But that doesn't mean they don't have a preference. So, being the opportunists they are, they feed on the forage that's most plentiful and most available at the time. In the winter, the crappies in this particular lake frequent locations and habitat-large, 30-foot-deep mudflats-that put their preferred food item out of reach. The lake we fished has a bountiful population of shiners, ciscoes, and whitefish. So, matching-the-hatch doesn't work? Actually, it works marvelously. I had tested it alongside other presentations and it never failed to produce two, three, four times as many fish. Despite the fact I had never once that winter come across any of these baitfish in the crappies' stomachs, I knew a white jig was the ticket. It was a small white bucktail jig that looks like a young-of-the-year shiner, smelt, shad, or cisco. But our success would have been intermittent and the presentations a sad second-fiddle to what worked best.
I have no doubt these presentations would have produced a few crappies. A Genz worm dressed with a piece of red Gulp! Mini Earthworm, on the other hand, is the finest bloodworm imitation I've ever used.
Or to tip a small smoke-colored ice jig with one or two live wrigglers or maggots to mimic the mayfly larvae. Had we been intent on matching-the-hatch, it would have made sense for us to tie on Jigging Raps or Salmo Chubby Darters painted in firetiger or perch pattern. So, I pretty much knew what was on their menu. As I landed several fish, I also noted them coughing up long, thin, threadlike bloodworms-chironomid larvae. Soft, gray insect larvae (likely mayfly) came in a distant second. Young-of-the-year perch-about half the size of your smallest finger-were the most abundant item. When I filleted the crappies, I closely examined their stomach contents. I'd kept close tabs on the fish for several weeks prior to their arrival and had harvested a few for dinner. But always treat this as a guideline, never as a rigid rule.įor instance, late last winter In-Fisherman Editor In Chief Doug Stange and Editor-Photographer Jeff Simpson met up with me to film an In-Fisherman television segment on a large, deep, clear, natural crappie lake. A fine example is using an artificial bait that mirrors the size, shape, and color of the forage that fish are eating. Sometimes it makes sense to match-the-hatch for winter crappie.
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