Hooked Up Designs Magazine May/June 2017 | Page 41

Tommie Roper and
Jarad Roper, a father-
and-son professional
crappie fishing team,
use a spider rig to
tempt crappie on
Grenada Lake near
Grenada, Miss.
primarily fish the Skuna side, which has clearer water than on
the other side.”
While many people run spider rigs, others prefer the chal-
lenge and sport of using single poles to fish minnows or soft
plastics around stumps, standing timber and other cover. In
the spring, crappie frequently gather around woody cover in
two to four feet of water to spawn. Some anglers drop tube or
fly jigs tight to cover and vertically jig them up and down. Oth-
ers dangle live minnows under bobbers floating next to wood
or use a combination of plastic and meat. With any bait, work it
completely around the cover at various depths to locate where
fish want to hold that day.
“In the spring, the upper end of both arms can hold good
fish,” Sipes advised. “I look for flats in three or four feet of water.
Just jig around the stumps and stick-ups with a bright colored
bait. People can fish the deeper side or the shallow side, de-
pending on what crappie want that day. I recommend a 1/16-
or 1/32-ounce jig with a bright colored Wiggle Tail.”
All year long, anglers could fish abundant standing timber,
stumps and other cover dotting the lake. After the winter draw-
down, the water level comes up in the spring. Crappie move in
to repopulate newly inundated areas. In the spring, rains and
rising waters could stain the lake. In stained water, fish gener-
ally stay much more shallow and close to cover. In the summer,
fish drop into deeper channels.
“Around the Graysport area, people can find a lot of stumps
and stick-ups along the river channel,” Sipes explained. “Right
along the stumps on the channel edge where the water drops
deeper is a good place to fish. In the summer, I fish in the 10- to
15-foot level. In July and August, the bigger fish move back to
the creek channels and we start trolling crankbaits really fast
hookedupdesigns.com
and aggressively.”
Large crappie will hit the same lures as bass of comparable
size. In the summer, pull firetiger, greenish, orange or black
crankbaits along the drop-off edges. Stagger the lines to sepa-
rate the baits and run lures at various depths to determine what
fish want that day.
“In the summer, we still see some standing timber on both
arms, but we can find some water deeper than 30 feet,” Roper
said. “We pull crankbaits on high visibility 10-pound test line
for catching big crappie. I set one bait to run shallow just below
the surface, about zero to five feet deep. I set another to run
in middle to deep levels, about six and 10 feet deep, and some
deeper than 11 feet.”
Beginning in August each year, the Corps begins to draw
down the lake. When water starts to drop, fish concentrate in
the old river channels and deeper creeks. As conditions change,
anglers need to keep up with the fish and watch where they run
an outboard in the stumpy lake. By December, the water level
may drop more than 22 feet, leaving about 10,000 acres of the
deepest channels remaining.
“When the lake starts to fall, fish hold on the main rivers and
deeper creek channels,” Roper explained. “Sometimes, when
the water is falling, the fish might hold right to the bottom. At
winter pool, I’ve actually seen ATV tire trails on the lake bot-
tom in what was 15 feet of water where people go out to mark
brush piles.”
In the winter, anglers can also fish the tailrace below Gre-
nada Lake. The old riverbed full of rocks, logs, treetops and
stumps provides abundant cover for baitfish and big crappie.
Water flowing over the spillways concentrates baitfish and
sparks feeding activity.
M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 7

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