Crappie on the Fly - Weigmann

You think crappie fishing can be challenging with traditional fishing tackle try catching them with a fly rod. Recently crappie pros Jason and Renee Clements were challenged to take out Polly Dean Watkins and Jimmy Jacobs with On the Fly South website crappie fishing with fly fishing gear. It was the first time for the Clements to take out fly fishing anglers and for the fly anglers to fish utilizing forward facing sonar so there was a learning curve for both of them.


Before going any further it’s important to note that Lake Washington where they were fishing has water temperatures in the low 40’s and it was after an extremely period of cold weather. This had the crappie moved off into deeper water habitat. The expectation before this extremely cold weather was the fly anglers would be able to fish shallower water or around the cypress trees lining the shoreline of Lake Washington in Mississippi with the Clements. It was all part of the 2025 Mississippi Fish Camp that brought the anglers and crappie pros together.


Take away the arctic blast, catching crappie shallow wouldn’t have been so challenging, but the large female crappie had not moved into shallow water habitat. The Clements decided to chase the crappie out in open water where female crappie plus male crappie were abundant, but utilizing forward facing sonar. It was a first for both the crappie pros and fly anglers.


Just like fishing with traditional spinning or baitcasting gear you have to find the fish before you can catch them. “The first thing we did was look to see how deep the crappie were holding at,” Jason continued, “Everyday and even during the day the crappie would move to a different depth depending on how warm the lake would warm up. We started fishing for the crappie at 8- to 10-foot deep, but as the sun warmed up the surface of the lake the crappie moved up in the water column to 2- to 3-foot deep which actually made catching them easier.”


“I think that the fly anglers had limited exposure to forward facing sonar which was another challenge in itself,” Jason went on, “So, I had to teach them what they were seeing when it came to catching roaming crappie and what the larger crappie looked like on the sonar. It was obvious that getting a fly down to where the crappie would bite the lure was going to be challenging.”

Normally Jason operates the trolling motor and fishes while Renee sits beside him fishing or netting fish in a tournament. Using conventional spinning or casting gear they will pitch, cast or drop a lure to a crappie once they see it on the forward facing sonar. When chasing roamers in open water Jason positions the boat with the trolling motor on the bow of the boat or with the powered trolling motors attached at the transom. Boat positioning is key to catching the crappie.


Once in position to cast, Jason would point what direction to cast with his 18 foot long rod. He wasn’t fishing, but using it as a pointer to show where to cast the lure. The fly anglers would then cast and bring the fly into the strike zone where the crappie could bite it. “You could see the fly and fly line as they were fishing kind of like braided fishing line, but the challenge and the biggest challenge I would say was getting the fly down to where the crappie were,” Jason went on, “It took forever for the fly to sink to the right depth to get into the strike zone. Truth is sometimes you can’t even get a heavy crappie jig down to a crappie quick enough to present it correctly, but they did add some split shots to the line to increase the sinking rate of the line and fly which helped.”


Success in this fishing challenge wasn’t how many crappie they caught, but catching crappie. They were able to catch and land some crappie during the time out fishing, however, there was several that didn’t get hooked up. “I will say the clouser which was their lure of choice was lifelike and had the perfect profile of the shad the crappie were eating on the lake,” Jason continued, “They had one that looked like an electric chicken color and a white shad pattern that both caught crappie.”


“I had never been around anyone fly fishing,” Renee continued, “It was impressive how accurate they were casting and getting a lure to the strike zone. The presentation was subtle; you could hardly see the lure hit the water plus they made it look really easy when it came to casting.”


Will it become popular for catching crappie on fly gear for roamers using forward facing sonar? Probably not, but once the crappie move shallow using fly gear to catch them is something that crappie anglers already do and have been doing for a long time.