Most fishermen can really get into the Crappies when they are shallow and well into the spawn, but the most savvy anglers know that they can target them as they move shallow during warming spells starting well before the spawn. How shallow? It depends. If Crappies are using deep water in large reservoirs like Table Rock, shallow may mean 15-feet deep. In your local pond or smaller lake, it can be 4-feet or even less. The key to finding where the Crappies are is targeting the warmest water you can find in a given area.
If you’re in your well equipped fishing boat your depth finder will tell you what the water temp is, but if you’re fishing out of a johnboat or canoe you’ll either have to use a small thermometer or just use your best guess. After several warmer days in late February or early March (especially with some south wind ) you can easily find the warmest water in South-facing coves if you think about it a little.
Crappie movements and Bass movements during these warming trends tend to shadow each other but tend to be slightly different, although when Crappie fishing you’ll catch an occasional Bass, and vice versa. The points leading into coves are obvious places, but docks or other cover just within the cove can be better locations for Crappies to find that warmer water, as the relate to cover if they can find it. They may move out away from cover to feed, but when they are less active they’ll usually drift back to some submerged form of cover. If you know the brush piles and blow-downs you usually catch fish on during early May, find spots with cover about halfway between those places and the main lake and check that type of area first. Go out towards the main lake if the water temperature is still low or after a cold front, and back further if it’s warmer. There’s no magic temperature, it’s more relative to what the temperature has been recently. Occasionally Crappies will congregate in areas they’ll later spawn in after many unseasonably warm days, but they’ll be skittish and usually cruise more that simply bury in the brush.
Where the real key to finding groups of Crappies is finding that warmer water in a given area. Small channels, dock areas that collect wind blown warmer water, any little area that is a degree or two warmer than the surrounding water. Crappies aren’t going to cross a mile of reservoir to find 2-degree warmer water- it’s more about finding the warmest water in an area where the Crappies are already at. If this spot is a brush pile on the edge of a creek channel, you may have hit the mother load. Isolated pieces of cover along Crappies’ migration route toward their spawning coves should always be checked. I have several of these at places I fish and once found they tend to produce year after at the right times, just like those brush piles they’ll be around a month or so from right now. A small cove or cut in the bank that collects wind-blown warmer water may be too shallow to attract Crappie, but check the point or drop adjacent to the cove and you may be surprised.
It doesn’t seem like much, but as little as a degree or two higher water temperature can mean the difference between catch-able, active Crappies, and tight-lipped stuck inside the brush pile ones. I use faster lures to try to locate the fish at this time of year, one of my favorites is a standard 2-inch curly tail grub on a weedless 1/16-ounce "Slider" jighead swam around, over, and through cover. Go to 1/8-ounce jig for water deeper than 6- to 8-feet. Colors? I try yellow/white or silver/blue first. The darker the water, the brighter I go. Another awesome little Crappie catcher is the smallest suspending jerk baits like the Husky Jerk 06, or the new XRap in 08 or 06. For colors, try Silver/Black or Silver/Blue/Orange belly, and the "Clown" color, too. In the clearest water I like the Silver/Black. Work these the same as you do for Bass. A twitch-twitch-pause retrieve with extended pauses beside or over the top of cover can catch the biggest Crappies of the year, those big pre-spawn females. One of the funnest options is breaking out the fly rod and using a smaller Clouser Minnow tied with bath-chain eyes instead of the regular lead ones. When tied this way they are much lighter and can be retrieved very slowly, almost suspending by or over cover. Crappies love the Clouser!
When you do catch one then it’s time to break out the float rod and get precise with bait or artificials under a float on a specific piece of cover. If you really get into a big group of Crappies be mindful that they haven’t spawned yet, and if you want good fishing for years to come, let most (if not all) of them go.
Good luck.
