Well as most of us know, the crappie are heading up the creeks (at least after the front coming in tomorrow) and it's time to break out the jig and bobber set up and get after them. With the lake levels like they are, this year should be the best creek fishing years since 2011 (pending no floods). I have some plans to announce in a couple of weeks when things come together.

I went and scouted a creek on Tuesday and quickly got on a pattern. I found the fish biting good about 1 ft under a bobber around structure on Chartruese Thump Chubbies. Here are a couple of pictures from the trip.




Here are a couple of video's of creek fishing from the past few years.







It will only get better as it gets colder.

Thanks for sharing

Has anyone ever ran a poll on their favorite creek? Because of location and access, I suppose White Rock and Rowlett would win by a mile!

Is this a technique that will work throughout the entire winter? I'm usually so geared up for hunting that I'll be honest, I've never fished the creeks before during the cold months. Those videos sure make it look like a lot of fun, though.

And thanks for giving my jigs a go. You've caught more crappie than most, so I appreciate you giving them a try.

We fish 3 days this week on the river [red] and have done real good. No real big fish but very nice ones to cook. This coming week we hope to fish some a little more local. This week we will be fishing below the dams then next week may be go up the creeks on the north end of the lakes. Most years this is where we run into to many people.

Yes sir! I have found that from roughly Thanksgiving till about mid May they will be in the creeks in good numbers. During the coldest months they will be somewhat deep 10-20ft and by the end of February they start getting shallow. By mid May, I see the numbers and overall size of the fish go down dramatically. I've been using your jigs for a few years now and the fish love them! It's nice not having to reel in and fix your bait after missing a fish like with some of the softer baits.

Creeks have been super hit or miss for me this year with the temperature swings and huge amount of fishing pressure. 2 weeks ago I caught my limit and threw back at least 15 more solid keepers off of one spot in about 3 hours on submerged brush fishing 10 ft down. This week only a few dinks fishing that same spot. The rain certainly didn't help and neither has the warm weather. Hopefully, this cold snap will send another wave of fish into the creeks. Only time will tell.

Below is a pic of the limit.

Nice haul....and good advice

Geez, I've been hunting and fishing my whole life for everything "but" crappie until this year. I have to say that crappie confuses the hell outta me. I've heard people say to stop fishing creeks when the water temperature drops cause they are not there. Yet I keep seeing people talk about catching them in the creeks in the dead of winter.

I honestly say that this post alone screwed me up. I went the other day on a small lake and I didn't even consider fishing in creeks.

I can see why a lot of guys stop fishing crappie after the spawn is over. Not me tho. I relish the challenge.

During the winter months the colder the weather the better the fishing in the creeks is. The reason for this is because there fish are there for 2 reasons. Number 1, the water is warmest in the creeks (also very deep on the mainlake 20-40ft). Number 2, they are following the movement of shad into the creek (shad will die in water that is too cold so they search for the warmest water they can find). This is of course reversed during the spring when the fish are trying to spawn and when it gets cold the fish are still in the creeks they are just deeper waiting on warm weather again. The crappie are there in the spring for a couple of reasons as well. Number 1, the crappie most likely have no reason to leave the creek because they have plenty to eat. Number 2, the water in the creeks is the first to warm to the magical spawning temp of 60-65 degrees and thus is the first place that crappie will spawn in. Once the spawn is over, the numbers of good sized fish goes way down because of 2 reasons that are opposite to the reasons they were there in the winter and spring. Number 1, the shad leave to find cooler water. Number 2, the water is now too hot and stagnant which leads the crappie to find cooler and better oxygen rich water. With that being said, there are some crappie in the creeks year round but during the summer you won't catch no where near the numbers or the size you will in the fall/winter/spring time frame as most of what you will catch are the fish they were spawned there that year and are too small to follow the main migration of the fish to the main lake. That is when main lake fishing takes over.

Awesome post. Thanks for sharing.

I'm sold...hitting a creek today. I'll post pics if I catch anything.

Same here one day they're in the creek thick. The next they're gone wth man lol