Spring crappie fishing

Three weeks ago I got a chance to fish with an old friend of mine.  Ernie used to be my Strike King Representative when I was fishing the bass tournament trail heavy and was sponsored by Strike King.  Through doing business together, we became good friends and even though he was a tournament walleye guy, and I a bass guy, we were able to settle on Crappie fishing as neutral ground where we could get together and have a blast fishing.

We hadn’t seen each other in a couple of years, as the changes in life had pulled us apart, so I was pleased to get the email from Ernie asking me if I still knew how to catch a few Crappies on the west side of the state.  He arrived on a Thursday afternoon for what would be some of the best Crappie fishing we had experienced in a while.

The weather was turbulent, the wind was blowing really hard and the threat of thunderstorms were scattered around the lake area where we fished.  Because of this, I decided to fish an offshore hump, that would give the fish immediate access to deep water, where they would pull into if the storms hit the lake, or shallow spawning cover on top of the hump, where the fish really wanted to be.  The Crappie spawn was running around two weeks behind because of the cold spring, and so either way I figured we had a good shot at getting some fish for the freezer. 

Freezer fish, something that you don’t hear tournament guys talk about too often, being catch and release believers and all.  But unlike the high pressured species like bass, the Crappie population in my favorite lake is beyond healthy.  Limits are relatively easy to catch, you just need to find the big fish.

I am a firm believer in artificial lures, I like to use paddle tail grubs on light lead heads for Crappie fishing.  I catch more fish this way than with live bait, mostly because you can control the vertical fall of a jig, and “tease” the fish into feeding when they are not active.  I can generally out fish a live bait fisherman 5 to 1 with artificial, and have proven that on many occasions.  I like to use a 7ft one piece Ultra Light, Extra Fast Rod, with 2-4lb fluorocarbon line.  Crappies like to stack vertical and feed up, so the lighter the head you can use, the more natural of a fall the paddle grub will make, which will increase your strikes significantly.

Well, needless to say we found the 11-12” Crappies on the North Side of the Hump.  We caught our limit both days in just a couple of hours, and probably spent more time cleaning fish than catching them. The weather was tough, but we only had one big thunderhead hit the lake, and it never got in the way of the fish biting. 

I have been on this fishing trip, to this spot many times.  I have caught hundreds of quality fish from this one off shore hump.  But the best times I have had fishing this area were times like this, not because the fishing was any better or worse, but because it gave my friend Ernie and I a chance to catch up, share some stories about how God was working in our lives, and catch some Spring Crappies at the peak time of year…What a Blast !!!!

The other great thing about putting fish in the freezer (100 filets in 2 days for me), is that you can have all of your friends over for a summer fish fry, and retell the story of a great day at the lake.  It’s all about the fellowship, that is the great part of hunting and fishing…and a tasty plate of fish from time to time isn’t a bad deal either.

 Blessings from the field and on the water,

Jerry Bastian