Thats right

Fill the freezer when now when they are grouped up and easy. Then chase bass till July when they are grouped up and easy again.

Thats my approach. I rather let them do their thing in the shallows and wait until they school up a little deeper again.

My Man!!!!

Saving crappie lives one ditch pickle at a time!!!

Crane flies showing up, what everyone calls mosquito hawks. In years past in Feb the shorelines were filled with them and the fish were right off the bank.

Yesterday, I caught 5 right off the bank in my Neiborhood Pond....funny thing, I was fishing jig under a float, about 24" and they wanted moving faster than I normally fish. I usually toss out and just let it sit gently moving. No bites....started speeding up my retrieve and boom cork goes under. Yellow bass and largemouth also. Learned something...vary retrieve!

Been catching them in 10-15 FOW now since the first of February. I know people that have been catching them in 2 ft of water now for about 3 weeks.

The last few years, I have made myself focus on catching crappie. Watching videos, reading, talking, and just GOING. One thing is for sure… everyone has their own opinion on when the spawn starts. One guy says they move shallow when the water warms to 55 degrees. Another told me that 65 degrees is the magic number. I was catching them a few days ago, and my Garmin said the water was 61 degrees.

The last couple of years, I have caught them around lilly pads, dock pylons, reeds, and open water with a sandy bottom. I caught them in water from 2 feet deep to 6 feet deep.

I don’t have livescope. I have a Garmin mounted on my kayak. No way would I call myself an expert or even an advanced student. I have found a few methods that work for me. I keep going back to the same places and using the same tactics that have been working.

JR

The "spawn" lasts for about 90 days. There's always gonna be some fish shallow when conditions are right and some that spawn in deeper water. Not all eggs mature at the same time and spawning activity varies on different lakes. The "spawn" can be very frustrating, feast or famine. There one day and nothing the next day. But catching them up shallow is so much fun to me. Not the biggest fish but oooh so much fun to catch.

First tournament we fished on Lake O Pines in April, we looked shallow, 7ft, and found some good fish. Regular tournament guys told us you're not gonna get a winning weight up shallow. Said you need to fish the deeper trees in 20-30FOW and catch the bigger fish spawning out deep. We started deep and caught a good fish the first 2 minutes. Three hrs later that was the only fish we had. Went shallower and got 8 decent fish. Now 11:30. Partner says what do you think now? I said lets go to the deeper water and see if we can cull. Got to main lake and almost white capping. Had to use the big motor to hold on trees and there were trees everywhere. Motored over and first drop was a 1.98. Next tree was 2.05. Culled 4 fish in 30 minutes and came in 4th. Those fish were spawning on tree limbs about 10-12 ft deep.

To me, and I am on the water a lot, I use Water Temp. When that temp is in the high 40's and low 50's I find the fish moving up. This year about 47 degrees surface temp, I was finding females in the 10-15 fow. This started for me in East Texas the first week of Feb. The great thing is that unlike what most people think, the spawn last more than just 4 weeks. I have seen some people saying it is almost over here. That is not true. Nature tells those fish when to come in. They come in waves, not all at once, so here in East Texas we will have spawning crappie until April for sure. I do not fish banks often because I want to catch the big girls that are hanging out in that 10-15 fow. What people do not know (I got this from a biologist) is that the females are only in the shallows laying eggs for about 2-3 hours if they are uninterrupted. At that point they go back out to the 10-15 fow and eat, then slowly work their way back out to the lake. For me personally I release all fish at this time of year but that is just a preference.

Crappie are in the shallow water now if you are fishing a lake along the I-20 corridor.

We kept 34 crappie Tuesday and 43 on Thursday (yesterday).

Released seven crappie that were 15”s or longer yesterday.

The bite for me has been early in the morning, seems the crappie are chasing the shad up the creeks and quit biting around 8am. I used to think they went back out to the lake but it seems some anyway hang out in deep holes. If you work at it you can get a few to hit or kill a minnow for you. If I get there a half hour before sunrise I can catch fish pretty steady until just before 8am but seems they suddenly shut down. Then I go catfish on the main lake.

Well seems sand bass are spawning longer than usual in my favorite creek. Seems to keep the crappie spawn held back until they are done. However if you are fishing shallow firm bottom water in the lake on the west side there are some hitting there.

All I know for sure is... deer season is over, and you can't ketch um if you don't go. If they aren't where they were last week, they are somewhere else and still hungry!

It’s been fairly cool. Just getting started.