South Mississippi state lakes give up a lot of crappie like the ones caught by Mississippi Game & Fish editor Jimmy Jacobs. Photo by Polly Dean

Springtime is the ideal season to fish for crappie. As temperatures rise and begin to warm the waters of the Magnolia State, crappie head for the shallows to spawn. Beginning in March most years, the males move up into the warmer shallow water to stake out beds in hopes of luring the females to lay their eggs. As water temperatures continue to rise well into April, more and more fish move toward shore for the peak of the bedding period. There’s no better time than this for finding papermouths concentrated in small, easy-to-target areas!

Bedding crappie are invariably attracted to concentrations of any type of wood. Look for stumps and downed trees, brushpiles, standing timber that has been flooded, or wooden docks. Crappie use the wood for cover when building the nests and continue to guard the beds until the young fry can fend for themselves. Place your lure or bait above the woodpile or stumps. Crappie move up for a bait but rarely go down after one.

During earlier days of spring, while temperatures are still cool and the fish are in pre-spawn mode, they are more spread out and are found in depths of 8 to 12 feet of water. Depthfinders and GPS units come in handy for locating and marking the brushpiles that hold the fish. Eventually in just a few weeks, the consistently warmer April afternoons and evenings bring the fish up into very shallow creeks and coves, where they can be caught in just a foot or two of water.

Fishing a live minnow almost always brings success, especially in colder water. If fishing from an anchored boat or the bank, hook the minnow just under the dorsal fin for a more natural swimming movement. When trolling, hooking the bait through the lips or eyes works best.

Leadhead jigs with a 2-inch curly-tailed grub are also very effective. In many situations, using a jig will out-produce a minnow. A slow and steady retrieve works best with the wary papermouths. A 1/16-ounce jighead with a chartreuse grub is a popular combination. Other bright colors such as blue, yellow and green work well in stained water. If the water is clear, try more-natural colors like white or brown. Varying the color of the jighead can make a difference also.

While the northern portions of Mississippi offer several good options for finding papermouths, anglers who live farther south do have a selection of smaller lakes from which to load the livewell with a limit of springtime slabs.

Usually, very large bodies of water foster better populations of crappie. The fish have plenty of room to spread out, and predators like largemouths, striped bass and pickerel prevent crappie from overpopulating and stunting their size. The larger waters also generally contain larger populations of baitfish, such as shad.

Very small lakes do not normally provide ideal habitat for crappie, but there are a number of medium-sized state lakes in southern Mississippi that have been stocked with the species and provide some excellent fishing opportunities.