Crappie Fishing

I don’t know about your neck of the woods but out here in California the crappie are getting ready to move up into the shallows, if they have not already to perform the yearly spawning ritual. While at the lower elevation lakes they might have already be staging at my home lake they have not yet done so, the surface temperature is currently only 48-52 degrees,

I have a friend who has access to the boat docks at my local lake, Isabella because he pays for slip rental and he invited me to join him for a day of crappie fishing so off I went yesterday in search of the tasty cold water crappie. While we didn’t get into the “Slab” crappie we did have a successful day!

Dave and I both got our limits they were not the big ones but they are still tasty, he got the largest of the day. While most of them were only about 1/2 pound, Dave did manage to get one that weighed 2 pounds.

All of the crappie were pretty deep, in about 40 feet of water. Rigged with 4 pound test P-Line Fluorocarbon we caught most of them on the small chrome/blue Kastmasters with crappie nibbles as well as a few on Roadrunners by lowering them all the way to the bottom and very slowly reeled up. The bite was very light, basically a pressure bite. Most of them were filling up with eggs so it’s getting very close to the shallow spawn time, that is of course if this weather ever cooperates.

Crappie tend to spawn at a temperature between 60 and 65 degrees. Whereas the Bass spawn between 65 and 70 degrees. This is not to say that both species wont move up into the shallows, actively feed and start to check things out at a lower temperature because they will, they just tend to start the actual ritual at the above mentioned temps but always remember, nothing is written in stone. Its the longer days and raising water temperatures that triggers all fish to move up shallow

Tips to locate pre-spawn crappie is similar to pre-spawn bass, look for deep water near shallow flats. Look for creek channels, road beds, submerged tree lines and ledges that lead into the shallows. Try drifting a Roadrunner or Slab Daddy to see it you can locate them. Or tie up to an old tree and work it with spoons or jigs. Once you’re able to locate a school you can have a great day! I remember in my younger days when there was not a limit on crappie we would catch ice chests full of them and then spend hours cleaning them. Even now with a limit of 25, at least here in CA, that’s still allot of fish fillets!

When they actually get into the shallows the Kastmasters are pretty much out of the question, unless you get them for free because it gets very expensive loosing them in the structure. Look for visible structure, trees, rock piles, etc. I like to use Maribou Roadrunners and Slab Daddy jigs in various colors covered in scent. One trick to not get hung up as often is to take a pair of pliers and bend the hook point downwards. The down side of doing this is you don’t hook as many but when you’re “On Them” you won’t notice a difference.

When the crappie bite is on it’s a great time of the year to take kids fishing because the crappie are plentiful and easy to catch so short attention span kids stay busy catching a lot of fish and don’t have the time to get bored. The only down side is they can at times get tired of catching fish, HA!

In my opinion Crappie is one of the tastiest fish you can eat. They are a very firm white meat fish with a very mild fish taste. My wife prefers the taste of them over all other fish, even Alaskan Halibut.

While there are so many ways to prepare crappie, in my opinion its hard to beat Bass Pro Shops Uncle Bucks Fish Batter Mix. Its one of my favorite coatings to fry up these tasty fish. Give it a try, you wont be dissapointed.

I hope I’ve shared some tips that you can use on your next crappie outing to make it a success.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!