Think deep for summertime crappie

NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Paddling a canoe around a single cove produced a nice catch of crappie, plus seven other species of fish. Jon Stein, fisheries biologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, shows a crappie he caught on the trip April 22, 2016 in the Pine Creek arm of Beaver Lake.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Paddling a canoe around a single cove produced a nice catch of crappie, plus seven other species of fish. Jon Stein, fisheries biologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, shows a crappie he caught on the trip April 22, 2016 in the Pine Creek arm of Beaver Lake.

Anglers may find crappie easy to catch in spring when the dogwoods are blooming and fish are spawning. It's a different story come summertime.

John Duncan, a fishing guide at Lake DeGray, said crappie still can be caught once the water warms. Anglers just have to fish deeper. Crappie seek the comfort of cooler water once the surface temperature creeps into the 80s.

Visit www.agfc.com and click on the “interactive map” icon underneath the banner on the front page. Zoom in to the lake of interest to get the locations of any fish attractors found on that body of water.

"If you just look across the surface, there doesn't seem to be hardly anything to hold fish, but it's a different world under the water," Duncan said. "The Corps of Engineers, the Game and Fish and some local anglers have sunk a bunch of brush piles on most lakes. You just have to find them."

The latest electronics can be helpful in finding brush piles made of branches and woody cover, but can be tricky to read when searching for brush made of bamboo or river cane, materials that are popular with crappie anglers.

"If you're using a side-imaging depth finder, wood will show up easily, but bamboo brush piles may only look like a shadow on the bottom," Duncan said. "Sometimes you have to go right over it before you can really see what it looks like."

Anglers who can't afford high-dollar electronics still can find plenty of offshore options for crappie. It just takes a little more effort and elbow grease. A five-gallon bucket, some hand-cut bamboo and some fast-setting concrete is all it takes to create a brush pile.

"Bamboo offers excellent cover and lasts for a few years in the water, but it's much easier to work with and not as heavy when it's time to place your brush pile," Duncan said. "Just be sure to cut the bamboo where a node or stem is coming off the main stalk so it stays firmly in the concrete for years."

"You learn as you go along about where to place them," he said. "If you see a shoreline with a lot of cover, there's already plenty for the fish to congregate on. Sink your cover in an area with a rocky bottom but no trees or vegetation, and it usually is going to produce much better."

Chris Racey, chief of fisheries for Game and Fish, said some of the attractors deteriorate or are moved by currents or anglers as time goes by.

"So you need to get the GPS coordinates for as many as you can to make a 'milk run' until you find a good one," he said.

Racey also says it's important to contact the owner of a lake before placing any fish attractors.

"Some agencies don't allow sinking brush in their lakes, while others have restrictions on the materials fish attractors may be made of," Racey said. "

When Duncan hits the water to fish the deep brush he or others have planted, he wastes little time with lure selection. A minnow suspended underneath a slip float gets the nod almost every time when he's guiding and serious about catching fish.

"My boat is outfitted with enough rod holders to run 32 poles at once, but I rarely will put out more than two poles per person," Duncan said. "On an older boat, I ran 12 poles with three jigs on each line, but one run-in with a school of white bass left me so tangled up it cured me of that chaos forever."

One suggestion he offers on the setup is to abandon the gold No. 2 or 4 Aberdeen crappie hooks often used with minnows. He uses the cricket hook popular with bluegill anglers in size 6. The smaller hook bends enough to free him of snags if needed, but doesn't flex too much to let fish get away.

"Fishing brush in deep water can mean hitting a lot of brush piles until you find the one the fish want to be around, so I do everything I can to keep things moving quickly," he said.

"A minute or two saved here and there retying can add up to hours of lost fishing time in the course of a month."

Sports on 07/13/2016