Winter fishing delightful when it comes to crappie

Dennis Hymer, Strafford, is a winter crappie angler who catches lots of big crappie during the cold winter months. He celebrated his 65th birthday by catching crappie on Stockton Lake. (Photo by Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail)

An early morning phone call from Strafford resident Dennis Heymer, was all it took for me to grab some crappie fishing gear and head for the lake.

Heymer is a winter crappie angler who typically catches larger crappie and more of them in the cold winter months. More than he does during the heat of summer. So when he said the crappie started moving into their winter habitat, it's time for me to get serious and go fishing, no matter how cold it is outside.

Also, Dennis told me he had caught 14 big crappie several days earlier so he knew the fish were there.

Before I headed out to join Heymer, my wife wrote "fresh crappie" on our daily menu board, because she knows that when Dennis calls and says the crappie are hitting, we will have fish for dinner.

During the colder months, schools of crappie gather together in large groups. Once an angler finds the right spot, they might catch their limit with out moving away from that same spot. It can be one fish after another.

Crappie feed heavily in the cold water and once the right spot is located, it can be some great fishing. Because in winter, most lakes are clearer than in summer. If you are in a boat, you will need to drop anchor a short distance from a brush pile or other crappie spots and then cast your jig, instead of fishing it straight up-and-down. If fishing from a dock, drop your line straight down from a boat slip, go to the bottom and work the jig up slowly. Once you find the right spot, you are in business.

When you do locate the right spot and catch a crappie, fish the same depth to find more fish. If the fish are schooled up a certain depth, typically they can be found in other waters surrounding structures at the same depth.

Winter crappie anglers like Heymer say one key to catching fish is to slow your retrieve. In cold water, you might spend a minute on a single cast. The fish won't chase a jig in the cold water like they may do in summer or late fall.

Because everything in the surface of water moves slower, the wintertime anglers need to move their lures slower. Jig fishermen know that lightweight jigs will not sink as fast as heavier jigs do, so using a smaller jig will usually catch more fish. You needn't use a heavy line because it will slow your approach by causing more resistance in the water. Also, a bobber will help slow down a jig.

Some of the top lures that are commonly utilized for cold-water crappie fishing. (Photo by Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail)

I can recall when I was winter crappie fishing on Lake Jacomo near Independence, and watching some anglers catching fish while others didn't catch a fish.

On a closer look, I could see why some of the fishermen were not catching fish. They were the anglers who were using heavy rods and heavy lines like they do when fishing for catfish. I could see them get strikes, but they didn't know it.

Most winter anglers stick to jigs or minnows, but some other lures also catch crappie. Crappie can be finicky, so don't be afraid to try something different. While fishing with Heymer, I noticed that when the catching slowed down, he tied on a small Kastmaster spoon and started catching fish again.

More and more crappie anglers are finding that winter fishing can be very good. It's not like during the spring spawning run, however, winter fish seem to be larger and the schools of fish are usually tighter together, so you can catch a lot of them in one spot since the fish feed heavily in cold water. Usually, you will have the lake much to yourself.

Many winter crappie anglers like to fish in the afternoon when the fish move into shallower water to feed. Finding an area with southern exposure seems to produce better catches of fish due to warmer water.

Many crappie anglers put up their fishing gear before Christmas, but anglers like Dennis Heymer catch more crappie in the winter months than in the summer.

He said, "You can usually catch them in cold weather. When you find them, you can catch them. Just remember to slow down the way you fish and don't fish like you do in the spring and summer months. You can catch plenty of those great eating crappie."