Photo by Keith Sutton

For us Alabama anglers, the quality of our state’s crappie fishing is no great secret. From the Tennessee River valley down to the reservoirs along the lower Coosa and Tombigbee river systems, catching slabs is an annual rite. But now, either for better or worse depending on your point of view, other folks are recognizing this outstanding fishery.

For instance, the miles keep rolling for Russ Bailey, host of the Sportsman Channel’s Midwest Crappie. As part of his television show, he travels around the country interviewing and fishing with crappie guides and tournament pros. Over the last couple of seasons Bailey has discovered that the state of Alabama is home to some great crappie fishing -- and some monster slabs. That’s the reason Bailey covers a lot of miles between his studio and some of Bama’s best crappie waters.

“One of the greatest benefits of what I do is that I get to see how great crappie anglers from different parts of the country fish for crappie,” Bailey pointed out. “I fish for crappie a lot of different ways, but last season I filmed shows with a couple of professional guides on lakes Weiss and Logan Martin. These guides had specialized tactics for catching crappie, especially during the pre-spawn and early spawn in March and April, which really impressed me. The tactic is referred to as ‘long-line trolling.’”

In the majority of Alabama reservoirs, crappie begin at some point in late February to move from their deepwater winter haunts, gravitating toward major creek mouths and arms in the first stage of the spawning process. In pre-spawn mode by the first of March, these fish move farther into the creeks then, and are usually to be found hanging out around creek channels and ledges near flats that they use during the spawn.

If these fish are not holding tight to cover, they may be scattered and relating above cover or breakline structure, suspended in the water column. Any underwater cover such as brushpiles, stumpfields or stakebeds will attract the crappie.

While this sounds simple, the actual process is far from it. Although water temperatures generally creep from the low to mid 50s during March, frequent warm and cold fronts can have air temperatures in the mid to upper 70s one day and drop to the lower 50s the next as the front move through. To make matters worse, passing fronts are usually accompanied by gusty winds that make fishing open water a lot more difficult.

Crappie ride out these fronts by staging along the first dropoff in 8 to 10 feet. The fish stay there until the water temperature becomes conducive to spawning. Long-line trolling provides a way to get to these staging crappie and enjoy some fast action.

Let’s take a look at two guides from two great Alabama crappie lakes that can explain the mechanics of targeting pre-spawn crappie on their home lakes.