What Is Your Spring Crappie Technique???

I wanted to start a discussion to find out how each of you fish for spring crappies. What places do you target...What lures do you use...What equipment do you use...Does temperature matter to you...etc?

Up here in the ice belt (Nebraska), water temp and length of day seem to dictate what the crappies do. Until the water warms into the upper 50s to low 60s, I target deep brush and timber as a rule. That's where I find the greatest concentrations of fish and can take them vertical jigging with a small tube or on a minnow under a slip float.

Once the fish move shallow to spawn I go exclusively artificial, preferring a tube under a slip float, or casting Beetle Spins and Roadrunners. I like to swim a Panfish Assassin too, just outside the the shallow spawning areas to pick up fish still staging a little deeper.

Love the 4# hot yellow crappie line from BPS for most of my panfishing, on light spinning reels. The fish don't seem to mind the bright line one bit, and most importantly, I can easily see it under any light conditions.

Frank

I fish Smithville Lake just north of Kansas City. I start the season when things warm up to 50 degrees. I always target large coves with drop-offs in the main lake area. It seems like the crappies start bunching up right at the edge and later move up to sallow waters when it warms to 60 degrees. The lure that works the best for me are black and chartreuse tube jigs at this time. I will vertical fish above the schools with a 1” jig. It seem when water temps are cooler, the crappie tend to hit smaller lures for me.

When water temps warm to 60 degrees, I will spider rig over waters 5 to 10 feet deep. I will change my lures to curly tailed grubs. I will tie two jigs to each line with. One jig will have a 2” grub and the second will have a 3”. Depending on the rapidly changing weather conditions, the crappie tend to get finicky and hit lures depending on size, color, and the action it puts off.

Then when he main spawn starts, it doesn’t seem like you can do wrong with any technique, lure, or presentation. After the spawn, I’ll head north in the timbers.