Photo by Ron Sinfelt

It’s January. Texas’ deer seasons are all but over and duck season is winding down. But there’s no need to get depressed (as a friend of mine does about this time each year): You can still go hunting -- hunting for crappie, that is.

The crappie is one of the tastiest of game fish, and one of the easiest to catch, once you know where and how to fish for them. Read on and learn about both; by the time you’re done, you’ll have January crappie-catching down cold.

CRAPPIE-CATCHING 101
Wally Marshall is known as “Mr. Crappie,” and for good reason. Winner of dozens of crappie fishing tournaments, he’s also designed a complete and extensive line of crappie gear for Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, and Gander Mountain.

“It does not take a rocket scientist to catch crappie,” Marshall said with assurance. “There are DVDs on the market that show you how to locate crappie, how and when to fish. And you can get started with less than 75 dollars’ worth of equipment.”

Marshall offered one tip that you need to act on right now, or to remember the next time your favorite crappie lake drops to a low level. “A lot of our Texas lakes were built in the late 1950s and the 1960s,” he noted, “and the structure is depleted now. Go out when the water level is low and locate all the big stumps and roadbeds and dropoffs, and mark them on your GPS. The key to successful crappie fishing is knowing how to read your electronics and knowing what is under the water.”

When Marshall fishes a lake with which he’s unfamiliar, he uses a lake map to identify areas in which creek channels come in close to the bank. “Crappie use those creek channels as highways,” he said. “You can do your pre-fishing on a map before you ever get on the water. White crappie tend to stay in creek channels a lot in winter, whereas black crappie tend to stay in the deeper, clearer water.

“Lake Fork is a perfect example. White crappie will usually be around some kind of structure in winter, while the blacks will be in deeper water.”

Marshall is also a fan of fishing bridge pilings. “All bridge pilings will have crappie on them at one time or another,” he said. “They like that hard concrete structure. And many times while fishing bridges, I’ve had a crappie on and had a big bass take the crappie.”

Marshall numbers Lake O’ the Pines, Lake Lewisville and Cedar Creek among his go-to crappie lakes. Ernest Paty, who guides on Cedar Creek, echoes that endorsement.

“Cedar Creek has lots of black crappie,” Paty remarked. “They will be hanging out under docks and bridges and around open-water structure like humps, points, and dropoffs. You’ll catch lots of white crappie off points in about 20 feet of water.”

Paty too sees areas around bridge pilings as profitable crappie sites. He has observed that if the pilings have crossmembers, the tops of those are likely places in which to find crappie. In winter, both Marshall and Paty advise, fish deep-water points by slow-trolling crankbaits, moving the boat by means of the trolling motor at 1 1/2 to 2 miles per hour.