The In-Between Season - It’s Power Trolling and Long-Lining Time in the City By Bernard Williams

Around May each year in Mississippi we have a stage in crappie fishing where the fish are hard to locate. They’ve finished spawning and the eggs have hatched to small fry. The males are no longer guarding the nests. They’ve even pulled off their tuxedoes; turned back to their regular color.

I know the females were stressed from the spawn; so were the males. They’re returning along the same transition routes they used to begin the spawn. Those same creek channels or sloughs are the pathways they’re using to return to their deep water hide-outs. They are hungry; they’ve lost weight and it’s time to do some feeding instead of mating.

In some fishermen’s view, it’s the worst time of the year to fish for crappie. In my opinion it’s Power Trolling and Long-Lining Time in the city. I’ll give you a few pointers to make your next trip during this In-Between Period more successful. I’ve had great success catching huge crappie during this time. With a few adjustments to your tactics you can experience the success too.

Scan First – Fish Afterwards

There is no way I’m going to start fishing an area without making a Side-Imaging scan. I run a Lowrance 12” Gen2 Touch at my console. I keep an update Navionics Lake map in it at all times. I also keep a 32GB blank chip in the other slot for recording. I record every minute of my fishing. I use these recordings to enhance my lake map contours. Lowrance has made creating custom mapping a snap.

I’ll select the area where I think that holds bait fish and start scanning. If I find schools of fish I mark my spots. I try to scan no less than 15 to 20 minutes before I wet a line. I do this at each spot I plan to fish.

Go Small – The Baitfish are Small

I discovered this element by accident a few years ago; I couldn’t get the fish to hit my big tubes or curly tails at all. I kept observing large schools of newly hatched shad swimming just below the surface. These shad schools were enormous and contained mostly ¾ inch baitfish. A light came on in my head and said, “Match the hatch”. So I dug through my collection of soft plastics and found some Bobby Garland Baby Shad bodies. I took my scissors and trimmed several of them down to about ¾ to 1 inch in length. I put the Baby Shad bodies on the lightest Blakemore Roadrunners I could find (1/32^nd ounce). That did the trick; the bite was on for the rest of the day.

Not Too Deep – Fish Shallow in Deep Water

As crappie move from the spawning grounds and flats they’re interested in one thing; food and lots of it. During this period the baitfish have spawned and hatched to small fry. The majority of these baitfish schools are suspended over deep water no deeper than 3’ to 5’. These schools will show up on your graphs as huge clouds. Rest assured the crappie know where they are. You should pull or push your bait no deeper than the bottom of the baitfish schools. Crappie will not go down to hit your lures; they feed above. You can’t be too shallow during this period; you can be too deep.

Cover Some Ground – Don’t Spend Too Much Time in Dead Water

To be successful you’ve got to put that trolling motor in gear. I mean you got to speed up (1.3 – 1.5 mph). Your bites will mainly be reaction strikes. At one time I didn’t think a crappie could catch my jig at speeds above 1mph. Boy was I wrong. A friend of mine explained it like this; drop a fish in the water and see how fast it disappears. Crappie can swim up to 30mph in a burst. I’m not saying they travel that fast all the time; by no means. I’m saying if they need to catch a meal; they have no trouble catching it at 1-2mph.

Use Long Poles – 16’ to 18’ B’n’M Poles

I like to get my baits away from the boat; long poles are a necessity. I’ve found the longer the pole the more bites I get. I make as a cast as long as I can and then whip off a few loops of line. I then place the rod in a Driftmaster Rod-Holder mounted to the rail of my BassCat. I can run up to 8 poles (4 in the center and 4 at the back) with little effort. My setup consists of 2-18’ ProStaffs, 2-16’ BGJP’s out of the side of the boat; these are placed in the middle of the boat. At the back of the boat I run 2-10’ B’n’M Roger Gant Poles out of the sides; 2-8’ B’n’M Roger Gant Poles directly out of the back of the boat. Using this setup I can cover about 45’ in one pass. Pulling my jigs at 1.3 – 1.5mph, I can cover a lot of water in a day.

Vary Your Path – Wildcat Trolling

I use a technique that I coined the term as Wildcat Trolling. It involves making smooth turns in your trolling path; turning left and then right. This causes your jigs to rise and fall rather rapidly. I run a Minn Kota Terrova 101# trolling motor; I have the foot control hooked up and sitting beside my seat at the console. I use the speed control on it because it’s truly variable. I may increase the speed up to 7 or 8 for a few seconds and then bring it back to 1 or 2. All I can say is; you need to get ready for a strike when you use these tactics because the bites are going to come and quickly.

My Bait & Lure of Choice – Bobby Garland – Itty Bit Swim’R

I prefer a 1/32^nd Blakemore Road Runner and Bobby Garland soft plastics this time of year. The Baby Shad and the Itty Bit Swim’R is a perfect match. As I mentioned earlier, this is not the time for big baits. If you insist on using them; your fish count will be low. I like to put a 1/32^nd ounce Roadrunner with a Bobby Garland Baby Shad Swim’R up front and a 1/48^th ounce lead head jig with a Itty Bit Swim’R about 3’ to 4’ behind. This is a deadly combination. The top jig has a double loop know about 6” to 8” from the line; this allows the Roadrunner to drop below the line. The bottom jig is attached to a small double loop knot at the end of the line.

Conclusion

I read a lot of articles on fishing techniques and tactics. I try to get something out of each one I read. If you only get one thing out of this article; I suggest fishing with small, shallow running baits. Use good rods that have the backbone to set the hook without you touching the pole. Scan an area good before your start fishing.
Do your homework; study the lake maps, Google Earth and other online mapping tools. We have a Navionics Lake Map App on our website at http://www.magnoliacrappieclub.com/LakeMaps.asp , go there and pull up the MS lakes. We’ll be adding more lakes in the future. noThe absolute number one thing that makes for a successful trip is to have confidence in your equipment and techniques. You gain this confidence by trial and error.