“Oxbow lakes are created by exceptionally high flows that suddenly flood several hundred acres of land above an outside bend in the river,” Capps explains. The Army Corps of Engineers piles up huge walls of rock where the banks of the Mississippi often blow out, but loss of wetlands, lock-and-dam mistakes, and other poor excuses for engineering over the years have caused floods to be much worse than in the past, so the water often rolls right over these rockwalls in a big flood. “The river then gouges deep holes in the tilled soil behind the ****s,” Capps says. “Sometimes these holes are over 40 feet deep. These oxbows look more like rainbows. They’re big, bow-shaped areas, long and narrow, from 1/2 to 2 miles long and up to 400 yards wide.

“Some oxbow lakes are connected to the river in times of high water,” Capps notes. “But during summer, crappies are trapped there. The biggest crappie I’ve ever seen came out of an oxbow. If they had to live in the river proper, I don’t think we’d see many of them in the Mississippi. Catching one out in the main river in that turbid, heavy flow is unusual. They would rather remain in the oxbows year ’round. And actually, oxbows create the finest crappie fishing in my home region of Tennessee.”

In exceptional high-water events, crappies can be flushed out of oxbows. Rock ****s that follow the banks of the river are submerged in high water when spring floods wash out deep cuts behind the riprap. “Crappies often hold right there, behind that rock face,” Capps says. “About 60 of these ****s have been placed near Dyersburg, Tennessee, to keep barge traffic moving through the resulting distinct channel.

“Crappies spawn in these oxbows and try to live there year ’round, if the river lets them. They spawn late in these environments. Males remain in spawning colors as late as August. In fact, the best fishing occurs during July and August, when the water drops to fishable levels. Much of the year, it’s neither safe nor fun to be out there. I do better when the water drops and clears enough for fish to see lures.

“When the water’s high, oxbow crappies move into secondary channels and sloughs, where they hug the bank. Most of them position behind points and bars and out of the current in 5 feet of water. But in times of high water, current is everywhere and crappies can’t escape it. In April, May, and June, they’re blown out of the oxbows and into the trees. The best time to concentrate on oxbow crappies in the southern portions of the Mississippi River is during the dog days of July and August, when the fish are concentrated, comfortable, and active.”