Crappie live their lives mostly in deeper water or at least away from shorelines except during the spring when they return to shallow shoreline cover to spawn. It is during the spring spawn when crappie are caught in the greatest numbers. During the spawn, the crappie will readily hit jigs and minnows for even the most novice angler.

During late winter and during the period leading up to the spawn, even the most experienced crappie angler can suffer frustration and tough fishing. The novice crappie angler can become so frustrated that he or she will just opt out of fishing until the spawn actually begins.

We are currently in the late winter period when the experienced angler knows that larger crappie can be caught and large numbers of crappie will readily bite. However this is the time when crappie are especially susceptible to weather changes. These weather changes include fronts, seesawing water and air temperatures, sunny and cloudy conditions and changing moon phases.

What has impacted the crappie bite lately is the inclement weather. The rain has muddied up large portions of Lake Oconee and the cold, rainy and even snowy weather has kept anglers off the water. All of those conditions impact the crappie, their movements and their desire to feed and bite. Anglers can become frustrated trying to figure out from day to day where the crappie are located and what they will bite.

Stable weather with warming temperatures can signal excellent crappie fishing and if you throw in an approaching full moon in February and March, you might be looking at a crappie fishing bonanza. Normally this is the time of year that is not known for weather stability, and boy has that been true lately.

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 usually expect some really cold weather during the late winter period in middle Georgia and we have certainly had that so far this year.

Last year crappie anglers had to deal with clear water and a mild weather. This season due to heavy December and January rainfall, Lake Oconee has been seriously stained to muddy. The crappie spawn normally occurs in the middle of March into early April and if the cold weather continues we could have a late spawn.

Late winter crappie fishing on Lake Oconee usually means that anglers will be using both the pushing and pulling techniques. You have avid supporters of both techniques and don’t for a minute think that you can convince a puller that pushing is best or vice-versa.

For those not familiar with the crappie terms of pushing and pulling, it simply defines whether the angler is pushing the crappie jigs and minnows out ahead of the boat or pulling the jigs and minnows behind the boat. Both techniques are Lake Oconee to catch crappie, but we need some warm stable weather to get the crappie into a biting mood.  

Crappie are one fish specie that most anglers will readily agree can bring great satisfaction when they are biting but can lead to frustration when they refuse to bite and inclement weather does not help the situation. Crappie have earned the description “finicky biters” honestly, but experienced anglers have come to better understand why these fish will bite with abandon one day and then suffer complete lock-jaw the next day.

The crappie may be a little confused by the weather, but hopefully better weather is in store for our area in the days ahead and if that happens it will be time to get out on the lake and start pushing and pulling.

Good fishing and see you next week.

Outdoors columnist Bobby Peoples can be reached via e-mail at brpeoples@windstream.net.