By Chris Foster
Crappie fishing in the Spring and Summer months in the Piedmont lakes of North Carolina can prove to be some very rewarding ventures to say the least; but what about the Winter months when the Crappies seem to “disappear” except for those few Anglers that seem to just know where they are and how to entice them to bite. I’m going to let you in on a little secret, with patience and perseverance while employing a few of the following tactics, you too can be returning to the docks with a cooler full of winter-time Slabs!
As the water temperatures continue to drop during the months of December, January, and February all those places where you were able to locate the Crappies just weeks earlier seem to be as if there were never any fish there at all! So where did they go?! To deeper water would be the first place to look; even though deeper water in the winter is still cold by our standards, to the Crappies it is the warmest water they can find. This means in their world; the water is warm, and they are more susceptible to feed there. Now that we have located the Crappies on a river channel running the length of the lake or around deep drop offs, how do we go about catching them.
Over the years Capt. Butch Foster of Yeah Right Charters and I have employed various methods to keep the fish coming into the boat during these months on lakes such as High Rock and Badin; time and time again the trick that we find to getting these fish to bite in colder water is to fish slow and methodical. First, we look for structure along the deeper drop offs and along the River Channel, brush piles and stumps that many others would simply overlook due to their size or depth. After locating the structure that we want to fish, next we position the boat so that we can stay right over the brush-pile and employ a 1/16oz weed-less jig-head with a jig body of choice. The red body and chartreuse tail or a black body and chartreuse tail 1” tube jig have always produced us with plenty of action. Another tip that will really make a difference in your catch at the end of the day is to simply tip your jigs with a scent; Pro-Cure Bait Scent “Crappie and Panfish Super Gel” is some of the best attractant you will ever put on your artificial crappie baits. Fish the jig slow and as you bounce off of a brush pile limb, be sure to drop your jig back, many times this will entice a bite! Work the structure good, slowly inching your way around the pieces holding the fish and after exhausting the bite at that location move on to the next. At the end of the day putting these methods to work will have your arm sore from setting the hook and Crappies in the fish-box ready to be prepared for a great dinner!
Capt. Butch and Capt. Chris Foster, Yeah Right Charters, (910) 845-2004, www.yeahrightcharters.com