Sight Fishing for Spring Crappies
Now is as good of time as any to head up into the shallows and start sight fishing for spring crappies. Tony Roach does a great job breaking down this bite.
This bites typically happens on those really warm spring days after a cold front and those fish will push up extremely shallow into that warm water. The real key to this bite is to be stealthy and quiet. These crappies are in real shallow water and spook very easily.
These springtime crappies like anything that’s going to hold the heat like wood, cattails, bulrushes, and dark muddy bottoms. Once you find a spot that you can sight fish you’ll want to use your trolling motor to slow approach it.
When sight fishing for spring crappies, I like a 6’8 to 7’6 rod in a medium light power. I have it spooled up with four pound Suffix Nano braid. This allows me to make long cast and get my bait away from the boat.
Down at the business end I like to use a jig small plastic under a casting bubble or bobber. Small hair jigs work well in the spring as well.
When casting at these crappies you want to cast quite a ways past them and then slowly work the bait to them. If you cast to close it will often spook the fish.