 “What
to Do When a Cold Front Hits Your Crappie Lake”
Trolling for Crappie
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.
After the cold front, when the water stabilizes, and
the weather warms up somewhat, I go to the traditional
spawning areas on  Grenada
Lake where I love to fish for crappie. After fishing
this lake for 20 years, I’ve learned about six
spots on the north banks where I know the crappie spawn
every year. When I reach these sites, I’ll start
fishing away from the bank. The male fish will be up
near the bank, but they’re usually the smaller
fish. So, I fish the deeper water first to catch the
females, which will be the bigger trophy crappie. On
Grenada Lake, we can only fish three poles per person.
If I have someone fishing with me, we’ll fish
six B’n’M poles. We’ll start off slow-trolling
these spawning areas out away from the bank with Spike-It
jigs. I’ll troll stump fields, the edges of creek
channels and even out in open water to find the big
females that are full of eggs. On a cloudy day, I’ll
be fishing as  deep
as 6 to 8 feet, or even down to 9 feet. I cover plenty
of water and present the fish with 12-different jigs,
so I have a better chance of catching more crappie.
Many times instead of using my trolling motor, I’ll
troll powered by the wind. I’ve always found the
crappie faced into the wind. So, if I’m fishing
on a really-windy day, I’ll put a logging chain
out behind my boat to slow down the speed at which I
troll. The other advantage of letting the wind power
the boat instead of the trolling motor is that you reduce
the amount of noise the crappie hear before they see
the jigs.
Tomorrow: “Big Crappie
On Grenada Lake”
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