Keith Lusher 05.14.24
With the crappie spawn having come to an finish within the Gulf South, shallow water is changing into much less of an possibility for crappie fishermen. Ray Miller of Madisonville LA fishes for crappie year-round and mentioned he’s comfortable to see the fish transferring into the person rivers. “I like fishing the sac-a-lait (crappie) spawn however my favourite option to catch sac-a-lait is jigging deep in the principle river,” he mentioned. I made a visit with Miller to see simply the place the crappie are situated on the subject of water depth. We began our day on the Tchefuncte River at dawn.
Miller made a long term downriver previous Interstate 12 and stopped at a spot the place he had been catching crappie this spring. “It’s only a fallen tree the place I’ve been catching sac-a-lait on prime of the cover of the tree,” Miller mentioned. The cover prolonged about 35 toes off the shoreline and was in 12 toes of water. Miller checked out his Livescope display screen and we turned the deal with on the transducer forwards and backwards from left to proper. “Nope, there’s nothing right here,” he mentioned. “This tree-top was filled with fish two weeks in the past.” Miller picked up the trolling motor, cranked up the massive engine, and headed to the principle river. “Let’s see in the event that they’re within the river,” he mentioned.
Our first spot was a dock that prolonged about 15 toes from the shoreline. The top of the dock was in 25 toes of water. Miller eased us in with the trolling motor and pointed on the display screen. “Oh yeah! They’re right here,” he mentioned. Miller identified about 10 crappie that have been suspended alongside the 2 outer pilings on the finish of the dock.
Miller was first to decrease his jig down. He was utilizing a blue and yellow Scale Head jig threaded on a Flashin Murderer jig head. A few foot above the jig, he connected three cut up pictures on his line. “These cut up pictures assist me to see my jig when it’s falling on Livescope,” Miller mentioned. I watched as his jig slowly fell. The crappie that was on the highest of the varsity immediately turned up and moved nearer to the jig. “C’mon…c’mon…c’mon…there he’s!” Miller shouted as he set the hook and slung the primary crappie of the day into the boat. It was an 11-inch fish. After tossing it into the ice chest I joined in on the motion and Miller and I put a complete of seven crappie within the field earlier than transferring.
Because the day wore on we stopped at three extra spots in the principle river and caught 5-10 crappie at every spot. And on the finish of the day, we had over 40 crappie which have been all caught within the deeper water of the principle river. “These fish are going to be right here all summer season and I’ll have the ability to sample them a complete lot simpler than post-spawn,” he mentioned. Because the summer season warmth units in, crappie might be in search of cooler deeper water which is able to make catching them simpler for crappie anglers. Miller shared a sigh of aid as we trailered the boat. “I’m positive glad issues are getting again to regular within the river,” he mentioned.
