The blooming of the
Dogwood Trees are always the sign that the crappie has begun to spawn here in
the Deep South. I’ve been noticing the Dogwood buds but no bloom
yet. That didn’t keep me from joining one of my fishing buddies the other day
to test the waters for some slab crappie.
My 7 ½ ft. microlight
spinning rod paired with the Pflueger President XT spinning reel is perfect to
handle big crappie. I’m using 4 lb. test vanish line with a small curly tail shad
jig to duplicate small minnows. The balance of this rod makes it effortless to
cast for distance and accuracy. Using the micro light combo parallels the light
7 ½ to 8 ft. fly rods.
The dark male crappie is
one beautiful fish in the early spring.
All the crappie today was landed using the micro. I had the 4 wt. fly
rod with me but the wind was too strong to get a dissent case in place; in
other words, my patience has worn thin dealing with the gust coming from all
directions.
The in results, using my
new fish cleaning table from Bass Pro Shops; these ten beauties yielded 40
mouth-watering fillets.
The blooming of the
Dogwood Trees are always the sign that the crappie has begun to spawn here in
the 
