How to locate Spring Crappie
Spring crappie fishing is great when you can locate where the crappie are at, this time of year. The spring crappie fishing season kicks off when water temperatures are at 70 degrees or better, this time of year there are a lot of things going on with crappie, some are starting to spawn, others are hungry and starting their spring feeding patterns. With the water temperatures starting to rise, so is their metabolism and crappie are getting active. You may ask yourself where will I start fishing on the lake. One place to look is around shallow flats with standing timber, moss beds or a combination of both. You need to look for, main lake points and from s
econdary points all the way to the back of coves, with hydrilla or milfoil, this is what makes spring crappie fishing so good. With cooler water temperatures this allows them to hide in abundant cover. All of these spots are excellent choices during spawn time and you can throw anything from ¼ oz to ½ oz spinnerbaits, small lipped crankbaits to little roadrunners or beetle spins with white tails. Usually you can pick up some nice spring crappie fishing these areas in 2 to 10 foot of water with good stands of hydrilla or milfoil.
To find where crappie are staying in deeper waters you will need a boat with a depth finder to find brush piles in 13 to 25 foot of water to experience some fantastic spring time crappie fishing. Some of the best places to look will be at the tips of secondary points, these are points that are the next point from the main lake point itself and these brush piles are in 20 to 25 foot of water. You can catch these spring crappie fishing vertically, you will use anything from crappie jigs, beetle spins to live medium size minnows. Look for creek bends that are ½ way back into coves with standing timber, this will be another place that crappie will stage. When coves have timber that breaks off and sinks to the bottom of the lake, the rains come then the currents in the creek pushes the timber into the creekbends and stacks up, this creates excellent cover for great spring crappie fishing.
The next spot for spring crappie fishing we will head for the submerged bridges and bridges with pylons. Pylons hold a lot of structure, this structure can be willows, cedar trees or oak tree tops. Over the years local fishermen have dropped and anchored this structure with concrete. This man made structure can be in depths of 18 to 45 feet of water, the reason for diff
erent depths is when water temperatures increase the crappie will go deeper because crappies comfort zone is 75 degrees. Thermoclines are created that is a thin line sandwiched between 80 degree water on top and can be 65 degrees below the thermocline, crappie will suspend in the thermocline. This is very important for August and September because crappie can be as deep as 35 to 40 feet, so trying to locate crappie in those deep water haunts can be difficult and time consuming, and this is why spring crappie fishing can be so much fun fishing in the shallows.
Crappie is also referred as panfish in the northern parts of the country because when filleted they are skillet size. Spring time is a fantastic time for families to get together before it gets too hot, this is why it’s always a perfect time to do some spring crappie fishing.
