Tennessee based Crappie fishing guide Joe Floyd (TN Fishing Guides) guides on several lakes across Tennessee and Mississippi which can be challenging. “I will often guide on one lake for a couple weeks then switch to another or other lakes after that,” Floyd continued, “So it’s like fishing a new lake each time and as a guide you have to be prepared for weather, wind and season changes.”
Time on the water and knowledge of seasonal and migration patterns help Floyd keep his clients on fish. Floyd also noted spending time studying lake maps and searching for crappie, cover or bait with sonar keeps him in areas where the crappie are on the lake he is guiding.
Seasonal patterns help keep Floyd in the best areas to begin the search for crappie. “You can break seasonal patterns into prespawn, spawn, post spawn, summer, fall and winter,” Floyd went on, “I’m starting where I expect the crappie will be and start searching with electronics and mapping till I find them.”
Since Floyd guides on muddy shallow reservoirs like Grenada in Mississippi or clear water reservoirs like Dale Hollow he has to be prepared for all water clarity. Typically during the prespawn Floyd will start at the mouth of coves and work towards the backwaters of them. “I like to use side imaging with my Humminbird set on 450kHz at 80- to 120-feet looking for structure off ledges and suspended crappie,” Floyd continued, “I prefer to fish stained water, but on reservoirs like Dale Hollow it’s not going to happen but I change to different color lure patterns and smaller lures in those conditions and go to a larger lure in stained water like a big Slab Magnet that will displace more water in stained colored water.”
During the spawn in clear water conditions Floyd likes to fish sandy banks in the back of creeks. “That’s where mapping and sonar is helpful for finding areas like that quickly as sandy banks are the key to finding crappie,” said Floyd. In stained Mississippi reservoirs Floyd will head to the creek channels searching for big females staged up on the sides of the ledge.
Post spawn takes the crappie in clear and stained reservoirs back out towards the main lake on points and ledges. Laying down timber is key on clear lakes where crappie will suspend around the creek channels right off the drop on stained reservoirs noted Floyd.
“During the summer months fishing the clear lakes in Tennessee can be challenging with increase recreational boat traffic so I start guiding a lot on the Mississippi reservoir like Grenada,” Floyd went on, “If I am fishing a clear reservoir I will fish the south end off deep banks and lay down trees. On stained Mississippi lakes back out to deeper water and fish for roamers on deep points or the main change and not brush piles.”
Fall fishing the crappie will move towards the mouth of creeks in both stained and clear water. While fall fishing can be challenging, Floyd noted wintertime is awesome for catching crappie in clear water conditions in 15- to 20-feet of water. In stained water Mississippi reservoirs Floyd will fish the main body where they will be schooled up and eating.
Floyd keeps the techniques the clients use to single poling, power trolling or single poling a slip bobber. When single poling he has them fish with a B’n’M Poles Black Diamond rod or a Sharp shooter for casting or pitching. For power trolling Floyd uses 18-foot B’n’M Poles Pow-R-Poles to handle the heavy rigging. Slip bobber fishing Floyd will use a 10-foot Diamond Series Jig Pole.
“As for lures I use the Crappie Magnet Slab Magnet in clear water or bobber fishing or use a large Slab Curly in stained water. For line I use K9 8-foot clear fluorocarbon in clear water and high vis fluorocarbon in stained,” said Floyd.
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