Well, its that time of year now to hit the shallows. Crappie are in the shallows from 1-3ft of water. Last year was a great year with some days over 100 caught per trip. We will be fishing out of my one-man pontoon boats and wading places that are untouchable for boats and bankers. Plus we will go to places you can get to in the future on your own and I will make sure you will be able to do this on your own the very next day!

With crappie being one of the best tasting freshwater fish, you�ll definitely want to learn these techniques so you can easily bring in buckets of crappie.

Crappie Fishing Basics

The first thing you should know about crappie is that they are a schooling fish. So when you find one, often you can fish several out of the same location. But not only are crappie a schooling a fish, but they are also a small, panfish fish with very very very fragile mouths. (unless you catch a 2-3 plus pound whopper), and if you set the hook too hard, you could tear the hook out of the crappie�s mouth, which happens a lot!

Where to Find Crappie

Finding crappie depends on the time of year and conditions. During the spring crappie spawn, you�ll find them in very shallow areas, perhaps even as shallow as a foot or two of water as the water temps reach 60 degrees (which it is at now). The structure will typically be a slow, sloping bottom, without many points or drop offs that would trigger ambushments from other game fish. Also, the area will likely be a cove or other wind and current protected area with lots of cover. Submerged tree branches and bulrushes, rocks, tires, tree stumps, brush piles, any kind of structure with some sandy bottom areas in between are great locations for crappie schools.

Crappie Fishing Bait

Probably the best live bait to use are small minnows. Get them in 1 to 2 inch sizes, and hook them through the upper and lower lip. -But you can cover way more water with jigs.

Crappie lures are my favorite way to go. You can use small spinnerbaits and crankbaits, but the best option for catching the crappie are jigs. For beginners, stick with white, yellow and chartreuse colored jigs. If the water clarity is really low, try some darker colors like black, purple or dark orange or blk/chartruse.

Some Crappie Fishing Tactics

Crappie aren�t very fast fish, and because of their schooling tendencies, probably the most widely used method to catch them is �jigging�. This is mostly effective when using crappie jigs, where you select an area to fish, drop your jig(s), and bounce them up and down at the depth your fish finder shows the fish to be in. This will keep the bait in the strike zone for a good length of time, and entice the fish. Or you can use the jig and bobber method as well.
If you are fishing live bait, you may also put them under a bobber, or drop them to the bottom, and then slowly raise them up to try and find the depth that the crappie are located in. Once you find the depth, adjust your rig to keep your bait at that same level.


-A couple pics from last years spawn!














Here in Texas, Crappie- Blacks and Whites:

25 Crappie per person
10 inch minimum length

Operation Game Thief <---click for info on illegal activities and what you can do to help stop poaching!

Game Wardens Direct Numbers
(that work the area):

Martin- 214-886-4074
Todd- 214-471-2846
Sergio- 972-754-2934

Fishing Tackle I Recommend:
- 4-6 Pound Fluorocarbon Fishing Line.
- Crank Baits, Jigs, and Minnows.
- Polarized Glasses.
- 7-12 Foot Medium Action Rod
- Spinning Reel
- A Cooler With Ice, To Transport Fish
- Stringer
- Fishing License
( some people have other opinions )

Guided Trips:

(Fly Fishing, Lure Fishing, Or Bait Fishing)

- $150/Half Day for up to 2 anglers. $75 each additional angler.
- $250/Whole Day for up to 2 anglers. $75 each additional angler.
- All tackle provided if needed.
- AM trips are sun-up till 12pm
- PM trips are 1pm till dark.
- FISH GUARANTEE--> If you don't Catch a fish or don't learn anything, Don't Pay! ( Has yet to happen )
- Private Message me, call me, Email me, or go to my website and click on "Book at Trip" to schedule a guided trip with me. All my information is below. You can use this thread to see if someone will split a trip with you if needed. just ask if anyone would like to split with you and im sure there will be lots of people that will!


-This Crappie Fishing is Addictive! Feel The THUMP!





Above are the One-Man Pontoon boats we will be fishing out of.



-Fish Gaurenteed!

Todays report: -fished less than two hours.



Well, I am now booking trips. I caught about 30 in two hours. After 20 minutes, i beached my boat and took the bottom pic and released all the fish for future people to catch. The one above is on the grill as we speak. (as most of yall know, i dont eat much fish)



! I fished for 2 hours or so and definetly would have limited almost 2 times, but released all but one for the grill! So if your looking to go crappie fishing and learn how to wade and catch crappie with jigs, NOW IS THE TIME! Go to my website below and book a trip ASAP. I have to go through my Crappie Waiting list before i can get new clients in. But, when you book a trip, put in the comment box the days you are available to go and ill fit you in somewhere.....

I�ve known Carey for about a year now and have fished with him several times and never been skunked. We crappie fished last time back in January and it was a great day. If you want to have a great day catching your limit of what I think is the best fresh water table fare book a trip with Carey. You will learn, catch fish and spend some time with a great guy.

nice job Carey, that pic with the tree looks very familar

Lol, that's the sss treee!

Caught 43 this morning all on jigs. Biggest was 2.89lbs. I fished two coves today. They were actually spread out everywhere. In the weeds, next to stumps, in the willows, and hanging in the channel were the big mommas! I also had a bald eagle watching me for an hour, perched in a tree. All this in less than two hrs

Report: hit the water again by myself at 5pm. tryied the fly rod and hooked into 6 keeper females, released them. biggest was 2.53 lbs. lost all my flies, so i pulled out the jiggin rod and pulled them out of the timbers and willows. one of the old timers was down there with a buddy and said i was making him look bad.... i didnt have my waders on and when the sun went over the trees, i started to shiver, didnt have to jig, just shiver.... told the guy to take his waders off and give it a shiver and you will catch more fish!

only kept the males today. let all the females do thier thing. got to cold and got out of the water at 615. went to my other spot and and stood on the bank with a jig and bobber and caught 14 keeper females- not one male. threw them back and went to academy to gear up again.

two of the fish on the stringer are the cooler. thier jaws ripped due to the weight of the fish and fell off... good good day.........

Report: hit the water at about 7am. Gary caught two right off the bat and then had jigging problems. he was jigging to fast. after about two hours of telling him to slow it down, he started catching fish again. fish are still shallow in the twigs... and shade and a lot of brush produced lots of good fish. the first cove we went to was blown out with all the carp spawning everywhere. thhey turned the water into choc milk by going crazy everywhere. not to mention the gar splashing everywhere as well, but they pulled about 15 out of the first cove.

Good job Gary. he said he lost 8, so there should have been a limit!

Donte is camera shy. and he lost his stringer of about ten half way through the trip.... so sad...



-On my way back out in an hour. new report later tonight.

went to the sss-cove and still caught the heck out of them. pull a fish off a brush, another moves in within the hour. -Nice.



One female the whole day. when i get back into town, im sure they will be done in that cove. but i have more!

Today, button willows are key to catching them. caught all of our fish in them. if they had algae growing on them below the surface, even better, more shade. i tried a couple stumps 5 ft out from the willows, but there were no fish on them - not one!. all fish were taken from 6 inches to 2.5 ft of water. Black/chart jigs. they were super aggressive as well. most of the fish would hit the jig before it went 2 inches below the surface most of the time. as soon as it got dark in the cove, the fish stopped bitting.... but if you put a minnow out under a bobber in 4 ft of water, you pick up a few. not worth the time unless you have some cold ones with you and some OFF. this morning was tough though with all the gar and carp spashing and thrashing around. they actually muddied up the cove pretty bad, to where we had to move locations.

when i took my second client out, the water had cleared and the fish were bitting better.

my client this afternoon is a repeat client for everything i guide for, so i didnt have to really teach him anything. just the basics and he was off in his own world having fun. he asked me to fish, so i said ill go goof around with the gar in the shallows due to i didnt want to fish his water- and he was laughing at me while i was hooking the gar as they would thrash around jump and make crazy runs. i forgot about the alligator gars teeth, crazy stuff right there.- i was actually tring to catch a spotted gar for a pic i need, but they were spooky and would take off before i could get close. the gator gar just sat there and ate whatever i put in front of them. i tried to jig up some crappie at the mouth of the cove and along the main banks, -NOTHING, Carp had taken over the outside banks. so now im going on a forced Vacation, so i wont have any reports till saturday night if the weather holds......

cancelled my trip for tomorrow. i wanna make sure my guys and gals dont have to work to hard for them. so i get to scout out some holes i have wanted to try... ill have a new report up tomorrow night!