A bit late

[top_dollar]

       Fished the lower St Francis right after Christmas from where cedar creek comes in, down to the hwy 34 bridge.  It was my first time on the St Francis.  I pretty much fished a shad colored jerkbait the whole time.  Had a nice mix of spots, LM and SM.  Biggest SM was 18 inches, biggest Spot was 17 and the biggest LM was almost 19.  I ended the day with exactly 20 bass.  I did find a school of 9 inch crappie and caught a bunch out of the same little hole on a little jig.  Almost all of the fish I caught came out of 2 winter pools.  I dont know how deep the river gets around there, but the water was clear and the only time I could get bit was in areas where I couldn't see the bottom.    

[Al Agnew]

That's kind of a good rule of thumb for how deep to fish in the winter.  The fish aren't always in the deepest water around, but you need to be fishing water deep enough to not be able to see the bottom.  Of course, when it's really clear, you can't hardly find water deep enough to obscure the bottom...but then, the fishing is really tough in those conditions anyway, so the rule of thumb still kinda holds.

The St. Francis is the best crappie river that I know of.  I used to make a couple early spring floats on the upper sections every year just to target crappie.  Not every pool held them, but most of the bigger pools did...all you had to do was fish every treetop and brushpile until you found the school in that pool.  Usually one school to a pool, unless it was a REALLY long pool.

[jdmidwest]

What kayak are you fishing out of?  Looks really open on top.

[top_dollar]

1 hour ago, jdmidwest said:

What kayak are you fishing out of?  Looks really open on top.

It is a Jackson Bite.  That's is exactly what I liked best about it.   I like having 3 or 4 rigged rods ready to go.

[top_dollar]

9 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

That's kind of a good rule of thumb for how deep to fish in the winter.  The fish aren't always in the deepest water around, but you need to be fishing water deep enough to not be able to see the bottom.  Of course, when it's really clear, you can't hardly find water deep enough to obscure the bottom...but then, the fishing is really tough in those conditions anyway, so the rule of thumb still kinda holds.

The St. Francis is the best crappie river that I know of.  I used to make a couple early spring floats on the upper sections every year just to target crappie.  Not every pool held them, but most of the bigger pools did...all you had to do was fish every treetop and brushpile until you found the school in that pool.  Usually one school to a pool, unless it was a REALLY long pool.

              I tried to reach the bottom with my paddle, but couldn't.  Since they were biting a jerkbait so well I didn't even bother with the worm or something I could count down.  I'm guessing that JB was getting down 6 or 8 feet.  I think I was using 12# mono, maybe 10.  I was actually going to target crappie, but saw so many schools of big gizzard shad I thought I better pull out a JB.  The pool I fished mostly was maybe 100 yards long with big boulders along the north bank.  I knew it had to be a good spot.  

              My uncle told me the same thing about the crappie...he said there are lots.  I caught them in a tree about 3 (length of my arm) feet under a jig.  I probably caught 30 or more out of the same area, but, with the exception of a lone 11 inch fish they were all 8 or 9 inchers.  The biggest crappie (pictured) was actually caught on an xrap 8.