Page 7 - Crappie NOW - November 2018

NON-TRADITIONAL PLACES

He drops the jig through the openings with a amazed late this summer when he graphed
10- or 11-foot B’n’M jig pole. a school of fish in about eight feet of water.
“The key, though, is using bigger line,” he “Anyone that fishes Pickwick doesn’t think
said. “The grass is not a place to use four- about crappie being in eight feet of water,”
pound line. You want to pull them out of there Whitehead said. “I saw them on my side
to avoid spooking the rest of the fish.” imagining and thought, ‘there’s no way those
Outlaw also targets cypress trees year- are crappie’.”
round. While the areas under and around Afraid of spooking the fish with his trolling
cypress are obvious spawning areas, Outlaw motor, Whitehead (Brad Whitehead Fishing,
said the fish will remain shallow given the 256-483-0834) positioned his boat to drift
right conditions. He targets the fish with the over the one isolated stump that held the
same one-pole approach that he uses in the
grass.
“People in general don’t think about
shallow-water crappie,” he said. “They will
hold shallow just about all year long, and the
grass and around cypress trees are places
people should always look.
Another unusual approach is targeting
crappie in current. Some crappie, like those
that live on the main portions of the Alabama
River, become conditioned to the moving
water. They do try to minimize the effects of
the current by holding behind wood and rock
current breaks.
“We don’t get that much current on the
Santee lakes, but the crappie will orient to
moving water on the upper end of the lakes,
especially when the water is low in the
winter,” Outlaw said. “In this case, you’re
talking about dropping jigs down around
laydowns and stumps but usually not all that
deep, maybe up to about 10 feet but usually
shallower.”
Finding fish shallow is a common
denominator that links Outlaw with other
fishermen on various bodies of water.
Grass is not always in the equation, but
crappie can be found in skinny water at times
other than the spawn, even in the hottest
weather.

Shallow Open Water
Of course, shallow is relative to the fishery.
Northwest Alabama guide Brad Whitehead
normally focuses on water at least 15 deep
when he fishes Pickwick Lake and finds fish
out to about 30 feet deep. He finds crappie
grouped at those depths at just about any
time and in any season. That’s why he was

7 Crappie NOW November 2018