Hartwell’s holiday crappie

Holiday-Crappie3 — Capt. Rodney Donald catches plenty of winter crappie like this one on hair jigs next to docks.

December slabs are ganged up on Lake Hartwell

Between the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays, crappie anglers will have plenty to celebrate at Lake Hartwell.

Capt. Rodney Donald with Lake Hartwell Crappie Experience said December is a very good month for catching numbers of quality slabs here during the entire holiday season.

“The crappie are ganged up in big numbers this month,” said Donald (864-356-0143). “There’s really no secret to catching them. You just need to find them on your depthfinder and offer them something to eat.”

Find the fish

Electronics, including forward-facing sonar, play a big role in Donald’s crappie fishing year-round.

“I use forward-facing sonar, but not in the way that many crappie anglers use it,” said Donald. “A lot of folks target specific fish with it. They’ll find the biggest fish in the group, and they’ll do everything they can to catch that very fish.”

Simple gear like push-button reels and hair jigs are all it takes to catch crappie.

Donald said that can be fun, and it can result in some serious slabs coming to the boat. But he said it can also lead to frustration when that particular fish isn’t in a feeding mood. And even more importantly, it can kill the fun of catching fish.

“For me, fishing is all about fun,” he said. “And nothing is more fun than reeling in a lot of fish.”

And the best way to do that, he said, is to cast to the biggest group of fish he can find.

“When I find a group of fish, I like to use small jigs. This time of year, 1/32- to 1/16-ounce jigs are ideal,” he said.

When it comes to what type of jigs to use, Donald said it’s best to have a big variety with you.

“I like hair jigs a lot. That’s just a jighead with hair attached instead of a plastic body,” he said. “There’s just something about that hair jig that I like a lot, mainly because I catch a lot of fish on them.”

Cold and foggy days don’t deter Lake Hartwell’s crappie from biting in December.

But on some days, the crappie seem more reluctant to go after a hair jig than on others.

“Even on some days, they’ll start off hitting the hair jigs like candy,” he said. “But for whatever reason, they’ll just stop biting it.”

That’s way Donald always has some plastic grubs on hand as well.

“Plastic grubs come in a lot of variations,” he said. “I use a lot of straight-tail grubs, swimbait-style grubs, and curly-tail grubs. You just never know which one is going to produce the best bites until you get out there and try.”

Mix it up

He said getting tunnel vision about your favorite ones is a recipe for failure.

“You can catch them hot as fire for days in a row on one particular style and color,” he said. “But if you don’t try some other ones, you’re going to hurt yourself in the long run, because at some point, for whatever reason, that one will all of a sudden stop working.”

Donald said anglers without knowlege of Lake Hartwell can find plenty of crappie schools if they’ll take the time to watch their electronics.

Live minnows can outperform artificial baits on some days, so they are good to have on hand.

“You can start off watching your depthfinder around docks, but don’t expect them to all be under the docks. Sometimes, there’ll be a big school off to one side or the other, sometimes in front of the dock, and sometimes just all around,” he said.

He also said sometimes, big schools of crappie are in the middle, where to the naked eye, it looks like they have no reason to be there.

Check brush piles

“There’s lots of brush piles all over this lake, and brush piles are always good places for crappie to gather,” he said. “Now if you find a brush pile that looks empty, spend some time looking to the sides of it. Some days, crappie will move to one side or the other and just kind of hang out there.”

Instead of fishing straight down like a lot of crappie anglers do, Donald prefers to cast to them instead.

“It’s a lot like bass fishing, just with smaller gear,” he said.

Donald sets the Spot Lock on his trolling motor to hold his boat in place, then casts toward the schools of fish.

“Just casting and retrieving, swimming the lure through the fish,” he said. “They’ll hammer it sometimes, and you’ll feel just like you’re bass fishing.”

Capt. Rodney Donald shows off a nice stringer of Lake Hartwell’s winter crappie.

But on certain days when that’s just not working, he will fish straight down, sort of.

“I won’t just drop straight down beside my boat,” he said. “Instead, I’ll use a cork and a live minnow. I’ll just cast it toward the school and let the minnow work. This is just like fishing as a kid. Watch that bobber for the bite.”

Even though December isn’t the time to catch the biggest slabs of the year, Donald said anglers can certainly expect to catch their share of big ones.

“These fish are fattening up, so they’ve got some weight on them for sure,” he said. “It’s more of a numbers game, but you’ll catch plenty of chunky slabs this month too.”