Jim McClave holds a nice ice-out crappie taken with bobber rig.

Depending on where you live in up North, early bird anglers may refer to it as the mud bay bite, the canal bite, the backwater bite, or my favorite, the old pad bed bite. Regardless what you choose to call it, this is all about the ice-out crappie bite.

In the frozen northern tier, black crappies apparently are positioned in shallow bays and canals of lakes prior to ice out because it is possible to catch them there ...

The key to solving any puzzle is figuring out where everything belongs. In a way, every time a crappie angler goes out fishing they are faced with a puzzle of where are the fish at today, how deep, what lure to catch them with and so on. The two keys to solving catching wintertime crappie are fishing in creeks and around baitfish.

Of course knowing where to fish solves the biggest problem facing ...

The KDWPT Fisheries Division operates fish feeders at select reservoirs and State Fishing Lakes across the state of Kansas. Channel catfish are the target species, but other species also benefit from the feeding programs. The goal of the fish feeding program is to provide increased angling opportunities for anglers in Kansas.

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Flycaster and I went to Woodruff to catch some of the monsters there. I thought we were talking "Monster Big Crappie", but once we got to checking out the lake, I think people were more talking about the gators. Absolutely unbelievable how many gators there are. And that coming from a guy that lives on Lake Griffin!

We could see at least a dozen large alligators at one time, seriously! Most were just floating/swimming ...

I’m a longline trolling fanatic. I’ve been doing it for nearly 6 years and in those years I’ve developed my own style. I advise my readers early on to develop their own. I’ve found that what works for me may not work for other fishermen. It took hours and hours of on the water practice for me to become confident enough to skip the live bait.

My belief is that if you present that soft plastic to enough active fish, sooner or later you’re going to get bit. I hunt schools of fish. I then try to figure out what will trigger the active fish. I feel and urgent need to mention the equipment I use in my presentation. ...

And the winner of our Crappie.com Exclusive Road Runner/Crappie Masters Members Only Contest is Liberty Hound, Al and Alan Green.



Great to meet you guys. It was a tough time on the water this weekend for sure. the weather was terrible, but we're happy everyone stayed safe. I even hear Al lost his hat in the high winds, so I replaced it with a Crappie.com ...

I was invited to attend the Crappie Masters Tournament "Media Day" event being held here in Deland Florida on the St. Johns River. Of course I jumped at the opportunity. Billbob had left the day before but he was still there in spirit (see photo above)! I fished with Brad Meyer and Dave Pfoutz and we killed them!



We fished the river, ...