Uprooting Spring Crappies

Spring time is crappie time, and for me the first prolonged warm spell in spring signifies the arrival of the crappies in shallow water. Schools of spawning crappies will migrate from main lake areas, seeking the thickest, most luscious shallow water cover to lay eggs in protection. Wood cover, weed beds, and bulrushes are popular spawning grounds, and the most sought-after accessible fishing locations for anglers. While these community spots are always good areas to focus on, nobody is going into shallowest jungles where boat access is difficult.

During the last few springs on some of my favorite lakes, I’ve made some strange discoveries and observations while bass fishing. Pitching and flipping through the emerging thick cover for largemouth bass this time of year, I’ve often found that the most inaccessible bogs and root systems of lily pads contain the most favorable and unsuspecting schools of spawning crappies. These spots are often loaded with fish, and nobody is locating them. I can only speculate that most folks don’t have the required shallow drafting hulls, and powerful trolling motors to reach them in these locations.

When and Where

Depending on region and spring climates, the crappie spawn generally begins when water temperatures reach 60 degrees. Warming water draws crappies from their open water main lake habitats towards shallow vegetated bays and marshes for spawning. Peak spawning occurs from 65 to 70 degrees. For me, this period quickly takes place between the last week of May through first week of June. Timing is everything.

Crappies will choose deeper water and thicker cover for spawning. Sometimes, the cover may be thicker than most anglers and their boats can penetrate through. The average depth crappies will spawn in is between 3 to 6 feet deep, but on many of the darkest waters and marshes I prowl, they can be in water as shallow as 1 foot. Males will be most frequently caught due to their aggression as nest builders, and as they await their courtship with females. Meanwhile, females will be present but in less abundance.

The habitat for uprooting crappies is entirely focused on lily pad systems and its complex root systems. These areas are always associated with shallow bogs, and marshland adjacent to the lake, and are textbook spots for the crappie set-up for the following reasons. First, the darker water and shallow habitats provide significantly warmer water temperatures that lead to a much faster, uninterrupted spawning period. Second, the higher fertility of these spots offers greater food sources for the abundant schools of fish. Third, these shallow jungles of thick cover are mostly inaccessible for the average boat, thus they are the perfect sanctuary from predators and anglers.

The best spots will stretch for several hundred yards, providing anglers with hours of casting and dipping through pockets, and repeated controlled drifts along the edges. Within these jungles of amazing habitat, fluctuating holes will be prevalent, as will be several nooks and crannies, underwater funnels and tunnels, and open pockets.

Crappie Safari

On the warmest and first 70 to 80 degree, windless sunny day of the month, masses of crappies begin infiltrating into the shallow backwaters and bogs many lakes to spawn. To best approach these fish, I prowl in my stealthy, 16 foot Lund glass boat.

Across most northwoods lakes, I like to set up at the mouths of bays, where a community of boats will typically station as well. Each of them might be consistently catching, but I tend to want more.

I often wander through these shallow areas with the trolling motor, raised high up into the water column to prevent the bottom from churning up, and migrating fish from spooking. Deep into the bays and near-shore zones, you’ll have lily pad kingdoms to probe through.

Rather than anchor and position fish like most others, I favor fishing mobile and aggressive….. zig-zagging around those who were anchored and through all the dense lily pad root systems. Why anchor to wait for fish when you can go find them to catch more?

On these warm days, timing and strategy is about as perfect as fishing can get. The further and deeper into the mostly inaccessible bog you go, the more concentrated and abundant the crappies can be. Of all the boats fishing near the mouth in community spots, few others are able to reach the fish like I can. I’ve experienced many outings in which during a few hours, more than 50 keepers get caught. Most are 10 to 12 inch eaters. Some go into the box for a handful of meals, while majority get released to propagate and complete their circle of life.

During mass spawning runs like this, crappies like all other fish are non-renewable resources, thus it is encouraged to harvest conservatively by keeping only what is needed. A mess of 20 crappies will result in 5 to 10 meals for one single individual. Four crappies of 10″ length are plenty for a 1-person meal. More fisheries and quality size structures are destroyed during these periods than any other point in the season. Take the abundant 10 and 11 inch eaters, release all others.

In order to fish aggressively, boat control and placement of baits far outweigh all of the varied techniques applicable. Slowly pushing the boat with my bow-mount MinnKota Powerdrive V2 with the co-pilot remote, I am able to cruise at the slowest speeds (slower than foot pedal) that allows me to use a combination of presentations that includes drifting, dipping, and casting.

Tackle and Techniques

Pegged in my boat’s Scotty and Down-East rod holders, I often drift one rod that gets rigged with jig and swimming plastics, below a small slip float. Used in a planer board style manner rather than a strike indicator, the floats keep baits placed within 1-foot underwater and trailing 25 yards away from the gunnels. Whenever a fish grabs the crappie slider or micro twister tail, our indicator was the bend in the soft rod tip and exploding float. Best presented around large open pockets and along the edges of the root systems, this unusual stealthy drift fishing system leads to numbers of crappies that didn’t get spooked by our nearby presence.

While drifting with the float system, dipping and casting as well as dead sticking the open pockets and canopies of bogs and roots keeps me busy and entertained. With a combination of jigs and small plastics, crappies get extracted from cover. My favorite crappie jigs of late are hand tied hair jigs by my friend and In-Fisherman contributor, Jim Gronaw. Labeled under the name of “River Critter Hair Jigs,” they swim and flutter perfectly before the faces of crappies, and don’t require being tipped with small plastic trailers or any other extras.

Meanwhile, the Kalin’s Crappie Scrub might be the only plastic tail one will ever need. Dead sticking them on a 1/16 oz. jig beneath a float, some of the most remarkable, effortless and aggressive crappie bites occur. The crappie scrub with its kicker legs resembles a small frog in the hatchling stage. It’s the perfect bait for such shallow heavily vegetated habitat, one that most crappies have yet to ever see, and that’s not yet in the boats of many anglers.

For such jungle fishing situations, live bait is never needed. Since the purpose is to keep mobile and cover water, weedless jigs and hooks also aren’t required because they can usually be retrieved from snags.

Despite the need for a shallow boat and powerful trolling motor to get you there, the required tackle is fairly simple and minimal. 6 to 9 foot medium light action St. Croix Rods with 5 lb. Cortland Masterbraid with a 4 to 6 lb. mono leader is excellent for all drifting, most dipping and casting scenarios. I use two Premier Spinning (MLF) in 6-foot and 6-and a half-foot models, along with the new 7-foot MLF Panfish Series.

I know that if I conveniently have this option in my boat at the time, a 12 foot cane pole used for dipping (pole and line fishing) would be a remarkable tool for even easier crappie extraction from thick cover. I’ll try to remember this for crappie safari 2022, as it does me no good to leave simple tools like this sitting in the garage.

To gain entry into the expansive kingdom of lily pads and their complex infrastructure, having the right watercraft and a quiet trolling motor will allow for this unique fishing adventure to happen. Location and coverage, and quality of drifts will dictate all the fish catching success. Always remember that the most impenetrable roots and fields of lily pads are generally the best. It’s the reason why majority of northern crappie anglers aren’t yet doing it.