How To Catch Crappie In The Wintertime

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Sunday, November 16th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

by Billy Bob Desroleaux III

Finding Crappie in the Winter isn’t as difficult as many others believe. In fact, once you find Crappie in one area, you can pretty much find them in the same type of areas any place on the body of water you are fishing.

The nice thing about Winter Crappie is that they tend to hold the same pattern for days, sometimes weeks, on end. Unless of course they’re disturbed by a Winter storm front or days of constant weather changes. Even then, once the weather settles, they generally go right back to their same old patterns.

Day in, day out, Winter Crappie can normally be found hanging around brush in the deeper water of most lakes. This usually includes submerged river and creek channels. Long periods of warm stable weather can cause the Crappie to move shallow. Keep this in mind if the weather has been nice the previous days leading up to your fishing trip.

Winter Crappie can become lethargic. When this happens, which is a lot during Winter, look for them holding tight to brush in deep water hangouts like along submerged channels. There are times you can also find Crappie up in shallow water. One of these times is when you have several days of warm sunny weather.

Use the right tackle for Crappie fishing in the Wintertime.

Winter Crappie fishing requires you to downsize your tackle. The same tackle you used back in the Summer and Spring will not be as effective in Winter. Light and Ultralight rods in the 6 to 7 foot range, small minnows or 1/32 ounce jigs and four pound test line are the norm. Crappie become sluggish and finicky in the Winter, and they won’t chase bait. In fact, they want the bait right in front of their mouth during most of the Winter.

I like using 6 to 7 foot Light to Ultra Light spinning rods with a stiff back. I prefer graphite over fiberglass rods because Crappie bite softly in the Winter. Graphite rods help you feel these soft bites.

My other Winter Crappie fishing gear includes tiny ice fishings jigs or spoons, jigs in the 1/32 or 1/64 ounce range and 2 to 4 pound test line. I know what you’re thinking. But Winter Crappie do not put up much of a fight and you should be able to horse any Crappie from a brush pile with this setup. Sure, you’ll lose a few, but you’ll catch more by downsizing than you will by using heavy rods, lines and baits.

Makes sure you slow down your presentation. Winter Crappie do not move fast and will not chase your bait like they do in the Summer and Spring. Many times I’ve held my rod still to entice Crappie in a deep brushpile to bite.

For more information on how to catch Crappie anytime of the year, please visit the links below.

About the Author:

Crappie fishing can be a whole lot of fun during the Winter. Visit these hyperlinks for more Crappie fishing tips and informative articles and straight-talk on Crappie fishing.

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