Back to Basics

article by Dan Chason

About 10 years ago, I became my Father.  I never understood why he “perch jerked” and snubbed his nose at “real fishing” for bass.  But suddenly I realized what the fuss was all about when it came to crappie fishing.  I even started looking forward to the Spring bream and chinquapin spawn.  For years and years I chased the elusive bucket mouth bass.  I spent thousands of hours and dollars pursuing them, fishing all over the country.  Not that bass are not a viable foe, but I thought I would meet a more challenging fish.   I was wrong.

Crappie are pretty much the most finicky, discerning, aggravating, thrilling and challenging fish I have ever chased.  Most afternoons, you will find me perched on my aluminum boat with a jig pole in my hand.  I have learned to Spider Rig, long line, straight jig and the shameful use of shiners to catch these slabs.  Now I’m embarking on a new venture.  If you can’t beat them, join them is my motto.  So as of this writing, I am the new owner of the renowned Garmin Panoptic Livescope.  I am sure there will be much ado and more writings about this piece of equipment.  I have watched other anglers load up on all types of fish with the only difference in them and other boats was the Livescope.  Anglers have told me that this device will make a better fisherman out of anyone.  I’m excited to find out.  But with the introduction of new devices, there is always the mistake to miss out on the basics.  And you don’t get any more basic than floating a jig chasing crappie.

When crappie start to spawn, they can sometimes get so shallow that you can track a coon.  It makes it very difficult to reach them via a boat.  I’ve seen anglers put on chest waders and ease down a bank ripping these slabs.  It is just the easiest way to get to them.  But as the spawn progresses and if you are not a fan of fishing near alligators or snakes in a pair of boots, let me help you achieve a fair medium.

Call them bobbers, floats or corks but they all basically work the same way.  Your lure is on bottom and you set that cork at whatever depth you are looking to fish.  This not only works great on spawning fish, it works really good on suspending fish.  Let’s examine that first.  Fish, particularly crappie will suspend on a high barometer day.  The two places they love on a high barometer is heavy cover, or suspending in the water table in the thermocline.  This thermocline is the optimum oxygen/temperature in the water column.  Remember when you were a kid and you would jump in the lake and feel that one spot that was cool?  You were in the thermocline and that is where fish want to live.  

When cork rigging for crappie, I like a weighted cork.  A weighted cork keeps the lure, jig or shiner from flipping over and wrapping, causing the cork to not set right or tangle.  This weighted rig also allows for longer casts and accuracy.  The optimum weighted cork is one in a quill fashion.  The quill serves two purposes.  First, when you cast it maintains your presentation straight.  The other is the tilting action of the quill gives your bait or lure a pendulum action creating more strikes.

The next thing to remember is that cork rigging can tell you some things if you pay attention.  If your cork rig goes flat on the water, you have one of two issues: the crappie hit it on the way down or you are fishing too deep.  If the fish hit the lure on the way down, shorten your depth and you can pattern how deep the fish are holding.

The rig I use is the quill weighted cork, a Bayou Bob chartreuse/black jig (no weight) in a 1/32 ounce jig.  The next thing to examine is where to fish this rig.  If you are familiar with your lake of choice, start at the spawning grounds.  When a front moves in or the water exceeds 60 degrees, start on the first cover near spawning beds.  This may be cypress trees, fallen brush tops, rocks, piers or any other cover that may hold bait.  I like to fish around rocky banks in the mornings as they retain heat in the Spring, which draws the bait fish close.  Crappie will key on these spots.  But my all time favorite place to fish is a close run between docks and groves of cypress trees.  I absolutely love fishing cypress trees.  The overlooked thing about cypress trees is the secondary root systems that may be 4 to 6 feet from the base.  Crappie love these root systems and knots as a place of ambush.

     Area lakes best suited for cork rigging are D’Arbonne Lake, Caney Lake and Poverty Point Lake to name a few.  Look at water clarity and temperature and remember the northwest side will be the warmest for morning trips. 

     If you look at water clarity, you can easily determine the best lure color.  For my jig choices I try to match the hatch.  Black/Chartreuse colors are hard to beat in the summer as well as anything mimicking grass shrimp or crawfish.  The best time to switch over to crawfish colors are after a full moon which brings on the crawfish hatch.

     I wish you the best of luck and I hope to bring on some hands on tips on the Livescope soon.  Until then, I can be found with a jig pole, hunting those elusive slabs. My dad would be proud.