Spring Crappie Fishing

Spring crappie fishing can be some of the most action packed fishing you do all year. If you can locate where the crappie are spawning, you need only cast out a minnow under a bobber, or a crappie jig and start reeling them in. In Missouri crappie usually start moving to spawning grounds when water temperatures reach 55 degrees. Crappie prefer sandy or muddy bottoms to make their nests. Water clarity will determine the depth at which crappie spawn. When the water is stained or muddy crappie will spawn in shallow water sometime in as little as 1 to 2 feet. In clear water crappie tend to go deeper, sometime as deep as 20 feet. Males usually arrive to the spawning grounds first to find and prepare the nesting area. Females usually hold in water a little deeper until they are ready to spawn. After laying their eggs females will move to deeper water nearby to feed. The males will stay behind to fan and guard the nest from predators.

Here are a few tips to try to get you on the crappie.

• Fish towards the end of warm fronts. Watch for incoming cold fronts after a string of warm days.
• After storms look for crappie in thick cover.
• Try putting a minnow on a crappie jig.
• Warm rain brings crappie to shallow water.
• Fish in shallow coves that offer protection from wind and waves
• Use the smallest bobber you have so it is easier to see when you have a bite.
• Remember your hot spots. When fish are removed other crappie will come and take over prime nesting sites.
• If the bite slows cast all around where you where catching fish. Other fish are often within inches in either direction
• Don't move to a new location until the bite stops.
• Crappie don't spawn all at once, they lay eggs over a period of weeks. Keep coming back to your hot spots.

Try out these tips next time your out and you just might go home with a mess of delicious crappie.

If you have any crappie fishing tips or tactics you want to share let us know.