Crappie Time on the Big O

By Mike Giles

March 21, 2008 01:10 am

— Fishing my way along a flooded willow line on Okatibbee Lake shortly after sunrise recently, I went about 100 yards with nary a bite. Pitching my jig and cork combo along a patch of dead weeds brought my first strike. After a quick miss I cast the jig right back into the same hole and bam, the cork plunged out of sight. As I set the hook I finally had my first keeper in the boat.
For the next few minutes I caught or missed crappie on almost every cast. I was fishing in water less than three feet deep, with my jig only 12 to 15 inches deep. It was hard to understand why I worked the same willow line for so long without a bite and then suddenly found a bed of spawning perch. The water was about the same depth and the surface structure looked the same but for some reason the white perch were really stacked tight in about a ten square foot area.
After working the area thoroughly and catching quite a few slabs, the action slowed, so I moved on to find another hotspot.

Silver Lining

The just concluded two year drought that we suffered through on Okatibbee may have a silver lining for anglers. Literally thousands of willow trees and bushes have sprouted and grown along shorelines and shallow water flats that were previously devoid of structure. Some older anglers said that the emergence of the new structure reminded them of when the lake was young and full of brush and fish.
When it comes to spawning crappie you can be sure that they will head for the shallows in search of prime spawning areas when the water temperature reaches the mid to upper fifties. With temperatures hovering in that range recently, the perch have invaded the shallow water areas with only one thing deterring them presently, and that’s falling water.
Yes, once again the lake is being drained down about as fast as they can get it out. While it makes for some hard fishing, anglers must continually move to keep up with the crappie, as they will relocate once the water drops out of the structure, or area that’s holding them. Anglers familiar with the lake will be able to keep up with the migration after spending a little time on the water.
After taking a quick lunch break I was back on the water in search of more crappie, but this time I was joined by Ken Murphy. By the time Murphy joined me the water was really rough and white capping. While we couldn’t fish where we wanted to, we did find a concentration fish in a shallow cove.

Flashy Offering

Murphy pitched a small beetle spin into the openings in weeds and finally hooked up with a slab crappie. As we continued on down the weed line we patterned the crappie holding in the weeds along and just inside the outer line. However, instead of a jig and cork rig, they preferred the moving spinner.
I promptly picked up my spinner and went to work catching a few of the succulent slab sides myself. On a couple of occasions we both had fish on at the same time. While the perch were finicky and scattered, most likely due to rapidly falling water, they would bite if you kept your lure on the move.
Before our day was done we had filled our “supper well” well with a good mess of crappie for the supper table. Though the crappie spawn had just begun, we had caught quite a few and had a great time being back on the water once again. And to top it off we had a lot of succulent crappie fillets for Ms. Kathy to fry up. Ah yes, I can just taste those scrumptious fried perch fillets now. It just doesn’t get much better than that!

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