shallow water spring presentations education

[hdhntr]

best thing is? it's one of places folks put boats into the lake and as they come in I ask how they are doing and many times they didn't do worth beans in their big expensive bass boats and I'm sitting there fishing on the bank with a bucket full o crappie! LOL some great things you keep to yourself as I they don't ask me how I'm doing or if they do just say ketchn a few. they don't look in my bucket.

Point is? dont' assume some place is good or bad because no one if fishing it. If YOU think it could be good go over and dip a line. we are always learning in the pursuit of the elusive crappie. sometimes you reap big rewards for doing the unconventional.

[hdhntr]

Hey Outlaw have you noticed that the whites and blacks spawn at different times and conditions? few years back was at one big lake and got into a few close in but everyone was saying the spawn was over and time to go back out on trees. But happened to go to another lake where I have a place and when we got there NO one was out fishing and few days before all kinds of boats were out and banks had bunch of guys on the rocks. So we wen along assuming it was over but my buddy had a wayward cast with a plug and it went up against rocks and Boom crappie in full colors hit it. so immediately I brought my long pole over and dipped and Boom it was on! We were ketchn like mad all along this long causeway and got our limits in short order. Went back next morning with our wives and killed them again and it was a wild affair with four of us in the boat and they were all swing their fish over to me to judge keeper or not and put them in right bucket. again conventional thoughts were wrong and we just lucked into the later Black crappie spawn. when asking my friends no one had ever heard of that, thinking they both spawned at same time.

[Ketchn]

they spawn about a month or more plus apart in Texas on most lakes with the 2 species .
now mind you it can overlap and often times does from what i have seen in the past . the main to late spawn blackies will often still be around when the big whites start to show up . but the blacks come in way early and i have heard of black crappie up north in shallow water on ice out in 40 degree water temps. that info came from one of the best professional crappie tournament guys in the country .
Here in Texas it seems to start up good in 50 degree water with the blacks as soon as the daylight time frame lengthens and in lots of spots they get done pretty quickly . The white crappie here seem to spawn for a much longer duration and in waves , a group will come ashore and go at it and then poof gone , a few days or maybe a week here comes another and the cycle continues . the white crappie here will come shallow multiple times over march april and may and it could start late feb and extend in to early june .
of course i have been told i was a lair and had no clue and etc etc etc in the past when i had a big stringer of slabs from short water much earlier than traditionally expected by those that follow just water temps and previous sketchy ketch data .
and i have had the reverse happen as well when i had a big bulging female white in my hands in mid may that looked to be just starting to spawn . hence the avatar fish ....
none the less until we hit may and maybe early june here we will have white crappie shallow and as of now only the smaller black crappie are in short water at the spots i hit . the black crappie bruisers have moved out into a post spawn pattern for the most part .
the good news is there are always a few strays that still march in and this time of year with both species and it pays dividends to look in less than 8 fow when you visit the lake .

[chaunc]

For the last 32 years, until last year, I haven’t been in my area at this time of year so I haven’t fished the area lakes at this time of year. I’ve decided that I’m not gonna travel south this year and I’m going to try to figure out an early spring pattern in these cold ice out waters here in NW Pennsylvania. Water temps were just above 40 when I started my search. First day, I found fish in an area with poles in the water around a marina. Depth was five to nine feet. Sixteenth oz jig under a bobber put a good amount of keepers in the box. Poles warmed the water temp up a few degrees. Second lake I searched the shallows on a tip from a friend. Hammered the crappies gills and perch in four foot. Thirty second jigheads size under a bobber. Third lake I fished, is very similar in makeup as the second one. Tried some shallow brush with zero results. Looked for shallow vegetation like lake two and bingo. Found the crappies and gills enjoying eating the bugs from the mud. Used some of my one sixty fourth oz handties a foot under a bobber tipped with a nibble and had a great time. This pattern may not last long but I’m glad I figured it out. So don’t hesitate to check shallow when the water is still cold. Hopefully this will help you put more early season fish in the box.

[Ketchn]

we either start looking shallow all year long and or end up looking shallow .
by that I mean never say never , some lakes here in Texas have a real good slab quality bite ....
middle of the summer 100 plus degrees sunshine and blazing hot and there they are in herds in 4 foot of water .
I know of 4 lakes here that consistently produce mid summer in short water
people typically say I am full of it when I tell them how deep they were .
AND it bothers me none for any of them to think it aint true for sure
KABOOM is the word