Warm spell kick starts Jordan crappie spawn

A warm spell during the first week of March has Tar Heel anglers hoping winter weather finally has ended.

Five back-to-back 50- and 60-degree days apparently convinced Jordan Lake’s lunker crappie the spawn is just around the corner.

“Fishing was really tough until the first weekend in March and a few days after that,” said Durham’s Rod King, a well-known local crappie tournament angler. “Water temps have been in high 30s and low 40s for weeks, and fish have been scattered and on the bottom. It was hard to find them and harder to get them to bite. Then Jordan Lake’s upper bays warmed up into the 50s with the warm spell. When I found 50-degree water, I found a good crappie bite.

“If it stays warm, any of the small bays at the north end of the lake and out of the wind should hold crappie. It doesn’t matter which bay you choose; just get out of the wind at the north side and you’ll find fish.”

King used Cabela’s live-bait jigs (jigs tipped with live minnows) March 6 to land a limit (20 fish) of keeper crappie at Jordan Lake.

“They weighed anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds,” he said. “Many big females are congregated in deep water with the males in the brush. The males will run out and grab a female and take her back and they’ll spawn.”

Best muddy-water jig colors for catching Jordan’s slabs are black and hot pink, King said. He trolls with eight crappie poles attached to rod holders along the sides of his boat, the front poles with jigs and minnows set from 1- to 1 1/2-feet deep. Rods set farther back along the gunwales track a little deeper, down to 4 feet.

“Crappie are in the tops of the brush right now, so I can ease across that stuff using my trolling motor without my front poles getting hung up,” King said. “Crappie are biting when the jigs and minnows go over the top (of the brush). You’ll lose some deeper jigs at first, but then I just back off and work the brush good.”

Many of the adult female crappie in Jordan’s shallow northern bays are swollen with eggs, he said.

“They are the biggest females we’ll catch all year because they’ve got spawning on their minds and are in this shallow water,” King said.