With enough effort, you can use a topo map to plot the annual migration cycle with amazing accuracy. A topo map, which pinpoints changes in depth and underwater structure, can be an invaluable tool. Successful year-round crappie fishermen like Wilson have learned to master two tools that some people have never considered incorporating in their crappie gameplan - topographical maps and a fine-detailed paper graph or liquid crystal display depthfinder. And there is a variance of depth that allows them to easily adjust to any change in the weather or the lake level by simply moving shallower or deeper." The entire food chain gravitates toward a breakline. A breakline that has cover on it provides them with everything they need. I believe that crappie are opportunistic predators and they look for opportunities every day to move up shallower to ambush baitfish. "Except for the actual spawn, the key to following crappie is to always concentrate on some type of ledge or drop-off. "Over the years, I've become a breakline fisherman," Wilson explains. It is not oversimplifying matters to say that any bottom contour irregularity that features a sharp change in depth and wooden structure like stumps or brush can hold crappie. That knowledge has proven invaluable as a crappie guide over the years because it has enabled him to fish for the most unmolested crappie of all.Ĭrappie will relate to some type of drop-off throughout its life, with the exception of the spring spawn and a brief period in the fall. As a bass fisherman, he learned to interpret the pixels of a depthfinder as well as most of us can read a newspaper and mastered the art of fishing submerged structure like channel edges, ledges and other types of drop-offs. Wilson, who fishes for crappie about 250 days a year, estimates that about 75 percent of his time is spent fishing away from the bank and in deep water. Armed with that knowledge, crappie can be patterned in similar fashion to bass. The rest of the year is spent in deep water, an arena that is foreign to the vast majority of crappie fishermen. Based on water temperature and seasonal patterns, they know that crappie will move shallow to spawn in the spring and to feed heavily during a short period in the fall. Long-time crappie enthusiasts who keep a logbook to chart the migration of crappie can predict with impressive accuracy when and where the fish will be located at any given point during the year. The key to following crappie throughout the year is understanding the annual migration cycle that they religiously follow and accepting the fact that it is, primarily, a deep-water being. And the reality is that crappie can be caught 365 days of the year, including the hottest and coldest times imaginable. As a result, many fishermen simply retire their rods after the fish leave the shallows, apparently in belief that the species must hibernate during the other 10 months of the year.īut crappie experts like Joe Wilson know the truth about their favorite gamefish. The rest of their lives are lived in places that are invisible to the naked eye, lairs that take some skill and determination to find. With a few exceptions, crappie inhabit shallow water only during the spring spawning ritual. "But more fishermen are learning to fish deeper out of necessity."Īlthough catching crappie in shallow, visible cover is the epitome of the sport (especially when the fish are spawning), the cold, hard facts of life are that America's most sought-after panfish is, basically, a deep-water creature. "Most crappie fishermen are strictly shallow-water fishermen, which is the reason they don't catch crappie year-round," Wilson says. In crappie-fishing language, there was nobody home where they were fishing. But this was early July and the spawn had long been forgotten. It was obvious that Wilson was incredulous that his fellow fishermen had remained inshore, fishing the same places that were once laden with spawning crappie. "They won't catch anything in that kind of depth," he said above the roar of the outboard. As he idled outward, Wilson waved to several boatloads of other crappie fishermen that were casting to the shoreline cover.Īs he pointed the boat toward the open lake, Wilson slowly shook his head in disbelief. The sun had just begun to make its presence felt, but it was already a muggy Mississippi morning as Joe Wilson launched his boat into Columbus Lake for yet another guide trip for the fat crappie of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
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