"Springtime Is Crappie Time" More About Stan Stan's Archive Part 1 Every now and then my wife comes uncomfortably close to qualifying as a mind-reader. She proved that again last week when she came by my tackle work work room. I d been sorting out some of the gear I always use for some of my springtime fishing. I don t even have to guess what you re up to, she said as she brought me a fresh cup of coffee. Why do you say that? I responded. Because I d bet dollars to doughnuts you re getting set to go crappie fishing one place or another. That s no surprise. It s something you ve been doing ever since we first met. Springtime is another word for "Crappietime." Properly prepared, these fun to catch panfish provide every bit as much enjoyment and satisfaction when they come out of the frying time.
When my wife says something like that she s not guessing. We have, you see, been married now for more than 72 years. She s speaking from experience. I expect there are a good many other anglers all over the country who get a near terminal case of the Crappie Itch with the coming of spring. It s my favorite time of year to get serious about catching these beautiful panfish---and for more than one reason. I was among the first of the Western outdoor writers to embrace, endorse and publicize Catch-and-Release for bass and certain other species. I can t make that claim where crappies are concerned. In their case it has darn near always been Catch-and-Keep. Why? It s because that darn old frying pan setting over there on the stove has proven time and again it does a better job with fresh caught crappie than the live well I ve got down there in my bass boat. A fellow angler came up to me at an outdoor show some years ago. He shared a few thoughts about bass fishing with me and then asked about catching crappies. Didn t you write a book about crappie once? he asked. I replied that I had. It was way back in 1977 when I did. That book has been out of print now for years. I looked it over recently. There aren t that many changes I d make if I was to do another one. There are a couple and I ll be talking about one of them especially in my next couple of columns. It really doesn t take a book to cover the basics to catching crappie. Why I say crappie catching doesn t require a book is because as I see it there are only a few primary keys to successful crappie fishing. I m talking now strictly about fishing with artificial lures. I ve never done any minnow fishing for crappies. Minnow fishing is illegal in some states. Besides, I ve always felt resorting to live bait sort of reduces sports fishing to its lowest common denominator. The basics for using artificial lures are as follows: First you've got to find the fish. The second is when you do find where they are you must fish at exactly the right depth. And third, even at the right depth you won't do much unless you are fishing you re right lure at the right speed. These three things----location, depth and speed---are certainly key basics when it comes to putting more of these great eating panfish into your boat.
Crappies aren't that hard to catch provided you can find them and then determine what they'll eat and how they want it presented to get them to hit. Since you've got to find them before you can hope to catch them, let's talk first about where crappie are most likely to be. That will vary somewhat depending on where you are fishing around the country. But regardless of the location, there are some spots crappies always favor. Most of my own crappie fishing experience has been in the Pacific Northwest. I was still a kid when I discovered just how much fun crappie catching could be. I got myself hooked as solidly as the fish I was after and I ve never recovered. Early on I did most of my crappie fishing in the sloughs bordering the lower Columbia River where it divides the states of Washington and Oregon. Some of big river backwaters were within range of my bike. Many is the time I came home from one or another of those sloughs with a stringer full of crappie dangling from my bike s handle bars. Later I had the wondrous good fortune to build a home right on the shore of Silver Lake in the southwest part of Washington State. Silver Lake has long been one of the best bass and crappie lakes in the Pacific Northwest. Having a boat in the water all the time about 60-feet
from my front door provided a wonderful opportunity to look for and catch crappies as well as the other species the lake held. Springtime and fall offer by far the best shot at crappies. Fall action can be excellent but my favorite time is spring. That period from April through mid-june always sees some of the peak action of the year in the Pacific Northwest. Crappies are schooled up then and where you find one you'll eventually find others. But where are you most likely to find that first one? I learned wherever I was to look for crappie around wood. This wood may be in the form of downed trees, submerged logs, piling or abandoned docks, the underpinning of bridges, etc., etc. I also found that crappie like rocks. At Silver Lake for example, some of the best springtime fishing always came around the lake's sunken rock piles. The two anglers you see here should be casting their lures right in next to the piling you see in the foreground if it's crappies they are after. Wood cover of one kind or another often provides cover crappies seek out. I haven't fished any of the Columbia River sloughs in years but I can tell you how I'd approach such a trip if I was to make one tomorrow. First off I'd look for cover like that I've described. Once I found downed logs, dead trees or any other possible crappie holding spots, I'd fish them ever so carefully. I wouldn't expect to catch a boat full of fish right off. What I would do as soon as I caught even one crappie is to mark the exact spot so I could be sure of finding it another time. In crappie fishing on new water I often used to carry a few short yellow ribbons. Whenever I caught one fish, I d pinpoint the spot by attaching a ribbon to the cover. That ribbon might not be where you could see it easily, but I knew where it was. As soon as I d get
a half dozen spots marked in this fashion, I d simply move from one to another and forget about trying to find fish anyplace else. Remember, I m talking about fishing in the spring. I know that crappies aren t loners in the springtime. They like company. Sooner or later where I ve found done there will be others--- sometimes lots of them. No doubt about it, you ve got to find em before you can hope to catch em. I ll have additional thoughts to share in that regard in next month s column. Watch for it beginning April 15. -To Be Continued_