Spring on the Spring

Few things are more fun on a spring day than floating and wading a river and casting small baits for a mix of game fish. On Arkansas' Spring River, any given cast is apt to produce one of half a dozen species. Smallmouths and rock bass abound throughout the river, which flows from a giant spring near the Missouri/Arkansas border, and both rainbow and brown trout are stocked at several sights along the river's course. Walleyes and largemouths add variety to the Spring River's offerings, and both species grow to big sizes.

Two recent days of floating the Spring produced a great mixed catch. Nathaniel landed the biggest smallmouth, which hit a YUM Big Show Paddle Worm fished on a Roadrunner head. Lawrence Taylor, PR Manager for YUM Bait Company used a Rebel Tracdown Minnow to catch the biggest fish overall - a largemouth that probably weighed a little more than 4 pounds.

The Paddle Worm and Tracdown Minnow were among the best producing lures on the trip. Others were YUM Wooly Beavertails and Wooly Bugs and XCalibur Twitch Baits.

Spring Day Fun

Few things fire up little Samsels quite like the prospects of an afternoon of fishing at a nearby pond. Yesterday's perfect spring weather demanded such an outing, and the result was that bass were caught by all. Two-year-old Autumn caught her first bass ever, with a little help from her dad and a Tiny Torpedo. Her four-year-old brother, Asher caught a bass all by himself. He cast his bait (a YUM Wooly Curltail on a Roadrunner head and fished beneath a Thill float), worked the offering, hooked the fish and reeled it in.

Depth Control

Whether the crappie are 18 inches deep or 18 feet deep and whether an angler is pitching jigs under floats or slow trolling with minnows, a common denominator among crappie experts and their preferred fishing strategies is that depth control is very important. Crappie commonly will hold at a particular level in the water column, and putting baits a foot or two too deep can be akin to not having the baits in the water at all. Many of the B'n'M pros use their crappie poles as "measuring sticks" when they put out lines. They know their poles are say 12 feet long. Therefore, a jig that hangs a foot past the end of the rod handle will drop to 13 feet if the the rod tip is right at water level. Another common ways to control depths is simply to add a float to each line, with set floats used for shallow water and slip corks used for deeper presentations. For mobile approaches, the speed of the boat, the angle of the line and even the size of the line also have to be taken into account. Numerous techniques are used to determine productive depths and to make sure baits are presented at those depth. More important than any specific technique is an awareness that depth really does make a big difference and a willingness to adapt when crappie aren't making the corks go down or bending rod tips!

Crappie Camp

Tomorrow, I'm Alabama bound for a few days of "crappie camp" with the B'n'M Fishing pro staff. The setting is Weiss Lake, often dubbed the Crappie Capital of the World. The time and place couldn't be better for slab crappie. In truth, though, I likely won't fish much on this trip. There's simply too much to learn and too many photos to take. These guys are some of the best in the business, and I'll come home with a Master's education in crappie fishing whether I ever pull in a single fish. Next report will be something that I learned along the way!