I went crappie fishing early this spring a couple of times because I didn’t want to miss the run when it got hot.
Then I was off on other adventures for a few weeks and then hit them again. I was afraid that I’d missed the peak run but not so. We’re still doing good. In fact, we did the best this weekend than we’ve done so far this year.
I had to work half the day Saturday so about Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., my buddy Ron Spomer circled by and we headed off to my secret crappie spot.
There was not one boat in sight. That doesn’t happen very often anywhere, much less while crappie fishing.
We unloaded and pushed the boat out from the dock 20 feet. I was hooking up and Ron started catching a few. Wow, talk about fast action. We spent a while catching fish and then headed upstream to my spot.
It was a little slow starting but then we finally figured it out. Ok, Ron figured it out and I followed suit. Here’s what was working for us.
We tied on a small jig and put a real small split shot about six-inches above the jig and then put on a plastic jig. It seemed like black/white was working great but white was too.
They were out from the edge about 20 feet near rocky embankments. We’d flip our jigs up near the shore and very slowly lift our rods as we pulled it in. Almost at a snail pace.
The line would start getting tight and then we’d start reeling. Other than seeing the line go taut you wouldn’t have known that a fish was toying with your jig.
We had very few actually hit our rigs other than a few catfish and a couple of decent bass.
Near the end I hooked on a worm and dropped it over the edge to the bottom to try to hang a catfish. At first I wasn’t doing much other than losing bait but the last 15 minutes I started picking up some nice crappie.
I don’t know what the deal was, I probably lost four for every one that I boated. They’re called papermouths due to their soft mouths and if you horse them too much you’ll rip their lips off but today was ridiculous. I even started netting them at the end so I wouldn’t lose them.
The catfish started hitting at the end so I guess they were moving in at dusk to start feeding.
I like catching them sometimes but don’t really like to eat them much anymore. But, one of these nights I’m going to go build a big fire on the river and catfish until I fall asleep…..which will probably be sometime before midnight.
Gear is pretty simple for crappie. I like a light rod and smaller spinning reel so they can put up a better fight.
For lures I like a small jig and Lake Fork Trophy Lures plastics. Take a few different colors because you never know which color will be the hit of the day. Take some small split shots so you can get down towards the bottom and you’ll be set.
Although, if you can’t find them I like to troll pretty slow with a Cotton Cordell’s Rattlin Trap. When one hits then I know that I’m in a school and I stop and jig. If you get into a school anchor off and fish until they quit biting.
If you get lucky and get a cooler full they’ll keep a lot fresher if you vacuum pack them when you freeze them. I just got a Caso vacuum machine and it is working great for me. Happy fishing.
Tom Claycomb is an outdoor enthusiast and writes a monthly column for the Humboldt Sun.
