Find Crappie in the Mouths, and Troll the Ledges

Before the crappie move up into the creeks to spawn, they often suspend in large schools in the mouths of creeks and in open water 50 to 200 yards from the mouths of creeks. To catch these crappie, either troll or cast jigs through the schools. Once you start to catch crappie, drop a buoy to pinpoint the school, and cast to it. When

the crappie quit biting, use your depthfinder to relocate the schools, and change the color of your jig to continue to catch crappie from that same school.

During the pre-spawn, crappie frequently hold on underwater creek ledges close to the spawning grounds. By using your trolling motor to move very slowly along the edge of a creek channel, you may catch large numbers of big crappie when you troll jigs.

Or, place a 1/4-ounce sinker on the end of your line. Then 18 inches above the sinker, tie a 6- to 8-inch loop in the main line. Put the end of the loop through the eye of the hook and then over the point of the hook. Next, pull the loop back to the eye of the hook. This technique will hold your hook in place and away from the main line.

Move 18 inches up from the first loop, and tie a second 6- to 8-inch loop in the line. Attach a hook in the same manner as you have before. Bait both hooks with minnows, and lower the lead down until it touches bottom. Then reel it up 6 to 12 inches off the bottom. Put one or two rods out using this type of rig on each side of the boat.

Using your trolling motor, slowly move your boat along the breakline of the underwater creek channel. Keep one side of the boat on the deep-water side of the breakline and the other side of the boat on the shallow-water side of the breakline. You can take numbers of crappie during the pre-spawn with this technique of trolling live minnows along underwater creek channels at two different depths.

Tomorrow: Hunt Cover, Not Crappie

Check back each day this week for more about Pre-spawn crappie...

Day 1 - Ducks, Bass Fishermen, and Sea Gulls Will Mark The Spots
Day 2 - Find Crappie In The Mouths, and Troll the Ledges
Day 3 - Hunt Cover, Not Crappie
Day 4 -Find Underwater Highways and Railroads, and Fish Concrete
Day 5 - Catch Crappie In Discharge, Ditches and Near Docks

John's Journal