Dancing Jigs Drive Slabs Crazy Story & Photos By Philip Gentry
Spring is in the air, and for most of the country that means it’s crappie season — the time when America’s favorite game fish moves into the shallows and everyone becomes an expert at pulling slabs from around shallow-water cover. Then a cold, windy front comes rolling in, and the crappie that were easy pickings just a couple of days ago are nowhere to be found.
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The plight of the spring crappie angler seesaws between these two extremes. But rather than fish on a feast or famine cycle, you can actually catch some spring crappie when the north wind blows and conditions are less than ideal by learning a simple, yet highly productive tactic commonly referred to as walking the dog.
“That’s just what we started calling it because you’re flipping the jig with the rod in the one hand and letting it settle while you flip the jig on the rod in the other hand,” says tournament angler Charles Lindsey. “It’s kind of a walking action. You’re walking two jigs up a breakline.”
Lindsey understands what it takes to put slab crappie in the livewell. A veteran of many renowned crappie lakes across the country, including Chotard, Sardis and Grenada, he now calls Lake Ross Barnett, located just outside Jackson, Miss., home.
Most of the prespawn and spawning seasons will find Lindsey in the bow section of his boat trolling multiple rods for crappie. However, when frequent fronts cause crappie to hold tight to cover, he gets out his dog-walking rods.
“When the fronts come in, crappie will move out of the shallows and retreat back to the first drop,” explains Lindsey.
Typical water depths on the breaklines in Barnett are around 10 to 12 feet deep. Lindsey will usually start on the deeper side of the breakline and work into the wind. A light-action, sensitive fishing rod is critical to this style of fishing. Lindsey’s favorites are B’n’M’s Sam’s Super Sensitive and Custom graphite rods. Each of these models offers a sensitive graphite feel for detecting light bites but still has the backbone to get a slab up and out of heavy cover.
Because the water depths may be as deep as 12 feet, Lindsey prefers to use a 12-foot version of each model, holding one in each hand. With enough line out to reach the bottom at the particular level he is targeting, Lindsey swings the right-hand rod forward ahead of the boat and allows the jig to swing back toward him. While the right-hand jig is arcing back toward him underwater, Lindsey will swing the left-hand rod ahead of where the first one settled, just more to the left, and repeat the same pendulum retrieve.
He insists that in order to make the presentation work correctly, you must control the boat using a foot-controlled trolling motor. Using the foot-controlled motor allows freedom of both hands in order to set the hook when a bite is detected.
Another important feature to have is a bow-mounted depth recorder in the front of the boat. Lindsey employs a Lowrance model with the transducer mounted directly to the foot of his trolling motor. The location of the transducer on the trolling-motor foot lets Lindsey know what structure may be lying adjacent to the break. It also gives him a depth reading to understand where he is working up the breakline and when he has reached the top.
Locating a brushpile, stump or washout along the break is a high-percentage tactic for finding crappie waiting out the front. Often times if the wind will allow him to maneuver his boat accordingly, Lindsey will walk the dog up a breakline until he reaches the edge. He then moves perpendicular to the break, swinging one jig on the shallow side of the break and the other on the deeper side.
Lindsey has found that crappie that have been run off the spawning flats by a cold front aren’t in much mood to chase a bait and don’t seem to care much for spinners, a lot of tail action, or other bells and whistles. In this scenario, he prefers a “do-nothing” bait. No other crappie bait fits the bill better than a tube jig.
Lindsey has also discovered that these negative or neutral fish may ignore a bait that lands right on their nose unless it’s a color to their liking. Because he frequently changes baits to find what the crappie want, he impales the tube skirt on a barbed jighead, just as he would a standard solid-bodied plastic, rather than use an insert jighead.
“Another benefit of this two-rod tactic is that it doesn’t take as long to figure out what color the fish want on a particular day,” Lindsey says. “I have even seen days when I had to combine the right color jighead with the right combination of two-tone jig skirt to give them what they wanted.”
Lindsey’s bait of choice is a Mid South Tackle Company Super Jig. A little larger than the standard-sized tube jig, these jigs feature an inflated head at the end of the tube. Combined with a 1-inch tail, they provide a wider profile than a regular tube jig.
Lindsey impales the Super Jig on a 1⁄16-ounce jighead that’s also made by Mid South Tackle.
“If it’s still early in the season and the fish are holding off deeper than 12 feet, then I’ll drop down to a 1⁄8-ounce jighead,” he says. “My all-around favorite is a 1⁄16 ounce, but it takes too long to work a 1⁄16 ounce in water deeper than 12 feet, and you lose some of the feel with the lighter weight jighead.”
On the other hand, when jigging a more shallow, protected area in depths of less than 8 feet, Lindsey opts for a 1⁄32-ounce head.
“That bigger body on a lightweight head catches a lot of fish that otherwise wouldn’t bite,” he says.
Speaking of the bite, Lindsey has found that most of the bites he gets while walking the dog are not felt but rather cause the line to just pile up. Of course, standing on the front of the boat and keeping an eye on two separate rods in motion is no easy feat. To assist with bite detection, Lindsey spools the reels on each of his poles with Stren Original Hi-Vis Gold line in 10-pound test.
“I try to get into a rhythm,” he adds. “I’m walking the rods, constantly watching the depth finder and handling the boat with my foot. With that gold line, if I glance up and see the line piled up, I know a fish has sucked in the bait and moved up with it rather than down or off to the side.”
There is a reason behind using 10-pound test as well. A passing cold front with spiking barometric pressure will put crappie tight to cover. Fishing tight to cover will result in a lot of hang ups. Lindsey has figured out that 10-pound test is still light enough to feel the subtle tbites but will also pull a jighead free from a hang up or straighten out a light-wire hook, thereby reducing lost time and effort in constantly retying jigs.
A good area to look for crappie retreating from a cold front would be on the first drop moving out away from shallow spawning flats toward deeper water. You are also likely to find fish holding along the edge of any feeder creeks or ditches that wind into a shallow flat.
“Most anglers think a breakline has to be something major, like a channel edge that drops off several feet,” Lindsey says. “In reality, a run-off ditch that was created at some point when the water was down and rains washed across the area will hold crappie.”
It’s important to understand that a ditch or creek defines the route of travel for crappie. The best way to find where the fish moved to is to follow them out the same way they went.
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