Lessons Learned & Top Picks

Pick Prime Waters

Other times, great catches occur with planning and good direction. A bit of luck never hurts, either, when it comes to weather conditions. After giving a presentation for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife some years ago, Editor Steve Quinn was invited to fish famous Kentucky Lake with Kenneth Bucy, veteran fishery technician on Kentucky Lake. His father had fished the Tennessee River and its tributaries prior to Kentucky Dam’s closure in 1944 and passed on his knowledge. Though cool, cloudy conditions kept bigger crappies off the banks and away from stakebed attractors, they found fish along channel breaks in secondary creeks, suspended in 10 to 18 feet. Adjusting tube jigs to match the sonar readout, they reported finding the plump prespawn fish easy pickings for their array of poles deployed off the bow. They tallied dozens of big fish and six over 2 pounds apiece for the day, all the biggest ones prespawn white crappies.

Crappie Hotspots

This overview is not meant to be a complete guide to the best crappie waters. They’re far too numerous and widespread to discuss here. Instead, we offer a look at two key areas that offer many excellent fishing opportunities. This model can serve as you consider other prime regions, including California, Florida, the crappie belt of the central states, and the North Country.

Lone Star Lunkers: In his travels, Doug Stange has been impressed with the numbers of good-sized crappies available at many Texas impoundments. While Lake Fork, Sam Rayburn, and Toledo Bend contain excellent populations of big black and white crappie, Stange’s found that many smaller reservoirs also contain high-quality crappie that typically are less fished than these famous waters. “Texas Parks and Wildlife Department does a great job of surveying their fish populations and making the information available to anglers on their website [tpwd.state.tx.us],” Stange says. “I’ve located several waters in different parts of the state that were rated excellent, and the fishing is indeed very good. Check out lakes like Eagle Mountain, Cypress Springs, Ray Roberts, Coffee Mill, or Richland Chambers, to name but a few.”

Mississippi Monsters: ­In-Fisherman contributor Roger Bullock has sought big crappies across the country for the last 30 years and has recognized the lunker potential of Mississippi. “Because of the well-deserved reputation of Arkabutla and Sardis lakes, they’ve become targets of intense fishing pressure from trophy hunters and tournament anglers as well as meat hogs,” he notes.

“Sardis still produces 3-pound crappie, but you may have to visit the lake several times to make that happen,” Bullock says. “The two Mississippi lakes that are presently producing most lunker crappies are Grenada and Enid. Grenada probably is the best of the best for outsized slabs. At a tournament with a 7-fish limit, the winning weight was 21.7 pounds! True 4-pounders have been verified by fishery workers and game wardens there.”

Roger Gant fishes those lakes too, as well as Pickwick Reservoir on the Tennessee River. “Pickwick is a superb crappie lake,” he says, “that’s overlooked due to the attention it gets for smallmouth. And it’s overshadowed by Kentucky Lake, which lies directly downstream. I primarily fish the north section of Pickwick, where most fish run 1 to 11⁄2 pounds, but we get plenty over 2 pounds as well. Arkabutla, in contrast, is a very fertile, dark-water lake that grows huge crappies and grows ’em fast. It’s a rare tournament where a 3-pounder isn’t weighed in,” says Gant.

“If you want loads of nice crappies but aren’t necessarily looking for a trophy, try Sardis. That reservoir has more crappies per acre than any lake I’ve ever seen. Though they have pretty fair crappie fishing in Missouri, all those folks come to Sardis in the spring.”

Conservation Concepts

“Fishing pressure is taking a toll on our lakes, though,” Gant admits. “Today’s crappie fishermen are knowledgeable and versatile. They’re rigged with hi-tech sonar and multiple poles and they cover productive structure like a combine through a wheatfield; it’s not fishing, it’s harvesting.

“I recommend reducing the daily bag limit, which stands at 30 fish here. For three anglers in a boat, that’s 90 crappie maybe weighing 150 pounds. What’s going to happen to all those fish? I’ve seen anglers clean a limit, pack ’em in a freezer in their camper, and go out to catch more. Our lakes are productive and some people say they can’t put a dent in the population. But that’s what folks said about the ocean, too.”

Calls for conservation are heard from nearly all knowledgeable crappie anglers and observers of the crappie fishing scene. Fishing success can be increased and strong year-classes prolonged by innovative regulations that match the growth rate and mortality rate of the population, while addressing the objectives and attitudes of local anglers. When fishing is hot, lower bag limits save fish and spread the catch. Moreover, they force anglers to release more fish, a regulation they find far less objectionable than they thought they would.

In Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Ohio, and other states where crappie rank high in popularity, length limits (usually 10 or 12 inches) have been imposed on popular spots. In Kansas, Coffey County Lake, a prime fishery, is managed with a limit of two 14-inchers per day. Though few definitive evaluations have been done, increased fishing success has generally been reported.

Panfish anglers everywhere should adopt the philosophy of selective harvest, which encourages anglers to voluntarily release the biggest crappies, while keeping a modest number of smaller fish for immediate consumption. Voluntary release has proven effective and acceptable among trout fishermen for 50 years and with bass and muskies for most of the last 25. When will crappies get their turn?

Whites or Blacks?

Few anglers clearly differentiate fishing patterns for black and white crappies. In their records, several states don’t even distinguish between them.

Only one study has compared the movement patterns of black and white crappies, done at Kentucky Lake by biologist Ryan Oster. He found major differences in the movements and preferred seasonal habitats of the two species, factors that strongly affect angling locations, methods, and success. The study provides valuable clues when fishing waters with both species.

“During the early Prespawn Period,” says Oster, “both species hold along deep creek channels and ledges over 10 feet in depth, though some fish start to move onto shallower flats as well. As early as mid-March, both species move to classic prespawn cover in water less than 5 feet deep, though whites consistently remain a bit deeper.

“During the spawn, both species occupied shallow brush and vegetation, shallow flats, and rocky banks, but black crappies were consistently shallower than whites. This differential depth preference held through the year. The typical pattern after the spawn is for anglers to leave the shallows and troll offshore breaks, where they catch lots of white crappies.

“At the same time, though, most black crappies remain shallow in the same types of cover they occupied during the spawn. To target black crappies during spring and summer, anglers should consider casting jigs or float rigs near submerged stumps and logs.”

To be most effective, crappie anglers should take a two-pronged approach, fishing shallow or deeper depending on relative species abundance and size, as well as activity levels. Biologists have been finding hybrid crappies in a growing number of waters across the U.S. Their movements and behavior have not been defined, but should be more or less intermediate between the two parental species.