4-20 SS Crappie

 Hey everybody let’s take our kids fishing for crappie, or forget the kids, just go by yourself.

 You know up here in the Northwest we talk so much about fly fishing for steelhead, rainbows, cutthroat, brown’s. I’ve done stories in the past noting the fact that catfish are the most popular species in terms of numbers caught and the population of people who go after them. But what about crappie fishing? As most of you know crappie are school fish and can be caught by still fishing, casting, trolling or drifting. Spring is the best time to catch crappie as they are involved in their spawning runs. They love cover, so locate brush, stumps or artificial cover at appropriate debts and you are likely to find crappie.  they are found primarily in lakes although once in a while they’ll make their way into small creeks. Use live bait, a crappie jig or a small crappie lure. As the sun hits the water they dropped to 5 or 10 feet deep depending on water clarity and as the sun gets higher they may retreat to deeper water.  I know this sounds like heresy but I called up Dennis Brown who is an avid angler and he told me he has never gone flyfishing in his life. But I just said he was an avid angler. So what does he fish for?  Almost exclusively crappie. “What’s the big deal about fishing for crappy? Eating them. They are the best fish around for eating, at least in our mind.”