Catch More Springtime Crappie

By TAM Sta

It’s the time of year when crappie shing can get mighty easy. However, you can always strive to load the cooler with more and bigger sh. Here are a few tips:

• Know Your Prey: Crappie are on the move this time of year. ey might be staged up at prespawn or postspawn depths, or they might be right up on the banks in a foot and a half of water spawning. Knowing their cycles will help you nd them.

Before and a er they spawn, crappie hold on brush and structure just outside of their spawning areas. ey move up into the shallows to spawn in waves, and this can go on for a month or more. So, while some sh are easy targets when they’re spawning or guarding fry on super-shallow brush, there are other, possibly larger, sh feeding a little deeper.

If you’re not catching the numbers or size you’d like to see in the shallows, get on the trolling motor and use your sonar to nd the creek channels and rst drops o the spawning areas. Find some good brush or search the fronts of docks. You might nd big schools slab crappie. Pitch jigs or minnows to individual brushpiles or slow troll these deeper areas to nd sh.

• Ditch the Bobber: A minnow under a bobber is a traditional and e ective crappie rig. It is not, however the most e cient way to catch them in most situations. During the spawn, male crappie are the ones that stay shallow and guard the nests. ey are aggressive, and they are not necessarily feeding when they attack. ese sh are particularly susceptible to gaudy, brightly colored jigs.

Crappie jigs are the best way to cover water both on spawning banks and on deeper brush. Even when they’re feeding heavily, crappie on brush won’t chase their prey more than a few feet. A jig allows you to make numerous casts and thoroughly cover the water horizontally and vertically in the time it would take to hook and soak a single minnow under a bobber.

Move quickly until you nd the you can slow down and catch them all. If you still want to support the local live bait store, go ahead and buy some minnows and thread them through the lips on a crappie jig.

• Scent: You might not need it all the time to catch sh, but scent helps crappie nd your lure and convinces them to eat. It doesn’t hurt to tip your jig with a minnow, and arti cial attractants like PowerBait Crappie Nibbles or JJ’s Magic can sometimes make them bite when they’ve got lockjaw.

• Network: Make friends with other crappie anglers. ere’s no shortage of available crappie in most lakes. Sharing information with other anglers helps everyone stay on top of the sh. You don’t have to tell anyone where you sunk your Christmas tree in January, but a little give and take doesn’t hurt when you’re talking about stages of the spawn or e ective colors.

For more crappie shing, visit www.coastalanglermag.com.

Considering a variety of specie and weather-related factors, I’d like to present some early-year cold but open water options to help cure the cabin fever so many of us are currently suffering from.

Mogadore’s East End - long acknowledged as a premier ice fishing panfish destination, largely due to its shallowness, the same lack of depth that freezes early is also renowned for being a notoriously early locale for an early thaw and early spring prespawn largemouth bass hotspot. Focusing primarily around the Congress Lake Road areas, early spring anglers will opt for jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits, and jigs for varying degrees of success.

Conneaut Harbor - smallmouth bass of outstanding average size reliably congregate along and just off this storied Lake Erie harbor town’s east and west break-walls every year, with the best bite initiating in late March /early April and concluding for the most part in early May. Tube baits are the top choice in the 1/4 oz. jighead size to best plumb the 15-25’ waters you’ll be fishing. I recommend spinning gear and 8 lb. line.

Upper Cuyahoga River - fewer experiences will better awaken the early year anglers than hooking a couple nice northern pike from Ohio’s most renowned pike waters. From Hiram Rapids to Munroe Falls, the river is home to a very decent population of northerns, that while not attaining the average sizes of those that once made the river downstream famous as easily the state’s best, still can match the catches that so many pay so much to pursue annually in various Canadian waters.

Lake Erie Western Basin Jig & Minnow Bite - Starting most years in later February, the jig & minnow reef bite from the Detroit River down to Put-In-Bay produces impressive catches of some of the big pond’s biggest ‘eyes of the year. Try a medium -action rod of good sensitivity and spool on some 8-10 lb. green ultraclear mono. A very effective lure option that helps cover more water, is Bill Edworthy’s revered “Vib-E” blade bait, attached always with a snap.

Tappan Dam - One of the state’s largely unknown spring secrets is the crappie fishing at Tappan Dam Reservoir in Harrison County. Try your favorite crappie baits and jigs vertically down either side of St. Rt. 250, concentrating primarily just off the cement bridgeworks that tend to warm up early. Try 4lb. mono on your light-action gear, vertically jigged off the side of your boat.

Lake Punderson - This regularly overlooked gem on Geauga County’s southern border harbors an outstanding population of stocky bluegills in its cool, deep waters. Be prepared to fish your ultra-light spinning gear considerably deeper than you might normally. A nice bonus is the ample numbers of varied trout species the state keeps stocked there.

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Article by: Jack Kiser. Host of “Buckeye Angler”. He can be reached at the Buckeye Angler Facebook site, or the new buckeyeangler.com.

April adds more Lake Erie-area fishing options

In years when ice forms over the winter, there is a period of time while the melting ice is too thin to walk on and too thick to get a boat through. By April, local waterways are normally fully ready to fish for a variety of species. For those anglers who aren’t locked onto just catching Walleyes, there are crappie snags to probe and catfish holes to prospect. For crappies, many of the small rivers and large creeks with public access have downed trees or submerged branches along the banks that attract these sweettasting “papermouth” sunfish.

Toussaint, Little Portage, and Turtle Creeks are examples of easy to fish public access areas with an abundant supply of these fish and some room to roam. ODNR boat ramps also offer shoreline access and fishing opportunities. In privately-owned marinas, by first successfully getting permission, minnow-dunkers will find an abundant supply of crappies nesting along boat dock posts, vertical sheet metal piles and rip-rap shorelines that run much larger than those in highly pressured reservoirs inland.

Bullheads can be found virtually everywhere that water flows throughout the region. Where there are no signs posted that prohibit parking and in places with room to pull over, bridges over many creeks provide spots to catch these homely, but delicious oldtime fish-fry staple. This is fishing at its simplest. Baited hook, line and sinker are all that are needed to allow family members of all skill levels to participate in the catching. Youngsters with short attention spans who need to be kept busy and equate catching with success can usually be kept satisfied. Just be sure that someone with experience unhooks the catch, so they do not get a painful puncture wound from one of the erect spines on the top (dorsal) and side (pectoral) fins and ruin their day and willingness to continue fishing.

Their larger cousins, Channel catfish, wake up as the month ticks on and shallow water temperatures warm. Fried catfish and sweet potato fries with cole slaw and perhaps even hushpuppies are a classic southern treat. Smoked catfish is a delicacy that few can pass on when given the opportunity to sample some. While not usually always a target, but always a reason for some excitement, hooking a modest to large carp can create enthusiasm for fishing in beginning anglers. April can offer much more than Walleyes around Lake Erie. a seasoned regular, experiences here stay in your heart for a lifetime.

Article by: John Hageman. John now writes approximately 125 articles per year after retiring from the Ohio Sea Grant/Stone Laboratory - The Ohio State University’s Lake Erie biology station at Put-In-Bay.