Cold Weather, Shallow Water, Big Crappie


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Cold Weather, Shallow Water, Big Crappie By By JIM SHEPHERD, The Fishing Wire

	**	In the midst of a duck hunt in often cold temperatures, hunting and fishing guide Garry Mason turned to me and said “see those seagulls over there on that flat- I can go over there and catch crappie.” I had to laugh. After all, the water he was referencing may have been under attack by gulls on a school of shad, but good grief, we’re talking about cold water – as in ice around the edges.

No matter, said Mason, I have people laugh at me all the time when I tell them they can catch crappie – slab-sided crappie – in less than two feet of water in the wintertime.

The secret, he says, is to know what motivates the crappie. Like the seagulls, a school of shad equals nutrition. Food in cold weather means life. “Just look for the gulls on the shad,” Mason says, “then rig for shallow-water fishing and get ready to catch a mess of crappie.”

If it were anyone other than a lifelong angler and man who knows the waters of West Tennessee like only a lifelong resident can, I’d be skeptical. But Mason and his Adventures Outdoors Guide Service are known around the country for putting people on fish, deer, ducks or whatever the season dictates.

So, here’s Mason’s personal prescription for catching shallow-water crappie in very cold water.

Take an artificial grub (Mason prefers Charlie Brewer slider grubs) and put it on a 1/16 ounce jig head (he uses a red ball or a Blakemore road runner of the same weight).

That rig is then attached to your line, along with a small balsa wood or other style float from 12 to 18 inches up the line from the jighead.

“Cast it beyond the cover,” Mason told me, “then slowly reel it back through the cover, stopping every so often to allow the crappie time to catch up to the bait.”

He also let another secret ingredient slip. “I use a scent formula, too,” he says, “it’s Garry Mason’s White Lightnin by the Original Fish Formula Company.” Makes sense that Garry Mason would use that scent, doesn’t it?

A world class duck and goose caller, Mason interspersed the time spent calling ducks and geese into shotgun range by offering fishing tips. He shared much of the same information he uses for his highly entertaining and unique seminars, all while admonishing us to either “get down” or “get up and kill ‘em” as the ducks and geese flew overhead.

If the fish respond to his lure as well as the waterfowl did to his calling, you can expect to use this technique to keep on fishing no matter what the weather.