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Catching crappie in muddy water - Brad
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For some anglers right now is the best time to go crappie fishing. The lake is empty with pleasure boats gone and other anglers out hunting. There’s nothing that can stop an angler from catching a limit of crappie every time out on the water except flooding rains accompanied by a massive cold front moving in.
Can conditions get any worse? Add bluebird sky conditions and you have what is happening on the lake across the Southern states. Beaver Lake Crappie guide Greg Robinson has fished in these conditions before and uses his experience to his advantage to catch crappie. “First thing I change up in muddy water conditions is what poles I was using,” Robinson continued, “I’ll put up my shorter casting rods and switch over to long poles. I like to use the B’n’M Poles Black Diamond for one poling rigged up with 10 pound monofilament or 10 pound Madd Fishing braid line. I really like this set up because I can hold this rod easier and set the hook by pulling up quickly. No big hook set needed with this long rod.”
After heavy rains that create muddy water conditions Robinson likes to wait and let the water settle down before fishing. “After the water starts settling down and clearing up I will be able catch them more out in the open water roaming,” Robinson continued, “The crappie will be holding up on standing timber and some crappie will still be holding on cover, but a number of crappie will move off and start roaming around.”
Robinson also noted that the muddy conditions could also move the crappie over in to shallow water compared to the 30 or so feet he was catching them in. “I could see them moving up shallower like in to 12- to 15-feet of water,” Robinson went on, “With the sun shining and warming up the water, I might even look at fishing some of the black slate rock banks. Those black slate rock banks will warm up quickly drawing in crappie. During the day the crappie might move in to 7- or 8-foot of water suspending near the black slate rock banks.”
He defined roamers as crappie that are out in the middle of nowhere and around no structure. “Roamers are aggressive crappie moving around feeding,” Robinson continued, “They are easy to catch as they react and respond to your lure quickly especially in stained water conditions. Plus they are usually good quality crappie.”
As for lures, Robinson will use hair jigheads and jigheads rigged with a soft plastic body. Robinson likes using a 1/8-ounce Ruben Flores hand tied jigs because his hair jigs hold together well and you can catch multiple crappie on them before falling apart; in addition to the fact Flores pours his own high quality jigheads. As the water starts clearing, Robinson will change over to 1/4-ounce jig head for the added weight and size.
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When it comes to using soft plastic lures Robinson will switch over to Bobby Garland lures. “I will use the 1/8- or 1/4-ounce Bobby Garland MoGlo jigheads,” Robinson continued, “As for soft plastics the Bobby Garland Slab HuntR. It’s a 2 1/2-inch lure or the 3-inch Slab SlayR sometimes works better for catching crappie if they want a bigger, bulky lure.”
Productive lure colors are normally bright or have some black in them noted Robinson. He had Flores tie him up some in a peanut butter and jelly color pattern for this water clarity and time of year. The purple and brown combinations are his go to color pattern in clear or stained water conditions. Robinson likes the junebug/pearl chartreuse, pumpkin/chartreuse and even some of the white color patterns.
Interestingly, Robinson noted that a number of white color patterns were hot last year during the high, muddy water conditions including the black/white or pearl/white lure color patterns. Even the owner of PICO Lures agrees as he is always saying to fish the pearl or ghost color shad patterns in stained of muddy water conditions.
Until the water clears up from muddy to stained, Robinson will try and get the lure right on the crappie nose; however, as the water begins to clear he will make the lure presentation farther away. “As long as crappie can see it; they will chase it and bite a lure. It is a great way to catch fish in the next couple of months.”
