Crappie

As winter progresses and light penetration under the ice lessens, rattling sounds and glow become extra important for helping fish find your baits and for triggering strikes.

With several inches of snow atop ice that’s more than a foot thick and the fish near the bottom, nearly 30 feet below, there is no sunlight to make a metallic spoon shimmer, and it’s tough for fish to see even the boldest lure color unless a lure is almost touching them.

Predator fish find forage largely by hearing, sensing vibration with their lateral lines and via scent through the heart of winter. Lures that rattle deliver critical sound. Tipping lures with natural bait provides scent. Don’t stop there as you consider ice offerings, though. Lures that glow bring the fish’s sense of sight into the equation and help them find your lure even in the darkest of waters.

Learn how crappies, bluegills and perch move as winter progresses and discover the best ice fishing strategies for capitalizing on that understanding.

The progression of winter delivers changes beneath the ice, and as conditions change, fish must move to new spots and alter their behavior. Finding ice fishing success through mid-winter begins with considering the transformation that is taking place and adjusting accordingly with locations and strategies.

Fish Ed and Destination Fish host Jon Thelen spends much of his awake time on the ice throughout winter, whether scouting, filming or testing lures, so he has an outstanding sense of how fish behavior changes as ice season progresses. In Minnesota, where Thelen does the most fishing, changes in panfishing scenarios become noteworthy late in December and early in January.

Learn the value of a float and a jig used together for mid-winter crappie fishing and how two guides use float strategies to put more fish in the boat.

“Often they won’t pull it under,” Lee Pitts said about the float portion of his Float and Fly rig. “It’ll just tip a little or start easting sideways.”

Pitts knows. As a crappie guide on legendary waters of Weiss Lake, Pitts spends most winter days on the water. Winter delivers some of the best action of the year, and one of his most productive crappie fishing techniques when the water gets cold is the float and fly approach, which refers to fishing a jig beneath a set float for slow, subtle presentations at a prescribed depth.

Beaver Lake crappie guide Greg Robinson also relies heavily on floats for winter crappie fishing. That surprises many people, Robinson noted, because they only associate bobbers with extra shallow water. However, Robinson and Pitts are commonly presenting jigs 6 to 10 feet deep. The key is that the float suspends an offering in the strike zone and allows for the extra slow and subtle presentations that are sometimes needed for winter crappie fishing success.

We called on Bobby Garland pro staffers, and they promptly delivered with outstanding holiday shopping ideas that would make any crappie angler happy!

Does the accelerating Christmas countdown find you still scratching your head over what to get your crappie angler, either because you don’t have a clue as where to start or because you think he or she already has everything?

“No problem.” That’s the word from a handful of folks who are familiar both with the intimidating task at hand and who have crappie-fishing expertise. We asked for details, and they provided some outstanding last-minute gift ideas, which offer quick and easy solutions that are sure to be a hit with any crappie angler, from beginner to pro.

We’ve gathered great crappie recipes from friends of Bobby Garland Crappie Baits in anticipation of the excellent crappie catching opportunities that always arrive this time of year.

Don’t go too big with that bird! You don’t want to be overloaded with turkey leftovers. Thanksgiving unofficially kicks off the winter crappie season in much of the country and always delivers some of the best fishing of the year.

Every angler knows that crappie are delightful on the table and can be prepared many ways. It’s easy to just fall on our old faithful ways of cooking fish. To do that is to miss out, though, so we asked some close friends of Bobby Garland Crappie Baits to share some of their favorite ways of cooking crappie.

Ledges hold big concentrations of crappie this time of year. Learn how three veteran anglers find and catch crappie from ledges.

Crappie stay on the go in autumn, either looking for a quick meal during favorable conditions or seeking shelter, when the weather turns nasty. Some of the best places to find fall crappie that are moving are ledges, which are available in almost every lake in the country.

“A ledge in our part of the country is definitely a change in water depth, and most of the time, it is a pretty abrupt, pretty quick change,” said Freddie Sinclair, a full-time guide on North Carolina’s Jordan, Harris and Falls lakes. “Most of our ledges are hard bottom and rock.” Sinclair noted that a ledge could be a main channel drop along the old river channel or a creek channel drop in a cove or bay.

Texas angler Jeff Schwieterman defines a ledge as “a rapid change in depth – more of a vertical drop than slow slanting.” This crappie tournament veteran said depth changes of ledges can range from 1 foot up to 10 feet or more on the waters he frequently fishes. 

We talked with avid angler and professional meteorologist Dick Faurot about the effects of weather on fishing.

Most of us who have a passion for outdoor activities – like crappie fishing – are adept at staying on top of the weather. We have our favorite phone weather apps at our fingertips, and we know how to use them. In fact, we might be more accurate in forecasting our backyard weather than are the TV weather folks, right?

My longtime fishing buddy and retired meteorologist friend Dick Faurot laughed when I shared that thought with him, nodding like he’d heard that before.

“I’ve found when you’re right no one remembers, but when you’re wrong no one forgets,” said the Oklahoma native, who spent a combined total of 42 years in on-air weather duties with CBS-affiliated stations between Lafayette, La. and Tulsa. We are right f-a-a-a-a-r more often than we get credit for, and I like to use the analogy that we do a much better job of forecasting the weather than economists do of forecasting the economy.

“Weather is something we can’t be completely specific about every moment of every day,” he continued.

Building glow into your crappie fishing strategies can help you catch more fish, especially when the bite is tough.

“Anyone can catch a crappie when they are biting, but when the crappie are not aggressive or the bite tapers off, that’s when using a Mo’ Glo lure or Mo’ Glo Slab Jam will get you bites,” said Mississippi crappie guide Brad Chappell.

Chappell relies on Bobby Garland’s Mo’ Glo lures, which glow in the dark, when fishing deep, early in the morning or late afternoon.

When long lining, Chappell will typically rig a 1/24- to 1/8-ounce Crappie Pro Mo’ Glo Jighead. The weight of the jighead depends on what depth he is targeting.

Crappie dock shooting expert Terry Blankenship pins fall as prime time for shooting. We asked him for the details about his favorite way to catch crappie.

“I’m sorry we picked such a busy lake day,” Terry Blankenship said with a wry grin as he made a U-turn on the ramp in preparation to back his boat down. There wasn’t another vehicle at the facility, nor a boat in sight, where we were launching on Missouri’s famed crappie water, Lake of the Ozarks.

“That’s the other thing I love about fishing this time of year, I pretty much have the lake to myself during the week,” Blankenship said.

The “other thing” reference wrapped up a discussion we’d had during our 20-minute drive from his home. Blankenship had been telling me why he likes fall best for dock shooting. “From now all the way up to the end of December, this is THE prime time to be dock shooting, and it’s absolutely the most exciting way to crappie fish I’ve ever experienced,” he said.