Monster Pans

“About 47°F is as cold as the water ever gets here. The bite really heats up for numbers of fish in Postspawn, in May and June. In Prespawn, black crappies don’t stay in those cypress trees, so timing is key. They move in for only an hour or so. They’ve usually finished spawning when whites start spawning.”

Some 250 miles north of Santee-Cooper and 150 miles from the sea, the window on John Kerr Reservoir opens two weeks later—some time in mid- to late March most years. Kerr is a crappie factory. In contrast to Santee-Cooper, it’s a classic hill-land reservoir, highly dendritic (lots of creek arms or “tribs”) with a river channel that averages about 50 feet in depth. Covering 48,900 acres at normal pool level, it’s the largest body of fresh water in Virginia, yet about 10 percent of it lies in North Carolina. Kerr regularly produces the largest crappies each year in both states.

In early March, crappies are staging, suspended over 20- to 25-foot channels in the major tribs like Buffalo Creek. By mid-March, as water temperatures reach the high 50°F range, crappies begin moving into 2 to 4 feet of water in submerged terrestrial bushes. (This is so typical, we could use the same account to describe the early window in every hill-land reservoir in America, though some key factors that trigger movement do vary slightly, North to South.) Locals use traditional methods, fishing crappie minnows under slipbobbers, using a split shot to take the rig down a foot to three feet and securing the bait with a long-shank Aberdeen hook. Experienced anglers pitch jigs in the 1/32- to 1/16-ounce range tipped with minnows or plastic tails, swimming the package over the top and down the outside edge of the brush. Another method that’s catching on is to target crappies with small spinnerbaits, like the 1/8-ounce Terminator, during extended periods of stable weather, covering water quickly when crappies are most active.

A recent creel census on Kerr revealed that crappies average close to 13 inches—well over a pound. It’s one of a few lakes in North America that consistently produces 3-pound crappies, year after year. Late March represents the crack of the bat for trophy seekers. That’s when the big egg-laden females glide into the shallows for the first time, becoming more vulnerable, more concentrated, and easier to find. One key thing to remember about crappies in any environment at this time of year is the fact that they return to the same shallow spots to forage year after year. Many call this first shallow movement a “prespawn movement,” but that isn’t quite accurate. They first come to the shallows to feed heavily during stable weather, and they often vacate the shallows after cold fronts. Actual spawning usually follows several weeks to a month later.

Kentucky Lake provides an interesting case in contrasts. Like John Kerr, Kentucky Lake is a hill-land reservoir, and it’s located at precisely the same latitude as Kerr. Yet, being situated 650 miles to the west, the window opens a little later without the influence of warming oceanic currents passing nearby. Malcolm Lane, owner of the Hook Line & Sinker Guide Service (270/388-0525), says the first really shallow movements take place in early April most years.