Spring Crappie Outline

However April is here and those feisty crappies will soon be charging up the swollen ice choked rivers and inlets. Warmer water is what they are persuing; warmer water where the ecosystem's first life begins. This what spring crappie fishing is all about. The subconscious feeling of many fishermen is that "the best time of year is the spring". This statement is both TRUE and FALSE. The reason most people feel spring is best is because the fish tend to concentrate close to shore in shallow water. Before the ice has left these shallow water haunts the crappies will be migrating to their favorite snack-bar. This is indeed is the best time to catch these tasty little critters -- around bridges, marinas, inlets, harbours, swamps, and anywhere you can fish from shore.

Spring is NOT my favorite time of year to fish for crappies! But it is the best time to catch crappies shallow. However, you may be surprised to find that the slabs won't generally be among those caught in these areas.

From my observations, crappies are more unsettled in the spring and fall. They school up into tight schools and move in and out of shallow water haunts frequently. You might have a great day fishing by the old bridge, only to find no fish for the next week. Then have one so-so day followed by two great evenings, and so on. It can be feast or famine when these weather driven crappies are moving around. That is why I prefer summer and winter crappie fishing over spring and fall. Crappies will set up residence on structure and preferred areas in the lake, AND THIS IS WHERE THE BIG ONES LIVE.

To make your spring fishing more consistent, try keeping this little formula in mind.

When you get two to three days of warm clear days, the crappies will be migrating to shallow warm water. Crappies will disperse back to the main lake drop-offs when it rains heavily for eight hours or more, and temperatures drop.

Another observation you might want to note is how big your spring crappies are: 6",7",8",9", maybe 10", or even 11"? Many spring fishing areas do not hold the larger 11" to 14" crappies. The larger fish tend not to travel up stream or to the shallow back areas of marinas, canals and harbours. Rather, they tend to keep to the deeper water, thus not traveling in as far as the smaller, more aggressive fish. Always check the deepest waters in the area you're fishing -- especially if there is any structure close by.

Another point to consider when you are selecting an area to fish is it's location relative to deep water. Any smaller area that has a fifteen to forty foot drop-off within a thousand feet is a good bet to produce more and larger crappies.

Check out the old map and see if you can spot these deep water haunts close to any impoundments you are considering fishing. Remember that the deep is where the crappies live, and the warm spring shallows are where they feed. In and out, back and forth -- that's the crappies life.

For you who wish to brush up on your spring presentation, and for you new comers to crappie fishing. Who would like to learn some great crappie techniques and presentations, read my previous editions of "Northern Crappie Views" in back issues of the TFN Web-zine (available from the Web-zine Archives. In these back issues you will learn: what type of equipment to use ( boats, rods, jigs, etc.), fishing techniques, how to make crappies lures you can't buy, how to read the waters for better crappie fishing. Catch it all on the back issues.

...Rocky Madsen

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