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Crappie Fishing
“Year-round, there are fish in this hole,” said Clifford Swygert, who was keeping track of eight rod tips, his depthfinder and his GPS as we slow-trolled over a deep area far up Little River on the South Carolina side of Clarks Hill Lake. “There’s one bumping it,” he said, nodding toward a 12-foot rod off…
Many outdoorsmen have put their fishing tackle away for the winter and are happily resting 15 feet up in a white-oak tree this time of year. But, Mike Sloan, co-owner of Wingate’s Lodge in Bainbridge, would rather be catching limits of crappie on Lake Seminole than catching up on rest in a cold deer stand…
With cooler nights and dropping temperatures on the state’s reservoirs, the crappie fishing is getting ready to pick up from the doldrums of summer, when it’s hard to catch these tasty fish, unless you’re willing to stay out all night. Expert anglers around the state are wiping the dust off of their ultra-light gear,…
Fish Like To Be Spoon Fed. That’s the company slogan and belief of a pair of entrepreneurial crappie anglers who have come up with an innovative, downsized way to catch crappie. Keith and Jessica Pace of Gainesville are the crappie anglers behind the internet company Crappie Micro Spoons and Jigs, which markets tiny spoons for…
With big, fast boats and sophisticated electronics becoming the norm for anglers on Georgia’s lakes today, it’s refreshing and reassuring to find fishermen who don’t need an arsenal of expensive equipment to catch fish. And, while there is little doubt that the gadgetry provides an advantage for those who can afford it, there is still…
For many successful anglers, the difference in their ability to catch fish depends on the little things. For crappie fisherman Jerry Pheil, of Cordele, the little things that help fill his livewell with crappie are minnows. Jerry has lived on the lake since 1970. He has been fishing Blackshear for whatever swims in the lake…
Spring crappie fishing is supposed to be as easy as falling off the proverbial log, right? Well, for a few glorious weeks on Heath Lake at Rocky Mountain Recreation and Public Fishing Area (PFA), it is. When the crappie move into the lake’s shallow timber coves to spawn, catching them is as easy as casting…
Larry Cross, of Buford, was feeling down right puny on the Friday I met him. Nauseous, headache, feverish, he had all the symptoms that would eventually put him in the bed for the entire weekend. “Man, I’m ready to go fishing,” was one of the first things he said when I met him at his…
With 56,000 acres of surface water and a wealth of linesides and largemouths, Hartwell may be known as a striper and hybrid fishery, as well as a great place for topwater bass explosions in the spring. But one thing that is often overlooked on this large lake on the Georgia/South Carolina border is the crappie…
Lake Weiss fishing guide Kelly Matthews fishes for crappie year round. During the summer, he catches crappie off more than 70 deep brushpiles he has put out. During the winter he uses a bottom-bumping minnow rig to pull slabs from the river-channel ledges. Spring, however, is the time of year he looks forward to, and…
Crappie Recipes
What you’ll need:1 shaker of Tony Chachere’s cajun seasoning1 package of dried Italian dressing powder mixRitz cheddar cheese crackerspaprikablack pepperolive oilbutter After scaling the crappie, fillet them, but leave the skin on. Place the fillets skin down on a pyrex pan brushed with olive oil. Butter the fillets before sprinkling with black pepper, the cajun…