Southern Crappie Making Their Way to Deeper Water
Keith Lusher 05.14.24
With the crappie spawn having come to an end in the Gulf South, shallow water is becoming less of an option for crappie fishermen. Ray Miller of Madisonville LA fishes for crappie year-round and said he’s happy to see the fish moving into the man rivers. “I like fishing the sac-a-lait (crappie) spawn but my favorite way to catch sac-a-lait is jigging deep in the main river,” he said. I made a trip with Miller to see just where the crappie are located when it comes to water depth. We started our day on the Tchefuncte River at daybreak.
Miller made a long run downriver past Interstate 12 and stopped at a spot where he had been catching crappie this spring. “It’s just a fallen tree where I have been catching sac-a-lait on top of the canopy of the tree,” Miller said. The canopy extended about 35 feet off the shoreline and was in 12 feet of water. Miller looked at his Livescope screen and we turned the handle on the transducer back and forth from left to right. “Nope, there’s nothing here,” he said. “This tree-top was full of fish two weeks ago.” Miller picked up the trolling motor, cranked up the big engine, and headed to the main river. “Let’s see if they’re in the river,” he said.
Our first spot was a dock that extended about 15 feet from the shoreline. The end of the dock was in 25 feet of water. Miller eased us in with the trolling motor and pointed at the screen. “Oh yeah! They’re here,” he said. Miller pointed out about 10 crappie that were suspended along the two outer pilings at the end of the dock.
Miller was first to lower his jig down. He was using a blue and yellow Scale Head jig threaded on a Flashin Assassin jig head. About a foot above the jig, he attached three split shots on his line. “Those split shots help me to see my jig when it’s falling on Livescope,” Miller said. I watched as his jig slowly fell. The crappie that was on the top of the school suddenly turned up and moved closer to the jig. “C’mon…c’mon…c’mon…there he is!” Miller shouted as he set the hook and slung the first crappie of the day into the boat. It was an 11-inch fish. After tossing it into the ice chest I joined in on the action and Miller and I put a total of 7 crappie in the box before moving.
As the day wore on we stopped at three more spots in the main river and caught 5-10 crappie at each spot. And at the end of the day, we had over 40 crappie which were all caught in the deeper water of the main river. “These fish are going to be here all summer and I’ll be able to pattern them a whole lot easier than post-spawn,” he said. As the summer heat sets in, crappie will be looking for cooler deeper water which will make catching them easier for crappie anglers. Miller shared a sigh of relief as we trailered the boat. “I’m sure glad things are getting back to normal in the river,” he said.
