Crappie

[Fishinator]

Sams friend was right. My brother and I went to Cape Fair today and caught over 40 crappie (5 bass also).We went up river and were fishing timber on the edge of the main channel. Main channel was between 11 and 17 ft. deep and quickly went up to 4 ft when out of channel. We used a pink jig head 1/8 to 1/4 oz and a white body jig, any white body seemed to work since we ran out of the curl tail ones. Good Luck.

[jwood]

Sams friend was right. My brother and I went to Cape Fair today and caught over 40 crappie (5 bass also).We went up river and were fishing timber on the edge of the main channel. Main channel was between 11 and 17 ft. deep and quickly went up to 4 ft when out of channel. We used a pink jig head 1/8 to 1/4 oz and a white body jig, any white body seemed to work since we ran out of the curl tail ones. Good Luck.

Thanks for the fishing tip. If you were to launch @ 76 bridge ramp, are you going north when you said you are going up river? Thanks again

[Fishinator]

Thanks for the fishing tip. If you were to launch @ 76 bridge ramp, are you going north when you said you are going up river? Thanks again

Yes, go north.

[Sam]

Yes, go north.

That's it. I'm busting to get down there - I know dozens of spots where we've caught crappie in early spring in past years, from Virgin Bluff almost up to Galena. When things settle down after this rain, maybe Tuesday or so, I'll sure check it out.

What I've found before in March is that crappie there aren't associated much with cover. They're in great big bunches concentrated along an area of the bank or on a flat in a bend. They often run small on the James arm, with 2 out of 3 too short, but with some real nice ones among 'em. Come back to a spot a day or two later and they probably won't be there - but they'll be a little ways further upstream, still in a big bunch.

Last year we found an enormous bunch on a flat at McCord bend, and we stayed around it with the trolling motor casting white swimming minnows into the spot. The crappie were mostly just under 10" and we must have caught over 100 to get two limits of 15, but there were some up to 14" in our limits. All that time we thought we were fishing a big brushpile about 25' long, 'cause that's what the scope showed.

Two days later we came back and the crappie weren't there - and the brushpile wasn't either! It was all fish we'd been scoping. We finally found them that day about half a mile farther up, and I bet it was the same bunch. In all the previous years it's been mid to late March when we've found big bunches of crappie in the James Arm. I've never known it to start this early - but if that's what's happening this year, it's OK with me!

[Phil Lilley]

Bill said he heard they've been hauling in limits of 15 inch crappie the last 2 weeks but you know how fishing stories go... but it does look like this is going to be a banner crappie year for Table Rock and hopefully Bull Shoals too.

[Dutch]

I fished down there a couple of days ago. I have never seen so many shorts in my life. We had about a 6-1 ratio and talked other boats. Some said 10-1 in their boats. I'd really like to get into a bunch of 15".

[Phil Lilley]

That's good news for next year!

Said they were under big docks 15 feet down.

[dtrs5kprs]

Another benefit of the recent high water years no doubt. Go rain.

[Sam]

That sounds about right. The James arm has a lot of short crappie every spring, mixed in with some good ones. The recent high water years should have made an extra bunch of short ones for now, and that's good in the long run. If I've gotta catch 90 to keep 15, that's even more fun. I'll have sore hands for a few days after - I never realize how much I get finned unhooking crappie until later. After a long winter, I'm ready for some sore hands.

There were a whole bunch of 9 1/2 inchers last year, and they oughta be keepers now!

[dtrs5kprs]

When you are fishing for fun, it is pretty hard to have a bad time by catching too many fish.