Crappie Fishing

There’s not too much pride involved in fishing for Crappie. When people ask you what you’re catching, and say “Crappie”. If they’re not to acquainted with fishing, they always reply, “too bad, good luck” and are on their way. Someone who fishes panfish though will come right over, drop their ine in next to yours, elbow to elbow on the dock, and say “Any with size to’em?”

I’m kind of a fussy panfish eater. I don’t like the taste of Pumpkinseed, and I only eat Yellow Perch when fishing throught the ice in winter. Just about everything else though, I’ll fillet and toss in the freezer. Crappie are by far my favorite, but Bluegill are a close second.

I was lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time once this spring. I had found the school a few days earlier with a bobber and ultralight jighead/tube combo. Caught one nice White Crappie, then a huge Black Crappie the size of a paper plate. I went back with same bobber and jighead setup but with fathead minnows. Now that combo worked, my only regret being I hadn’t started earlier in the day. By the time the Crappie were done about 11 AM I had doubled up all the hooks on my stringer. Even managed to catch a huge Bluegill while I was at it.

Took me about a half hour to clean all those fish, but I had a pile of fillets. I divided it in two, tossed each in some freezer bags with water and froze them. Works great as long as you use them within a couple months, after that so so….. Right about the time near shore fishing for Crappie ends, people will troll for them with mini-spinner setups. But I’m distracted by something else; Bass season opens………