According to Pete Walley of Tupelo, slow-trolling is the most productive cold-weather tactic for catching numbers of crappie at Pickwick. Walley prefers to use a tandem rig -- two jigs on each line, tied about a foot apart. Using 1/8-ounce jigs, he doesn't need a weight to keep the lures deep and within a foot or two of the bottom.

Keying in on depth contours on the lake bottom, Walley uses his electronics to locate either schools of shad or schools of crappie. After identifying several promising contour changes that are holding fish, he then uses marker buoys to lay out a trail to track while trolling. Walley has learned the contour changes of Pickwick Lake from years of fishing, but newcomers can get a head start by studying a detailed topography map of the lake.

A few of the more productive locations for late-winter crappie at Pickwick are Mills, Yellow and Indian creeks. Even though tube and hair jigs are the most popular choices for this time of year, most crappie anglers carry along a few live minnows for insurance.

With the majority of the lake in Alabama, an Alabama fishing license allows a crappie angler to fish from the Wilson Dam downstream to the Pickwick Dam. Fishermen possessing a Tennessee or Mississippi fishing license are only allowed to fish certain portions of the lake.

LAKE WASHINGTON
Unlike most of the state's oxbow lakes, which at times are attached to the Mississippi River, the Magnolia State is blessed with several outstanding old oxbows that are now separated from the big river by the levee. Of these non-connected oxbows, Lake Washington is fast gaining a reputation as one of Mississippi's premier cold weather crappie hotspots. Some of the largest crappie caught in recent years came from Lake Washington in January and February on large minnows.

At Glen Allan, just 20 miles south of Greenville on State Route 1, Lake Washington has been designated as a demonstration lake for nutrient reduction in support of anoxia reduction in the Gulf of Mexico. This 5,000-acre Mississippi Delta oxbow boasts seven boat ramps and so offers anglers easy wintertime access. As is the case at most oxbows in January, fishing live minnows deep tends to produce the best stringers of papermouths here. Electronic gear is also beneficial for fishing this lake. All you have to do to catch crappie is find and fish around the shad schools. The weather being cold, you'll have the most luck fishing deep with a slow presentation.

ARKABUTLA LAKE
This impoundment has a history of being muddier than the other flood-control reservoirs, but reduced sedimentation resulting from the Demonstration Erosion Control Projects in the Coldwater River watershed may have eroded that reputation somewhat.

The crappie seem to do better in the clearer water. According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks' 2007 "State of the State's Freshwater Fisheries Report," the average weight of crappie taken from Arkabutla was at 1.3 pounds higher than at any of the other flood-control reservoirs.

The better cold-weather fishing at Arkabutla can be found in the deeper water close to the dam, because of the lower water levels in the rest of the lake. One of the hottest spots in cold weather is the old gravel pit near the dam. If we get a period of warm January weather -- which has been known to happen in Mississippi -- try the small impoundment of water at the head of the lake between SR 51 and Interstate 55. This pool doesn't drain out in the winter and warms up more quickly because of its much shallower depth.

"If you want to catch that once-in-a-lifetime white perch, late winter can be the time to do it." - Magnolia Crappie Club president Paul Johnson