Capt. Jon Fine
I’m up before sunrise enjoying a hot mug of coffee, bundled up for the cold. I’m at Clarks Bridge boat ramp on north Georgia’s Lake Lanier, getting set for some crappie fishing. Today I’m joined by Bob and Brenda Rice, publishers of Atlanta/North Georgia edition of The Angler Magazine, North Georgia Crappie Angler’s Club President Woodie Malone and club member Ron Cobley. These guys love crappie and know all the best spots to catch these plentiful and tasty panfish.
Ron graciously provided his boat for this trip, and after a short run we stopped to fish some of their favorite docks at first light. The club members sink brushpiles around these docks, which makes for some great fishing without having to “find ’em” first. We could give you the GPS coordinates, but then we’d have to… well you know the rest!
Using ultralight spinning gear, live minnows on light wire hooks and small 1/32-ounce feather jigs, we produced fish almost immediately. A cold front and some heavy rain had just moved through, so the bite wasn’t as steady as usual, but the four of us picked away for about an hour, keeping a dozen and releasing at least that many, before picking up to try another set of docks.
According to Woodie, who’s fished this lake his entire life, it’s time to move if you’re not getting bites after 15 or 20 minutes. Ron added that seeing bass in the area also means it’s time to move. I reckon the bass find these fish as tasty as we do. We fished several other docks and a few open-water brushpiles before calling it a day. In total we had 20-plus keepers and lost or released at least 20 more, all before lunch.
This may seem like easy fishing, but crappie are notoriously soft biters, so it can be hard to detect a bite. Also, given half a chance, they will run you into branches or under the dock, and it doesn’t take much to break light line or shake a hook from their paper-thin mouths. That being said, these fish are tailor made for getting kids into fishing. They often bite quickly and pull hard, giving the kids a thrill, and they taste great.
Lake Lanier holds a large population of both black and white crappie, and they receive relatively light fishing pressure. They average from 3/4 to 1 1/2 pounds, with a lake record of 3-pounds, 4-ounces.
If you want to learn about fishing for crappie and meet a great bunch of people, I recommend checking out the North Georgia Crappie Anglers Club, www.northgeorgiacrappieanglers.com. They are only about a year old and boast 70 members. Monthly meetings, fish fries, fishing tournaments, family oriented activities and “brushpile days” are just some of the events this club plans and hosts. Their website is a wealth of information and resources offered by guys and girls who target these fish all year long.