Quote Originally Posted by coolerfull View Post
Yes im a "Newbie" here! Kinda sorta been reading posts for a while now an got brave!! I have tons of Q's but this will help me and my dad more than others for now. We have a river up here in NE corner of state that we do pretty good in. We mostly fish with minnows and stop fishing when duck season gets here, but as you all know that story is going down hill fast around here! Needless to say the river looks perfect we just have never fished it during the cold months of year and normally its up and muddy. Do we need to change methods? Maybe try tight linning jigs and cover more area than we normally do? I know most of you fish lakes but me and pops love fishing this river with ok success! Any help would be appriciated. Never have fished it in Nov.-Dec-Jan, etc..
Hi---I fish in the rivers, lake Millwood and any creeks.--When the crappie around here complete their spawn they move back to the river or in deep water close to the river.
Myself I fish deep and see if they are there--plus I keep an eye on the spawning areas and try them also to see if they are spawning. Last season They spawned with the snow on the ground and I missed the main spawn.
Some of the biggest slabs I have caught has been in 12-18 inches of water around brush. The backwaters is great places to locate crappie. I use Goggle map to locate the feeder creeks and areas that may be used to spawn----Needless to say when I first started---I explored a great deal to find areas.
Condos in deep and shallow water will help you catch them and give you a dedicated spot known to you and whomever.
Crappie have been known around here to spawn up into spring--like April--Once it gets hot---I fish the deep waters and that is the oxbows and the rivers.