 “What
to Do When a Cold Front Hits Your Crappie Lake”
Scouting for Crappie in Cold Weather
EDITOR’S NOTE: Kent Driscoll of Cordova, Tennessee,
a professional tournament crappie fisherman, has been
fishing for crappie for over 30 years and really enjoys
fishing all over, but particularly Grenada Lake in north-central
Mississippi. Regardless of the weather and the water
conditions, he has to be ready to fish on tournament
day. In late March when Driscoll and I fished together,
the temperatures had plunged from the 70s to the 30s,
and the water level on the lake rose 10 feet. If you
fish for crappie in the spring, sooner or later, this
will happen to you. Here’s how Driscoll solves
this problem.
 Water
temperature affects crappie more than any other factor.
In late March, a cold front moved through our region.
We had cold rain, and the air temperature dropped to
the low 30s for five consecutive nights. We had two
of the worst conditions that you possibly can have during
the spring spawn: cold weather and rising water. When
these conditions move onto a lake, the crappie become
very lethargic. The water temperature dropped from 62
degrees to 52 degrees in the lake, which caused the
crappie to not be active. When you have these conditions,
the crappie do one of two things. They either stay right
where they are, or they move to deeper water. If they’re
originally holding 1 foot under the surface in 6 feet
of water, now that 10-more feet of water covers them,
they’re actually 11 feet under the surface. If
they were in shallow water, let’s say 2 feet of
water, when the cold front hits, they may pull back
into deep water. So, where I look for crappie now is
on the first bottom drop away from the spawning flats.
At this time of the year, the male crappie go to the
banks first to fan  the
beds. When that cold weather hits, they’ll pull
out away from the shallow water to the first deep-water
drop-off. A drop-off may only be a bottom break of 2
to 4 feet or as severe as 10 to 12 feet. The crappie
can pull back away from the bank to the edge of a creek
channel or a river channel. When a cold front hits,
you have to spend most of your day motoring your boat
and studying your electronics, looking for crappie.
Look for the baitfish with your electronics, and you’ll
find the crappie.
The real key to catching crappie when a cold front
hits is to spend a lot of time scouting. The fish will
be slowed-down and holding really tight to the edges
of underwater breaks. So, you’ve got to ride the
water, study your depth finder and find the crappie
before you can catch them. When a cold front hits, I’ll
be fishing B’n’M’s 12-foot trolling
rod with a B’n’M spinning reel, spooled
with 10-pound-test Mossy Oak Fishing Line Hi-Vis Blue.
I’ll usually fish with two jigs on the line. I’ll
be fishing a Spike-It jig on the end of the line; then
about 18 inches up from the jig, I’ll put a slip
sinker that I’ve wrapped my line through two to
three times.  Approximately18
inches above the slip sinker, I’ll tie on a three-way
swivel. Coming off one eye of the swivel, I’ll
tie 6 to 8 inches of 20-pound-test Mossy Oak Fishing
Line and a second jig. To the last eye of the three-way
swivel, I’ll tie my main line. I like the Spike-It
holographic Diamond Flash 2-inch Tasty Tubes on bright
days and dark-colored jigs on dark days. I like a 1/32-
or a 1/8-ounce jig head. On the leader coming off the
three-way swivel, I usually tie a red hook with a Spike-It
jig, and I tip it with a live minnow. I use various
colors of Spike-It tubes on the top and the bottom hooks.
I’ll put out several poles with different-colored
jigs on them. As the light conditions change during
the day, I’ll change the colors of the Spike-It
jigs I’m fishing. I usually troll with three to
six poles, three if I’m by myself, and six if
I have a partner.
Tomorrow: “Wading For
Cold-Weather Crappie”
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