Jordan Lake crappie not deep, not quite shallow yet
Guide Freddie Sinclair has been whacking the crappie at North Carolina’s B. Everett Jordan Lake the past several days. And he expects the action to get even better over the next 10 days.
Sinclair, from Clayton, N.C., said slabs have been up on flats, but they haven’t gone to the bank to spawn just yet.
“We’re catching them long-line trolling right now,” he said. “Some people are tight-lining vertically, but I’m catching them long-lining in 5 to 7 feet of water. They’re still moving, and the cold fronts have got them a little scattered now. One day they’re shallow, the next day out. But we’ve been catching them pretty well. The fishing has been good in the upper end of the lake, but it’s been pretty good at mid-lake, too, on either side of (US) 64.”
“They’re up on the flats, but they aren’t going to the bank yet. They’re scattered, not concentrated on anything in particular.”
Lightweight jigs, soft plastics, live minnows are catching them
That situation is perfect for long-line trolling, as it allows anglers like Sinclair (919-553-4547) to cover a lot of water and fish different parts of the water column by using jigs of different weights.
“I have been catching them on 1/48- and 1/32-ounce jigs,” he said. “I’ve been fishing soft-plastic curlytails; pink/white has worked pretty well, and I’ve been using a Bobby Garland Stroll’R. But most of the fish I’m catching on jigheads tipped with minnows.”
Sinclair said the surface water temperature on Tuesday was 59.2 degrees. He found 62.9-degree water last weekend when the weather turned unseasonably warm.
“The next full moon is April 8, and between now and then, they’re really going to pile in (to the bank),” he said. “If the (air) temperature gets up to 80 this weekend like they’re saying, it could happen.”
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