THE BIG SNEAK-- FISHING THE SPAWN

During the spring of the year when crappie begin to run the banks, the dogwoods bloom, and the turkeys gobble, I like to go to Portland Landing Lodge near Selma, Alabama, and hunt turkeys.

On one of my earliest visits to the lodge, for several consecutive days, Joe Champion, the lodge manager at Portland, would come in each afternoon with an ice chest full of big crappie. I got Champion to go into the woods with me one day after I finished turkey hunting to show me how to take these giant crappie after he told me, "I sneak up behind the crappie."

Champion fished a small embayment off the Alabama River in central Alabama. Just out from the bank lay stumps and stick-ups within easy reach of boat-bound crappie fishermen. But Champion fished these same stumps and stick-ups from the bank.

Champion would walk down the bank, fighting thick bushes and briars to reach the edge of the water. Then he would swim a 1/16- or 1/32-ounce jig on the back sides of the wood structure standing in the water. Although other fishermen fished this same slough from their boats, rarely did they ever catch the size and number of crappie that Champion did by fishing from the back or bank side of the cover. Champion proved to me once again that to catch really big crappie you must fish for them in places most crappie fishermen won't fish.

Call or write Joe Champion at Portland Landing Lodge, 3201 International Drive, Selma, AL 36703, (334) 875-2414 to learn more about hunting or fishing at the lodge or visit the lodge's website at www.portlandlanding.com.

NEXT WEEK: LEARN MORE TACTICS FOR TAKING MONSTER CRAPPIE

Check back each day this week for more about fighting tactics for monster crappie...

Day 1 - Slabs Among The Tree Tops
Day 2 - Fight The Weather (Pre-spawn)
Day 3 - Fish Flood Waters For Pre-spawn Crappie
Day 4 - Start Of The Spawn
Day 5 - The Big Sneak - Fishing The Spawn

John's Journal