Locating Winter Time Crappie

[FishinJack]

Locating Winter Time Crappie on Lake of the Ozarks

You can catch crappie year round on Lake of the Ozarks, even in the dead of winter. I generally try to fish 3-4 days a week during the winter months. I choose the more mild days with a day time high above freezing hopefully with a tolerable to light wind. Our average high in the dead of winter is 41 degrees and water temps usually bottom out around 38. I dress appropriately to stay warm enough and usually don’t start too early in the morning. Plus you’ll warm up just fine when you get on a good run of big crappie, one after another. Winter time crappie fishing can actually be really easy once you find a pile of them, but finding them is the hard part. I’m going to talk a little bit about where I go, what I look for and other things that might help you find fish better this time of year.

In December you’ll start seeing the really big schools of crappie down deep. I target the deepest brushpiles I know of in the winter in search of large schools of primarily white crappie on the main lake or near the main lake. Anywhere from the Hurricane Deck Bridge down to the Toll Bridge works best for me for this pattern. Finding these brushpiles is the hard part. Once you find them they will work for you for a long time, many times day after day, year after year. Time on the water and a good fish finder will help you find these submerged trees. Troll around looking for them and when you see something down there I will tie on a heavy bass jig and fan cast around to feel where exactly it is on the bottom. I like the sunny days over cloudy days because you want the crappie to hold close to their brushpiles. On cloudy days they tend to roam more and it’s better to be more aggressive in your approach by covering more water. The sun will keep crappie home and once you find a home you will be able to vertically fish slowly right over top of them. I use Humminbird electronics and Side Imaging as my under water eyes to see what is going on down there. Good electronics will help you find not only the brushpiles but also whether or not fish are using them right now. The mapping system is also a must because it will remember your waypoints and bring you right back to the exact spots with ease. Plus you can easily see if shad are in the area, which is always an important factor in catching fish. I slowly drive around areas that are in between 20 and 40 feet deep preferably at the mouths of coves looking for brush on my graph. Docks with brush are fine but they are not an important factor for this pattern. Brush by itself is often times better than finding just a dock loaded up with brush. Also looking along the main lake is just fine as long as the depth is in between 20 to 35 feet. My best spot I know of sits in 28 feet of water with parts of it coming up to 18 feet below the surface. It doesn’t even really need to be brush either; I have found other objects in the water that work just as well. One of my favorite honey holes is a sunken dock from the ice storm several years ago. You can also make your own sweet spots by putting in your own trees. Nowadays, I find these spots with my electronics. I use 3/32 oz jig heads which are slightly heavier than what most people use to help me get down there quicker. I don’t like 1/8 oz jigs because they get hung up too much when I’m fishing deep brush. 1/16 oz heads are fine but take too long to get deep and you don’t have the same feel on your bait. I do not add any extra action or jigging to the lures. A simple steady slow retrieve with an occasional pause and hold is all that is needed in the coldest water. I use Johnson tubes and some of the Berkley tubes. I almost always tip my baits with a crappie nibble.

On the lower end of the lake (toll bridge to Bagnel Dam) the Black crappie population is greater and they act a lot different than the white crappie. Black crappie suspend much more in the winter than white crappie. They utilize shade under docks and also will often times be only 3-13 feet down. Black crappie will run bigger and heavier than white crappie which is what the majority of crappie tournament fisherman are looking for. They have much thicker backs and are more muscular on average. They also roam around much more, unlike the white crappie who are more like homebodies. On the sunny days they school up in large groups under the darkest shade on a dock. Often times the dock might have some wind on it, or be located on a point with some relatively deep water around it. Humminbird side imaging units are critical to quickly find which docks are holding fish. I’ll downsize my side range to 60 feet so I can get a real good look under the docks and keep moving until I find a group of them. They follow baitfish more and are more nomadic, solely depending on the shad movements. Finding good docks with ample shade is pretty easy, even finding groups of fish in the winter is pretty easy. The hard part is finding docks that have fish that are feeding and have easy access points to reach the fish under the docks. Open boat slips with shade are always nice but sometimes you need to be more creative to reach the fish if your fish finder is telling you that there are fish under the dock. Dock shooting and skipping lures under ropes, over cross bars and everywhere takes practice, however it’s not as difficult as some people think it is that have never tried it. Be careful the docks are privately owned and be courteous to the dock owners. Dock shooting is the type of cast that you purposely bend back your rod to sling shot your bait into a tight spot. It opens up new casting spots an ordinary cast or pitch could not make. If you’ve never tried much dock shooting before there are two ways to hold onto the jig, either the jig head or the bend of the hook. For beginners I recommend the bend of the hook because you are less likely to hook your self. On the lower end of the lake, primarily fishing for black crappie on the windy or cloudy days, you need to look for steep rocky banks. Utilize the wind but don’t let it blow you around too much. You still need to be able to fish slowly as you ease along a spot. Scattered brush is nice to find on the windy rocky banks and can be little hot spots. I also look for baitfish in the area before I chose a spot. Rocky banks, bluffs, or points can all be productive as this pattern is more unpredictable. For this pattern the fish are shallower, more loosely grouped, and on average larger in size and have some tendencies more like a bass.

As far as equipment goes I really like the Fenwick River Runner series of rods for all my crappie fishing. The 6’8’’ light action is a very sensitive and lightweight rod. It balances perfectly with a Pflueger President reel. This combo is my go to set up for all my crappie fishing year round. Generally speaking I use 6lb Stren Gold monofilament fishing line. It is very strong and a very limp line. Limp line is very important. I have used this line for a while now and really love it. We can horse fish in and we don’t have to worry about it breaking. There are times when I will downsize to a moss colored Stren Magnathin in 4lb in the very clearest of water on the lower end of the lake. The new Fireline Nanofil is another good line for shooting docks. It helps you get the maximum amount of distance under the dock. I hear some people say “I use crappie nibbles but only when it’s tough”. I don’t understand this way of thinking because I always want to catch as many fish as possible and crappie nibbles will make a big difference particularly on this lake. When you find some crappie, slow down let that crappie ease up and smell your bait. Fishing slowly is a must when talking about winter time crappie fishing. Spend some time finding the fish with your electronics. Find out if they are primarily black or white crappie. Put together a plan and fill your limit. If you have some questions give me a call or book a trip. Hiring a good guide is the best way to really to learn a new technique or pattern. Good fishing guides are more than just good fisherman, we're fishing teachers. www.FishingLakeoftheOzarks.com