With the arrival of warm temperatures, the crappie have been hitting the shallows in full force with their annual spring spawning ritual. This time of year it really doesn’t matter what you throw when searching the shallows for crappie. If you put the bait near them, they’re going to bite. As the water has warmed up during the last couple of weeks, the bite has really come on strong.

While most anglers use jigs or minnows, some like Jacob Munn of Meridian use a jig and minnow combination.

I joined Munn last Saturday morning on Okatibbee on his first crappie outing at the “Big O”. We quickly rigged up and set out to catch a few fish. It didn’t take long for the young angler to get the hang of it as he caught the first fish of the day. We promptly threw out our marker buoy and then anchored down.

Once we found the right spot we went to catching them left and right. Munn was using the jig and minnow combo, and I used a jig tipped with a black and chartreuse skirt.

Two other boats were anchored nearby and both were really tearing them up. After a short time however, the size of the fish in that spot started running small. We would catch one keeper for every three or four fish that we caught.

However, it was pretty fun to catch fish after fish. On my last outing prior to this most of the fish caught were nice keepers with only a few throwbacks mixed in. After continuing to catch mostly smaller ones we hoisted the anchor and moved to another spot.

Arriving at the location of a submerged stump on the side of a shallow ditch, Munn quickly caught another crappie and we anchored down again. This time the youngster kept me pretty busy removing the fish and opening the “supper well”.

When you catch crappie, you don’t go to catch and release for the sport of it. It’s serious business as we try to fill our freezer for the summer. Of course it only as serious as having a fun filled day on the water can be. When your catching singles and doubles all morning long, it just can’t get much better

than that.

Light tackle is all it takes to catch a crappie and it makes it all the more fun when they really strain the rods and poles. While we sometimes use jig poles, on this day we were catching them with spinning and spin casting combos.

Jacob was using a spin cast reel teamed with a cork, jig and minnow combination. Once we found the spot it was simply a matter of hitting it with the lure. Many times the crappie would smash the bait a split second after the jig hit the water.

As Munn continued to catch crappie after crappie it was all I could do to stay up with him. Of course, I was getting my share on my jig and cork combo as well as a few on the small grub and spinner combo. When the bite slowed down in one spot, I’d simply cast that spinner around until we found another wad of the fish. Then we’d hit them with the jig and cork combos or as in Jacob’s case,

he would feed them the jig and minnow combo.

Color didn’t seem to matter as we continually had strikes no matter what we

threw. By mid morning we had probably caught nearly fifty crappie. Of course we

caught and released quite a few, while keeping a couple of messes to eat. The

trip Saturday proved to be quite rewarding and fun as well. We cut our day

short so that Jacob could go to baseball practice, while I made a trip to

Collinsville to work out my softball team.

If you’re even thinking about going fishing then now is the time. Take a

youngster; grab a rod or pole, a handful of jigs or minnows and head to the

reservoir. You’ll be glad you did, I guarantee. And if you don’t believe me,

just ask the young crappie expert Jacob Munn himself!