C
rappies gather in schools to feed before
a peak spawning time, often when the full
moon takes place or a stretch of warm
weather hits. Schools of fish congregate near
drop-offs, breaks, and other bottom structures
to feed. Finding the schools requires patience
and a collection of bottom hugging baits.
Lead jigs with plastic trailers, Rat-LTraps, and live shiners under a cork
are baits that cover water quickly
Hard to beat when
and hover near the bottom in the
targetting larger
strike zone. This is the time of year
fish, see local
to check deep tree tops, humps,
tackle dealer for the
popular colors.
and ledges for big schools of fish.
Search an area until you locate a
school
of crappie and the depths
Try natural colors for
where the fish are suspended.
clear water and brighter
colors when water was
Lures like Rat-L-Traps and jigs
stained or muddy.
are tools for catching fish. The angler should learn how to use these
lures just as a carpenter learns how
to use a saw and hammer. Banks
with drops in depth from two feet to
six
feet are superb places to begin
Great for
searching. Learning to reel slowly
suspended
crappie in open
enough to keep the lure off the botwater as well as
tom as it falls down the break is a
those holding tight to brush.
vital part of the technique; however,
an occasional contact with the bottom is normal and often needed to
Just slip a head inside the tube
trigger a strike. Understanding the
or rig it on a jig head,
it’s hard to fish
spawn and staging cycle helps deone wrong!
termine which areas to search. In
the early stages of spawning, male
crappies prepare the beds.
After the males have established an area, the
big females move shallow to spawn. The first
gathering takes place in water depths of six to
eight feet in most rivers around Lake
Pontchartrain.
As the water warms and the moon fills,
the fish travel from the deeper drops to the
shallow-water beds. Anglers who fish shallow
miss staging fish. Early spring is a great time
to catch big fish before the spawn takes
place.
The first fish to stage are bigger and more
abundant than bedding fish because they
have not been picked over by other anglers.
Banks with heavy shallow water cover and
deep breaks are great places to start. Canals
and bayous with deep curves or banks are another area to search. Since deep is a relative
term, any break of one foot or more is a possible hot spot. Cover is not always a needed
part of the equation. Use tiny Rat-L-Traps or
horsehead jigs to travel over a spot quickly
but effectively. The first fish is the hardest to
find, but it signals a school is near this time of
year. Slow down and concentrate the hunt in
the zone w \