2/14/08
It’s crappie time on lakes Marion and Moultrie
By Terry Madewell

Terry Madewell Photo

While the spring crappie run has begun, the water is still cold and most of the fish will be deep for the next couple of weeks.

Since today is Valentine’s Day, it might be good to put off going crappie fishing for a day or two. But I wouldn’t wait any longer than the upcoming weekend if you have the opportunity to go. While the crappie fishing isn’t red hot yet, a number of reports are coming from lakes Marion and Moultrie, as well as all other area lakes. The reports all indicate the annual spring crappie run has begun.

For fishermen on lakes Marion and Moultrie this year, things will certainly be a bit different. With the low water, the places we’ve traditionally caught fish will likely change considerably. However, the crappie will make their spring migration and spawn regardless of the water level. What we’ll have to do is simply get out and explore and find those new places.

Who knows, when the water does get back to normal, we might have a few additional crappie hotspots to fish.

With some consistently warmer days recently, the water temperature seems to be on an upward swing now. Water temperature will ultimately play a role in exactly when the spring action gets hot in the shallow water. Anglers are finding that big female crappie are already getting laden with roe and are beginning to stage in the pre-spawn areas.

The fish that are being caught are being taken in a wide variety of depths right now. Some are quite deep and are being taken by bottom bumping both minnows and jigs. Other anglers have reported catching fish about eight-feet deep in 10-12 feet of water.

It’s now mid-February and the natural instinct to propagate the species will has begun to put the crappie on the move. From the reports I’ve been able to garner during the past few days, the catch rate is improving and more and more boats are beginning to be seen in and around the lakes, with crappie catching on the anglers’ minds.

Right now a lot of anglers are fishing the mouths of the creeks, where these drainages enter the main lake. There are a couple good reasons for that. One, that’s usually pretty deep water and two, deep water is harder to find this year. So that’s a natural place to begin your crappie search.

Some crappie fishermen report live bait is best, others claiming jigs will produce the best result. The point is that both seem to be producing plenty of action. So pick your favorite and don’t worry about that aspect. What has been noted is that most of the fish, especially the larger fish, are being caught in deeper water. However, the above-noted shallow water action has been occurring late in the evening in the larger coves adjacent to the major creeks. Find areas that have decent water depths and on warm evenings when the sun dips down behind the trees, the crappie seem to move up to slightly shallower water for about the last 30 minutes of light.

Once the action begins on the mid-depths to shallows, the word spreads like wildfire among crappie fishermen and overnight the crappie angler population will increase several-fold.

Tackle shops are sometimes caught unprepared for this mass movement to the lake and watch as their minnow supply runs dry. Not only does the number of anglers increase, but over night the anglers change from buying three dozen minnows each to purchasing them by the pound.

The fish will eventually be migrating to the shallows in search of spawning sites and seldom linger too long in the same spot. But when they congregate, en masse, at the mouths of the creeks, they tend to stay there for several days, perhaps as long as 2-3 weeks, depending on the prevailing weather conditions. If we have a series of fronts and colder weather in February and into early March, the movement to the shallows will be delayed and the crappie will generally stay bunched up in deep water longer. If the weather breaks into spring-like conditions and stays that way for several days, the water temperature will warm quickly and the natural instinct of the fish will be to scatter towards the shallow water.

One of the reasons the early season “crappie run” is so popular is the equipment needed to be successful can be as simple or complex as an angler wants it to be. Some will use their depth finders and graphs to pinpoint a bunch of fish, then anchor and cast jigs or minnows to the fish.

Others prefer a more simplistic approach, which is also extremely effective. Drifting live minnows just off the bottom is a time-tested producer on Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion crappie. The action you’ll encounter while drifting will vary from day to day and even from one drift to the next.

Sometimes you’ll pick up crappie on a regular basis, every few minutes. In some instances though you may hit a hotspot and hook a fish on every rod at the same time. Then you may drift another 15 minutes or more without a bite, before hitting another hotspot.

Although it may not appear to be so, anglers skilled in the art of drifting have a definite method. They don’t simply drift haphazardly hoping to luck up on some unsuspecting fish. Each drift is designed to cover a particular section of water, and once fished, the spot is not drifted again unless the action was good. By changing drifts, they can search for crappie in various depths of water in different spots, until they determine the most productive spot for the day. Then they’ll just about wear a path through the water drifting the same spot over and over until they have their limits.

Try the February-March season crappie this year, and don’t automatically figure the fish are going to be shallow. Crappies, like any other fish, are where you find them. And my favorite way to look at them is when they’re laying the bottom of my cooler.

That’s one fishing indicator that never lies to you.