Scott: Crappie say spring has sprung

Some people say they can look at a calendar and predict when spring will arrive. Others claim the most reliable harbinger of spring is when snowstorms become almost as wet as thunderstorms.

Neither of those theories is completely without merit, but I prefer a more reliable approach: I let the crappie say spring has sprung.

I’m happy to relay reports that the crappie at the Lake of the Ozarks are making that long-awaited announcement.

On most reservoirs, choosing the right general area to fish can be crucial. That’s seldom the case on the Lake of the Ozarks because good early spring crappie structure can be found from one end of the lake to the other.

I usually use other criteria — overcrowded parking lots at the western end of the lake during spoonbill season, for example — to decide where I’ll launch my boat.

No matter what part of the Lake of the Ozarks I’m fishing, the first pre-spawn crappie structure I seek is a gently sloping pea gravel or chunk rock bank in a cove that extends at least a quarter-mile back from the main river or creek channel.

The presence of submerged Christmas trees or other types of brush, while not an absolute necessity, is always a plus.

Coves located on the north shore are superior because they get more sunlight at this time of the year than do coves on the south shore of the same body of water. I’ve never found this to be the case. I usually fish the north shore first just in case the crappie don’t share my opinion.

I have to constantly remind myself of this fact, but the simple truth is that no matter how many crappie there may be in any given spot, they have to be given a fair chance to bite if you hope to take them home with you.

Make repeated casts to the same place. Then change lures or presentation depth or technique and make more casts. I use an anchor to hold the boat in place, so I can concentrate on my fishing rod instead of my trolling motor.

Almost everyone agrees that jigs are the best bet for pre-spawn crappie fishing. Far too many anglers never think beyond the one-sixteenth ounce lead head tipped with a 1.5-inch soft plastic tube.

That combination is the place to start, but don’t forget that the term jig includes lead heads in other weights and body materials including other shapes of soft plastic, marabou and hair.

Go prepared for those days when the crappie want something other than standard fare.

Suspending a jig beneath a slip float is my favorite tactic anytime I’m fishing for crappie in water depths of less than 10 feet. I start by working the shoreline with the jig only about a foot below the cork.

If that doesn’t produce or if it stops producing, I lower the jig a couple of feet and probe the water farther from the bank. This method is deadly anytime the crappie prefer a nearly motionless lure, which is often the case when the water’s cold.

Casting a jig into water slightly more shallow than the crappie are expected to be and then retrieving it at a speed that will allow the lure to move down the bank’s slope just above the bottom can be extremely effective.

This tactic allows the lure to cover a wide variety of depths on a single cast, but it’s likely to result in losing substantial numbers of jigs to snags.

One of the best crappie anglers I know uses an ultralight spinning outfit to bow-and-arrow-cast one-thirty-second ounce jigs to the back ends of dock boat wells.

I’m trying to learn how to duplicate his casting technique. I’m already catching enough to impress most of my other fishing buddies.

I’ll answer a question I’m sure some of you are dying to ask. Yes, it might be possible to catch crappie on Truman right now, but why bother fighting high, muddy water when it isn’t necessary?