the hook a split second after a crappie struck his offering.

After a short battle he landed not one, but two crappie on one cast.

“I’ll fish two jigs about 8 inches apart, and let that rig sink almost to the bottom and work it slowly back to the boat,” McGuire said. “And occasionally I’ll catch two at a time when they’re stacked up.”

McGuire hails from Meridian, and he lives and breathes crappie fishing during the spring —and is often found somewhere on Okatibbee Lake.

And there’s a high probability that he’ll be fishing along the rocks on the dam or at the emergency spillway. In fact, from late January through May, McGuire catches crappie during regular trips to the dam in practically the same spots.

The only difference in where they’re located is how deep they are and how far off the dam. Depending upon the weather, water temperatures and timing of the spawn, the crappie will simply move up shallower each week until they’re ready to spawn.

“I’ve been fishing the lake a long time and know a few areas where they usually stay along the rocks on the dam,” said McGuire. “I’ll just fish along the dam and cover a lot of water until I catch a fish, and then I’ll slow down and work that area thoroughly.”

And when he finds them, he usually mops up and brings home a limit of papermouths.

“By April they’ll move right up to the dam and stage in 6 or 7 feet of water during the day, and stack up,” McGuire said. “And just before dark they’ll usually move right up to the edge of the rocks about 2 feet deep and feed or spawn.

“I think they’re spawning, and when they do the crappie will continually move up and stay in that range until they’re all through spawning — and that’s when you can really tear them up.”

Whether they’re going through a second spawn or there’s just new waves of spawning fish moving up really doesn’t matter, as long as McGuire is there to take advantage of the situation.

This is when McGuire changes tactics and uses the ever-popular jig-and-cork rig.

“I do it a little different than most folks, in that I use two jigs below that cork instead of one,” he said.

Sometimes using two different colors on the jigs make a difference and helps him tune into what the fish want.

“One time I was using a black-and-chartreuse jig on the bottom and a white jig on the top, and I caught five in a row on the white jig,” he said. “I’ll usually catch my fish on the bottom jig, but this time they hit the top one.

“It made me wonder if I didn’t have that white color on there whether or not I would have caught any at all.”

Although McGuire believes color doesn’t matter as much when the perch are really biting, there are times when color makes all the difference in the world.

“My favorite colors are black-and-chartreuse and green-and-chartreuse, and it seems like they’ll hit those colors when they won’t hit anything else on Okatibbee,” he said.

But there are times when he has to move outside of those color combinations to continue putting fish in the boat ­ — as was proven on one trip when the bite just crashed.

“I changed colors before moving to another spot, and they started hitting good again,” McGuire said. “I don’t know what the difference is, but I do know that color will make a difference and trigger fish into biting sometimes.

“And having the right color can be the difference between going home empty handed, or loading the boat.”

And when things are just tough all over? McGuire switches to his secret weapon.

“If the fish are not biting real good, I may switch to a marabou jig and just let it sit there ­— and those feathers go to moving around and the perch just can’t stand it, and they’ll eat it,” he explained. “And sometimes I’ll just tie one on top and use a regular jig and grub on the bottom, and that little something extra will get them started, too.”

McGuire advised anglers to try the rocks along the dam and along the causeways that cross the upper end of Okatibbee and across Pine Springs’ cove when the crappie start to spawn.

“I’d fish each end of the dam and work from the corners out until you find the perch,” he said. “And sometimes you can catch them near the intake structure in the middle of the dam, also.”

McGuire said it’s not unusual to catch a limit of crappie in a short time when the fish are active and up shallow.

“If the water stabilizes and we don’t have a lot of bad weather, I think this is going to be a good year,” he said. “I think we’re going to have a really good spring on the lake.”