Spring Crappie

[Mobasser]

Last spring, I watched a young boy and his dad fishing for crappie. The crappie were ganged up around a big fallen tree, in shallow water. The kid had a cane pole and live minnows. Every time he dropped a minnow near this tree, he would pull out a crappie. His dad helped him re bait, and he'd do it again. The kid was having a blast.                                                        I often target crappie at ice out. We use light action spinning rods and jigs. Tube jigs have been a great producer for us. We usually jig vertically right near the canoe. I've realized that I've caught many over the years by dropping the jig down, and holding it motionless. As the water warms, the crappie move more shallow.                                         I like to use a weighted float made by Comal Tackle which has a pear shape, and helps with casting distance. Slowly reel this rig in. It's caught scores of crappie for us over the years.                                                       The Charlie Brewer Weedless  Crappie Slider is another good one. For these, I like a rod with a little more backbone.You can throw these over all sorts of cover.                             4 or 6 lb mono lines are all I've ever used. Color combos with chartreuse have always been good. Crappie can be finicky, and it pays to carry a few different styles of jigs. Tubes, grubs, and small minnow styles can all work good, and I've found that throwing a changeup bait will often catch a few more.                                                      I'm my state of Missouri, when the crappies move into shallow water, everybody goes crappie fishing. The shorelines are lined with folks of all ages, with minnow buckets everywhere. It's a good time to be a fisherman. What are your rigs for spring time crappie?

[DitchPanda]

38 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

Last spring, I watched a young boy and his dad fishing for crappie. The crappie were ganged up around a big fallen tree, in shallow water. The kid had a cane pole and live minnows. Every time he dropped a minnow near this tree, he would pull out a crappie. His dad helped him re bait, and he'd do it again. The kid was having a blast.                                                        I often target crappie at ice out. We use light action spinning rods and jigs. Tube jigs have been a great producer for us. We usually jig vertically right near the canoe. I've realized that I've caught many over the years by dropping the jig down, and holding it motionless. As the water warms, the crappie move more shallow.                                         I like to use a weighted float made by Comal Tackle which has a pear shape, and helps with casting distance. Slowly reel this rig in. It's caught scores of crappie for us over the years.                                                       The Charlie Brewer Weedless  Crappie Slider is another good one. For these, I like a rod with a little more backbone.You can throw these over all sorts of cover.                             4 or 6 lb mono lines are all I've ever used. Color combos with chartreuse have always been good. Crappie can be finicky, and it pays to carry a few different styles of jigs. Tubes, grubs, and small minnow styles can all work good, and I've found that throwing a changeup bait will often catch a few more.                                                      I'm my state of Missouri, when the crappies move into shallow water, everybody goes crappie fishing. The shorelines are lined with folks of all ages, with minnow buckets everywhere. It's a good time to be a fisherman. What are your rigs for spring time crappie?

The body of water I frequent most often is actually two connected ponds. One larger and deeper with mostly sand bottom the other smaller pond is also shallower with more mud mixed in on the bottom. Obviously the smaller body warms faster so that is where I focus my energy early on. I've had good success fishing the north shore for both bass and crappie...for the crappie I use a small tube jig under a slip bobber reeled back painfully slow.

[basscrusher]

What plastics do you like on the slider weedless crappie heads?  I'm a dedicated user of the regular slider heads, but haven't experimented much with the little crappie jigs

[Mobasser]

27 minutes ago, basscrusher said:

What plastics do you like on the slider weedless crappie heads?  I'm a dedicated user of the regular slider heads, but haven't experimented much with the little crappie jigs

I use the Brewer Crappie Slider plastic baits. Chartreuse, Pearl White, and chat/ blue have been good colors

[basscrusher]

Do you mean the little 2 inch paddle tails with the ringworm type body?  I have lots of those I fish on jigheads and drop shots

[gim]

17 hours ago, Mobasser said:

I'm my state of Missouri, when the crappies move into shallow water, everybody goes crappie fishing. The shorelines are lined with folks of all ages, with minnow buckets everywhere.

 

This happens in MN too.  Hordes of people line the shore and try to catch them when they are in a vulnerable area of shallow water preparing to spawn.  Very few people release them.

 

Right now the crappies are being absolutely hammered by ice anglers.  There are literally hundreds of houses out there targeting them on most lakes that have them.  Again, very few people are releasing them.

 

I wish they would close the season for harvest of crappies during their spawn and create a minimum size to keep.  They are just like any other fish and should be protected during their spawning cycle in the spring.

 

As for targeting them, April and early May is the spring ice-out period.  I usually go a few times before bass season opens in mid-May.  I often use minnows under a float, but once I catch a few, I switch over to small plastics.  I haven't kept one in years.  The biggest one I caught last spring was 12.5 inches.  I'd really like to catch of the 15+ inchers that this lake is famous for.

[MN Fisher]

Just now, gimruis said:

Hordes of people line the shore and try to catch them when they are in a vulnerable area of shallow water preparing to spawn.

With Minnetonka's shore areas getting smaller - it's shoulder-to-shoulder along the shore spots still available once the ice is gone...sometimes even before ice-out has been declared since the smaller areas (Black Lake, the channels) open up before the last floes disappear from the big bays.

[Mobasser]

53 minutes ago, basscrusher said:

Do you mean the little 2 inch paddle tails with the ringworm type body?  I have lots of those I fish on jigheads and drop shots

Yes

[MN Fisher]

18 hours ago, Mobasser said:

What are your rigs for spring time crappie?

Well...I've reorged my combos and dedicated two to panfishing...with a rod for a third on my wishlist.

 

1000 size on UL/F - 4# Sufix Elite (once I have the rod)

2000 size on L/F rod - 4# YZH

2500 size on ML/MF rod - 6# Sufix Elite

 

1/32-1/16 oz jigs with 1"-2" plastics from SK Mr. Crappie line - straight cast/retrieve or slip bobber (UL/F rig)

1/8-1/4oz jigs with 2"-3" plastics or live chub minnows - straight cast/retrieve or slip bobber (L/F rig)

Small cranks - Ratlin' Rap 04, Shad Rap 04, etc - (ML/MF rig)

[Bluebasser86]

Ned rig. I have days I catch more and bigger crappie than the guys fishing for them while I'm fishing a Ned for bass. It's frustrating at times.

[Basser2021]

For springtime crappie I have two go-to baits

 

1. Berkley Powerbait white grubs on a 1/8 oz jighead

 

2. Strike king Mr crappie slabalicious tuxedo black and charteruse  1/16 oz jighead 

[tander]

I use primary 11 foot jig poles made by B&M and Lews. I use a small spinning reel or a underspin on them with 6# test. I like the stand tube jig along with the Charlie Brewer grubs. My all time best jig is a solid pink hair jig made by Slater jigs,

[Skunkmaster-k]

I fish minnows in the early spring ,  as the water warms I use a lot of Bobby Garlands monkey milk and electric chicken on a 1/16 oz ball head jig. 

[Luke Barnes]

I got really into crappie fishing a few years ago and bought a 9' L jigging rod and I use my UL for them too but I didnt fish for crappie a single time in 2021 because I got hooked on the bait monkey train and was constantly experimenting with new lures for bass. I think this year I'll go crappie fishing a few times. 

[GANGGREEN]

On 1/26/2022 at 9:13 AM, gimruis said:

 

This happens in MN too.  Hordes of people line the shore and try to catch them when they are in a vulnerable area of shallow water preparing to spawn.  Very few people release them.

 

Right now the crappies are being absolutely hammered by ice anglers.  There are literally hundreds of houses out there targeting them on most lakes that have them.  Again, very few people are releasing them.

 

I wish they would close the season for harvest of crappies during their spawn and create a minimum size to keep.  They are just like any other fish and should be protected during their spawning cycle in the spring.

 

As for targeting them, April and early May is the spring ice-out period.  I usually go a few times before bass season opens in mid-May.  I often use minnows under a float, but once I catch a few, I switch over to small plastics.  I haven't kept one in years.  The biggest one I caught last spring was 12.5 inches.  I'd really like to catch of the 15+ inchers that this lake is famous for.

 

Ha ha!   I'm down in South Carolina now (purchased a seasonal home where we reside from winter-spring).   To be honest, it takes some time to get used to the culture of "catch and keep" because as a northern angler, even many of the panfish guys are catch and release at least part of the time.  Down here, they keep everything and I'm not kidding.   The good news is that the limit here is 20, so at least they aren't catching and keeping 50 per angler/day.  Most of the locals scoff at the idea that targeting and killing Crappie will ever hurt the population and on some of these lakes they're quite literally catching thousands per day.  I think the answer is to gradually get folks to accept a moderated harvest, where you keep some small-midsize fish and release most of the big ones (not a day goes by that I don't see photos of 2 pound fish that are harvested), but not sure if that's ever going to play here.   Sure is fun to see lots of Crappie and some outsized ones though.