Mississippi River Pool 8 Crappie Report

Heading out early in the morning trying to beat the storm front closing in, the truck was loaded with a bucket of minnows and a assortment of jigs. A good friend told me the crappies had disappeared from a favorite back water lake, what the heck….I just had to scope it out for myself

This lake runs deep and has some good flow through it, the shoreline is littered with timber and if you know this place you also know where there is some good spots with submerged wood. Of course the wood is where the adventure began but to my surprise there wasn’t a paper mouth to be found If you know me at all you know when I have a particular species in mind, the hunt just gets more intense when things are not working right

Both light weight rigs were retied and ready to cover water in a search and find mode. With one rod set up armed with a mini mite hanging under a bobber and the other sportin’ a #5 Jig N Rap, it was time to go lookin’ for pods of speckle sides. Watching the locator revealed a lot of fish hanging around 10 feet below the surface so that is were the baits were placed. Using a Jig N Rap is a great way to look for active fish, A #5 is heavy enough to fish right over the boat while staying vertical and on the move. The mini mite tipped with a minnow is also good to have trailing behind watching while using the bobber for a strike indicator. Slowly moving around in the middle of nowhere the Jig N Rap was smack but the fish was missed. Shortly after and only another ten yards there was two more swings and a miss and the the bobber slowly disappeared underneath the heavy covered algae surface and it was game on.

After finding active fish in 20fow the anchor was quietly slip over the side of the boat and the mini mite was being worked pretty hard but the strikes kept getting lighter. Being on semi active fish it was time to find what it was that would trigger these specks into taking a bait seriously. After trying a number of jigs the answer ended up being a orange headed white hair jig tipped with a minnow. The artillery was fished vertical over the side of the boat just as if to be ice fishing Small twitches while keeping the bait 8-10 below had the crappies opening up there pie holes and inhaling the snack. After a smack the rod tip was dropped for a second and then the hook was set. Setting the hook to quick would result in a minnow missing in action.

The game was fun and lasted long enough to put a decent fish fry together for the wife and I It couldn’t have worked any better than it did. With a meal in the basket and after schooling a few more finned critters just for fun, the winds came up and the rain came down. While putting the gear back in place and getting situated for the run back to the landing there was a smirk that came across my face…….”the crappies disappeared”

Why crappies are the way they are I have no idea. Yep, they should have been in the wood or on the breaks but, keeping an eye on the locator while in a search pattern looking for schools of active fish paid off this day. There are just days the fish don’t seem to play fair so don’t ignore areas that just make you fell like you are in the middle of nowhere. Cover some water and you will find them finicky specks.

Good luck fishing people