Anglers who target crappie and especially those who target crappie throughout the winter have seen their efforts impacted by a series of weather fronts that have dropped water temperatures and kept the waters in Lakes Oconee and Sinclair chocolate colored for several weeks now. Anglers are chomping at the bit to see several stable days in a row to hopefully improve the crappie bite.

The crappie will bite well in a normal winter season and will in fact provide some of the best fishing for the larger crappie in the lake. But this winter has been anything but normal. We can always expect some really cold weather during the winter in middle Georgia but the huge amount of rainfall combined with the cold weather has negatively impacted the fishing. Cold and muddy water spells bad fishing for most lake species and that includes crappie.

The local area just cannot seem to experience any moderation before another weather system moves through the area. Crappie are finicky enough without help from the bad weather. Some crappie anglers that I have spoken with recently have caught some crappie over the last few weeks but it has been very inconsistent and at times very difficult to catch any crappie at all during some trips.

The normal winter to spring crappie migration is usually fairly easy to follow and predict but if this crazy weather continuous, we will have anything but a normal winter to spring migration for the lake crappie. During a normal winter, any warming trend where the water temperature rises a few degrees will cause the crappie’s biological clock to begin responding to the warmer water and they will begin a slight movement toward spawning areas.

When another cold front moves through and we usually have several during the winter (but not 2-3 a week like we are now experiencing), the crappie will reverse their movements and move back toward deeper water. This back and forth movement may occur several times during late winter and early spring. Catching the crappie moving shallow after a few warm days can usually result in outstanding catches even in winter. The entire migration process might actually take a month or two before culminating in the crappie spawning usually in mid to late March.

For many years, crappie anglers caught crappie mainly during the actual spawning period. That occurs when the water warms between 58 and 64 degrees. In more recent years crappie anglers have learned that this fine table food can be caught throughout the year and especially in a period that begins many weeks before the actual spawn.

Early season crappie fishing especially when the weather is bad, requires the angler to be versatile because the crappie’s movements and actions seem to change almost constantly. Most early season crappie anglers, target the crappie with various trolling techniques that include the use of both jigs and minnows.

The techniques used by crappie anglers vary mostly due to the result of their own experimentation through trial and error. Once those crappie anglers decide how to catch crappie there is generally no convincing them that there are other ways that will also work. You seldom find two crappie anglers who have the same exact techniques for catching crappie.

However if you were to analyze the different techniques, there is one condition that will always be the same. Put a lively minnow or a brightly colored jig in front of a crappie and that crappie is generally going to bite. Some anglers are just better at locating the crappie and then presenting the meal. Locating the crappie is the single most important challenge and factor for crappie anglers right now.

The Georgia Slab Masters tournament trail will be visiting Lake Sinclair the Saturday, February 6. It will be most interesting to see how these professional crappie anglers deal with the crazy weather and bad water conditions. The tournament will be held out of Little River Park so you might want to stop by and get the scoop from the pros. Good fishing and see you next week.

Outdoor Columnist Bobby Peoples can be contacted via e-mail at brpeoples@windstream.net.