Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Does a warm day this month start you thinking about crappie fishing and make you want to hurry ahead to March and April, when the crappie move shallow and are easy to catch? Why wait? The slabs are there and are on predictable patterns, just waiting for you to catch them right now.

All across Middle Georgia, female crappie are full of eggs they developed last fall. All they need is a few warm days and a slight rise in water temperature to make them head toward the spawning flats and shallow bushes. After a winter of holding near the channels of rivers and major creeks, they'll answer any hint of the coming spring to start this move.

In early February, the longer days give them the hint they need. If the water is warming at all, it becomes more than a hint -- it tells them to start their migration and speeds up final ripening of their eggs in preparation for spawning. Schools of crappie start moving, and you can follow them and catch them all month long.

This time of year, the crappie are healthy, too. They have fattened up and are strong, getting ready for the rigors of reproduction. Their meat is firm and sweet, and the cold water makes it taste even better. Right now is a great time to catch a mess of slabs.

Since last year's spawn, crappie have been out over deep water, holding in standing timber or suspending over river and creek channels. You can catch them all winter long by dropping minnows and jigs to them, after finding the schools on a depthfinder. But this is slow fishing, requiring you to keep your bait in front of them until they hit.

As the crappie move toward the spawning areas early this month, they follow those creek channels, moving toward the shallows, but staying down 11 to 18 feet in most lakes. As they start moving, they'll feed more actively, so you can catch them by trolling jigs and minnows slowly through the schools. A good depthfinder helps, but you can troll the river channels and follow the major creek channels back until you start catching fish. Then you'll know where to concentrate your efforts.

Standing trees and brushpiles along the channels and points hold the crappie as they move. Papermouth fishermen with years of experience know where those holding areas are located and go right to them. Others have put out their own brushpiles, sinking them in 15 to 30 feet of water to give the crappie places to hold, thus creating their own honeyholes.

Casting jigs and minnows to brushpiles is a good way to catch them, if you don't like trolling. Once you locate the depth at which the fish are holding, you can use a slip bobber or count your bait down to the right depth. Reel it slowly back in, keeping it where the crappie can see it.

Remember to keep your bait slightly above the schools of crappie. Ordinarily, they do not move down to take a bait, but will move up a foot or so. If you hold a crappie with it facing you, it's easy to see why. Their eyes point up, so it is easier for them to see food above them.

On many lakes, you can find brushpiles by looking at markers on the bank. A can in a tree behind a red spot on a tree trunk may line up on a brush pile. A dot of paint on a shoreline tree tells you to work straight out from it. These are subtle marks left by anglers who have created or simply located some of the debris piles.