John's Journal...

Catching Cold-Weather Crappie with Some of the Nation’s Top Crappie Pros

Slow Down for Cold-Weather Crappie with Darrell Baker

Click to enlargeEditor’s Note: In many areaClick to enlarges, the crappie fishing is better in the winter than at any other time of year. To catch crappie in the winter, anglers must understand the crappie’s seasonal migration patterns and know where the crappie will show-up before they get there. Here are cold-weather crappie-catching tips from some of the nation’s top crappie pros.

Darrell Baker of Centre, Alabama, crappie guide and tournament crappie fisherman, who has fished Alabama’s Weiss Lake for 32 years and guided on the lake for 5 years, mentions that most crappie fishermen don’t catch crappie when they’re trolling because their boat is moving either too fast or too slowly.“I’ll be pulling my jigs on 6-pound-test-line, and my boat will be moving at a speed of between 0.7- to 0.8-miles per hour. To determine your speed when trolling slowly, use a GPS receiver, since it can read speeds at less than 1 mile per hour. The speed of your boat, the weight of your jig and the diameter of your line will determine how deep your jig will run. Remember, the faster you go, the higher your jigs wilClick to enlargel rise up in the water, and the slower you move the boat, the deeper your jigs will run. Click to enlarge

“To get a 1/16-ounce jig down to 10 or 12 feet, I’ll cast out behind the boat and let out about 50 feet of line. Moving at 0.7- or 0.8-miles per hour with 50 feet of 6-pound-test line out behind the boat, my jigs will run in 8- to 12-foot-deep water. If I want to get deeper and troll at the same speed with that same line, I’ll use a 1/8-ounce jig. To catch the crappie, your jigs have to move through the depth of water where the crappie will be holding. From the middle of the month to the end of the month, I bet on the mouths of bays, coves and feeder creeks to find the crappie.”   

Tomorrow: Swamp Crappie with Whitey Outlaw

Check back each day this week for more about "Catching Cold-Weather Crappie with Some of the Nation’s Top Crappie Pros"

Day 1: Fish Big Impoundments in February with Ronnie Capps
Day 2: Big Baits for Pre-Spawn Crappie with Ronnie Capps
Day 3: Fish the Mouths of Bays, Coves and Feeder Creeks This Month with Darrell Baker
Day 4: Slow Down for Cold-Weather Crappie with Darrell Baker
Day 5: Swamp Crappie with Whitey Outlaw





 

Entry 547, Day 4