Thread: Prepare yourselves

We are headed towards pre spawn this month in Texas and its about to be all over the map . The winter fish will scatter soon and begin the migration towards the traditional spawning areas if the water is still in them . Some lakes have lost water and in some spots the bedding areas are dry . Most of the time the fish will still be close to those areas though . So break out them bobbers and dust them off a bit and get ready . Soon the large fish will be in low numbers and shallow ,most if not all will be big males . The big gals will be along later .
In the mean time look for fish staging in 10 to 12 foot of water along creek channels and drop offs close to the areas they spawn and brush piles and docks and such in those areas close to the bedding areas . Numbers of fish will move in the dark in some cases up shallow and then back out at daylight much like the spawn fish .
If you have shallow water bodies close by your region of Texas with black crappie in them look for them to be in shallow fast and in some spots I know the males have already shown up with heavy color on them as of last week .
There isn't a perfect scenario I know of on the pre spawn and even the spawn itself ,but to be sure if you stumble up on them when everything is just right you will load the bucket with fish fast . They tend to be aggressive and bite darn near anything in some cases and its a great time to use jigs in wild colors . I like really BRIGHT baits and will be tossing lots of ORANGE and CHART and not worry much about going natural color wise most of the time . visibility is key it seems to me and the better they can see the harder they bite it .
Some bank anglers might want to think about long casting roadrunners with curly tails way out and slow dragging them back to the bank very close to the bottom . This technique is rather productive on the fish that are staging out off the bank within casting distance in deeper water .
Once again don't be discouraged if you don't find them on one day as they may be there the next day in droves . stay busy on them starting soon and try to go daily for a little bit if you can. one of the visits might the ONE and rather often folks ketch the biggest crappie they have ever seen in this period of the year .
hope this helps yawl find the whale of your dreams ,,,,good luck to all

I like long lining, even gave it a go this past w-end but the fish were not ready for it.....