"Black Crappie - Early Spring Breakfast Patrol" ~ Another Drawing by Special K

[Special K]

As we all know, Crappie do not make an overnight movement from open waters to the spawning shallows. Instead they do it in stages. How long those stages take, of course, depends upon the weather. But the deep-to-shallow movement of the fish does have distinct stops along the way. Just where they stop depends upon the type of water they inhabit. I always had good luck this time of year by fishing shallow early in the day when I believe shad are going shallow to feed on micro-organisms in the warmer shallow water and again seek cover in the first growth of spring grasses.

Reservoirs, like I usually fish, especially those with a pronounced main channel, like Shearon Harris Reservoir, here in Central North Carolina, often see crappie stacking up on any channel swings, drops or ledges heading into to shallower water. If this situation occurs within a couple hundred yards of known spawning sites, it’s well worth exploring--even now. If the area has wood structure or grass cover, I always expected to find a few good ones especially anytime there are shad in these types of transition areas.



Everyone knows that Crappie love wood and grass cover even in the very early pre-spawn phases and they are certainly already easing well into the creek arms and later will be following creeks and checking out the shallows as everything continues to warm into the spring. A fallen tree, some brush tops or a man made brush-pile can be an irresistible attraction along any section of break-line into the shallower water. Find that piece of wood, patches of emerging grasses on the contour break and you will likely find an awesome staging area, even now, for early spring crappie.

In this drawing I have tried to capture just this type of early spring scenario as this black crappie finds a few shad in the emerging grass cover for breakfast early on a sunny March morning. Please take a moment to let me know what you think of the drawing. I have entitled this drawing "Black Crappie - Early Spring Breakfast Patrol."

Good Luck to All, Thank You and May God Bless You and Yours,
Wayne aka Special K

[Blackhawk19]

Beautiful, I wish I had talent like you!!!

[huntinslabs]

Great work again K.

["G"]

Very nice Wayne....good job

[LittleJohn]

You're so skillful always enjoy your drawings.
LittleJohn

[chucktx]

very nice!! you have a wonderful talent!!!

[Gobob]

Sweet. Do you air brush any ?

[Special K]

Sweet. Do you air brush any ?

I will be getting into airbrushing some in the near future. I am actually in the process of putting together a work space where I can do such things as airbrushing and some fun types of woodworking. No doubt about it airbrushing will be a whole lot easier and far less time consuming when doing some of these backgrounds for these drawings.

[RetiredRR]

Wish we lived closer so I could commission you to paint a mural on my computer room walls. That would be so cool.

[Special K]

Wish we lived closer so I could commission you to paint a mural on my computer room walls. That would be so cool.

Appreciate the kind words brother and I agree it would be great to be closer as it would be great to meet you and go fishing with you some time. I actually thought about doing a mural on some of my walls, but my wife didn't have anywhere near the same enthusiasm for the idea that I did. I can assure you if I ever have the kind of man cave that I want some day... it will be adorned as it should be with all of the things that I enjoy in life. I agree that it would be way cool.