 “What
to Do When a Cold Front Hits Your Crappie Lake”
My Favorite Six-Pack
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.
When the region I’m fishing has had a lot of
cold rain, and the lake is muddy, I look for clear water.
Crappie can see your bait better in clear water than
they can in cloudy water. When crappie can see the bait
better, they’ll chase the bait further than they
will if they can’t see the bait. In many of the
 reservoirs
I fish in March and April, you may only have 2 to 3
inches of visibility. But, when you go into the creeks,
the bays and the coves, and they contain clear water,
the fish may have 12 to 18 inches of visibility. Since
the crappie can see the jig further, they’ll come
out of the cover and eat it.
My favorite colors of Spike-It jigs are what I call
a Grenada Lake 6-pack, which is chartreuse, chartreuse-and-black,
chartreuse-and-red, chartreuse-and-orange, chartreuse-and-lime,
and pink-and-white. Chartreuse is usually my best color
for crappie at Grenada Lake, but on some days, a white
or a glow-type jig will catch the fish. I keep changing
jigs and the speed at which I fish until I determine
how fast the crappie want the  jig
to move, and what color of jig they prefer on that day.
Then I’ll change all my poles out to fish that
color. I really like the Spike-It jigs because they
have the Diamond Flash, which has holographic colors
impregnated in the plastic. There’s a ton of flashes
to these holographic jigs. The more flash in the jig
or the jig skirt, the more crappie you’ll catch.
On most lakes, I’ll fish 8-pound-test Mossy Oak
Fishing Line, but on Grenada Lake, because it’s
such a muddy lake, I fish 10-pound-test Mossy Oak Fishing
Line. This lake also has plenty of 2- to 3-pound crappie,
and I need that heavier line to get those fish out of
the cover and into the boat.
Tomorrow: “Trolling For
Crappie”
|
