Arkansas Outdoors

Prime time for Arkansas crappie approaches

For the next few weeks, crappie fishing will be a marquee attraction in the Natural State as crappie migrate to shallow water to spawn.

Right now, spawn phase varies by location. Bill Eldridge of Benton, an experienced and accomplished crappie angler on Lake Ouachita, reported last week that he found crappie at 30 feet in the middle section of the lake. The fish lacked color, suggesting they were in the early pre-spawn phase.

The spawn advances rapidly as weather and water warm, so Ouachita's crappie are probably shallower now despite constant rain that has kept water temperatures cool.

They'll be on the bank spawning almost overnight, so don't blink.

Lakes Conway and Overcup and other shallow impoundments and oxbows warm faster. You'll find crappie there on hard bottoms near aquatic grass, cypress trees, laydowns and bankside brush.

If you can find two or three laydowns that drop into a deep pocket, you can catch a limit without scarcely moving the boat. When I find a place like that, I anchor my boat by the bow and stern and suspend 1/32-ounce marabou jigs under a balsa pencil bobber. I use white, chartreuse and yellow jigs, but white consistently catches the most fish.

I like a 5-foot-6-inch Falcon Ultralight rod with 4-pound test line. The light line gives the light jig a bit more action than 6-pound test.

Crappie can be skittish in clear, shallow water. The balsa pencil bobber offers virtually no resistance when a crappie takes the jig. Setting the hook is as easy as lifting the rod.

On small rivers like the Saline, I catch a lot of crappie from canoes by daubing jigs beside fallen trees next to the channel.

On big rivers, crappie are suspended in deep backwaters and sidewaters. There is almost no cover in Arkansas River sidewaters, but these areas provide refuge from the swift current of the main river. The hard, sandy bottom is ideal spawning habitat. These waters are also loaded with shad, so they contain everything a crappie needs.

Instead of concentrating on brushpiles, crappie gather over subtle features such as short drops, indentations or crease channels.

Catching these fish requires precise use of an electronic graph to determine the depth where they are suspending. If the bottom is at 20 feet to 24 feet, for example, crappie might be suspending at 15 feet to 16 feet. Crappie generally rise to take a bait, but they seldom go down. Therefore, your jig should be 8 inches to 16 inches above the main depth of concentration.

If current allows, you can cast a jig and count it down to the proper depth. In calm water, a 1/16-ounce jig falls about 1 foot per second. When you hit the proper count, retrieve it very slowly.

Tight-lining a jig vertically eliminates some of the guesswork because you can see your jig on a good graph. That tells you if it's at the right depth. You can even watch the strike on the screen.

If fish are holding really tight, I often tie three dropper lines on a main line anchored by a 1/4-ounce bell sinker. The dropper lines are about 8 inches apart. I try to suspend the bell sinker as close to the depth of the crappie as possible. If they show a preference for a specific dropper, I switch to a single line and fish at that depth.

This is also a good method for finding a reliable strike depth on brushpiles, but fishing brushpiles is really a separate genre that could support an entire book.

Spider rigging is the most productive method for finding and catching fish over brush. It involves drifting multiple rods with baits set at different depths over brushpiles.

Rods can be in holders arrayed down the length of the boat. Because rods are far apart, this method requires several anglers to watch multiple bobbers and to lift rods when bobbers plunge.

A single angler can use a spider rig frame on the bow. The angler sits behind the rods and runs the trolling motor, enabling him to watch the graph and adjust bait depths without assistance.

Crappie are never easier to catch than in the spring, but don't hesitate. The glory days don't last long.

Sports on 03/17/2019

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