It seems that a lot of the wisdom surrounding early-season crappie revolves around finding the warmest areas in any body of water, but there is a lot more to it. Personally I look for shallow areas with available cover that sits adjacent to likely wintering holes for the earliest action. It’s no secret that crappie love hanging tight to structure, and that’s how plenty of them end up in the frying pan throughout the summer and fall. But it’s important to keep an open mind when considering what structure really is. When they move shallow, the options for cover and structure become limited, and they will use just about anything they can to satisfy their needs to relate to whatever is available.

As a general rule, anything vertical in the water column seems to be more appealing than horizontal options, although this is not always the case, especially if there are a few downed trees located in a weedy bay. Vertical structure can range from the obvious like trees, to more subtle offerings like lily pad stems. In areas that are devoid of anything resembling typical holding structure, simple holes in the weeds or weed edges might hold fish.

Either way, the easiest way to see if there are any crappie in most shallow areas, is to look for them. Polarized sunglasses and an electric trolling motor can help anglers quickly dissect potential hotspots. When I’m actively searching for new areas, I won’t worry about spooking fish on the first pass through. A couple of crappie scattering out in front of the bow of my boat is all I need to see to back out and wait 15 minutes or so. The fish will come back.

In water that is stained enough to seriously impede spotting fish, or lakes with floating bogs, the search becomes a bit more tedious. Anglers need to make an educated guess about which areas will likely hold fish and then try to catch a few to see if their hunch was correct.

In situations where the crappie are aggressive and the water is relatively uncluttered, I’ll opt for soft plastics every time over live bait. Short tube jigs and twister tails reign supreme in these situations, and seem to draw out the bigger fish in the area over non-discriminate live bait. But, artificial baits have limitations. A lot of the lakes I fish in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin are covered with wild rice that grows early. This vegetation greatly hinders any cast-and-retrieve techniques, unless there are really well-defined weed lines or some sort of channel that offers an opening in the water column.

Although I love the simplicity of artificial baits, there are plenty of situations that are conducive to live bait. Minnows are the obvious choice for spring crappie, although some anglers prefer wax worms. Personally, I like crappie minnows or in some cases with larger fish, fatheads. A lot of ink has been spilled about how finicky crappie can be, and some of it has merit, but when they are shallow in the spring, it seems like they can’t ignore a minnow struggling in front of their nose.

To most effectively fish minnows in shallow cover, I opt for a simple clip-on style bobber and usually just enough weight to keep the minnow from cruising away from fish-holding cover. One important thing to remember is that setting the bobber shallow is almost always a better idea than going deeper with it. This means that in some situations the minnow will be only eight or 10 inches below the bobber. Some fish species don’t seem to mind dropping in the water column to feed, but crappie seem to prefer feeding on food that is at their level or above them.

A few more things…

There are a few things anglers can do to promote added success on spring crappie. When fishing from a boat, it’s important to pay attention to boat position. A lot of anglers make the mistake of creeping in too close to where the fish are holding, and then dropping anchor. In my experience, it pays to stay as far back as possible and make longer casts.

To help myself and my fishing partners out in this situation, I tend to spool up with four-pound test line and use spinning rods in the six to 6-1/2-foot range. Although there is a trend to go with shorter rods for panfish, it’s easer to cast with a longer rod that has a little backbone (medium to medium-heavy action).

Lastly, I mentioned earlier in this article about actively looking for fish. It’s been said time and time again, but bears repeating—quality sunglasses are worth the added expense. Spending a little extra money on shades designed for fishing can go a long ways toward a hefty stringer in the spring.

Conclusion

Spring crappie can be tough to locate, but once they are found, the action should be worth the time spent searching. Throw on a pair of sunglasses and start plying the shallows with both artificial and live bait and get ready. The rewards are out there, stacked up tightly to whatever cover they can find.