Crappie - Long Creek Arm

[Sam]

I went out of Gage's about 11:30 a.m. yesterday - a sunny, high-pressure, south-wind day. I stayed in Missouri and fished crappie holes that have been good for me in previous years. I didn't go up in the creeks on the Arkansas side.

It was tough. Beyond tough. I caught one big crappie right away, then went without a bite for six hours! All during the day, I scoped lots of fish suspended 30 to 50 feet down in 70 feet of water off the usual good banks. Those were the crappie, but there's no way to reach them that deep with the wind blowing hard.

Then about 6 p.m. the crappie moved into 20-25 ft. deep water off the same banks and started biting. I caught 8 more before dark - the smallest 12 inches and most of them 14 and 14 1/2 inches. The ticket was a 1/16th oz. lead head jig with a 1 1/2" white swimming minnow with chartreuse tail - slow trolled only about 8 ft. deep in 25 ft. of water. They wanted to come UP for it, and if I fished it deeper I'd get no bites.

So, every trip and every season is different. I sure had to work for the crappie yesterday, but they're BIG. Can't complain.

[markg]

Thanks Sam, my buddies went out today and only caught 3. They were down by Cricket Creek and trolled for them. They are getting discouraged and were looking for guide info. I told them to check at Cricket Creek Marina to see if Buster or Bill had cards there. If those guys leave me a number I will relay to my friends tonight. Sounds pretty tough but they did see a couple of guys with nice stringers of big fish coming out down there.