Page 4 - Crappie NOW - June 2017

By Tim Huffman

C rappie fishing continues
to evolve as more techniques are Electronics are the key to fishing deep,
established for special situations. submerged structure. Brown takes his time
Steve Brown, a tournament to pinpoint spots he choses to fish.
fisherman from Alabama and
sponsored by MidSouth Tackle,
Road Runner and Tru-Turn hooks,
says he uses a technique to get
his bait where he needs it, deep in
the brush.
“This isn’t a cure-all
technique,” says Brown. “but
sometimes when we are spider
rigging a brushpile it’s too difficult
to keep our baits from hanging.
Multiple rods hung can be a mess.
We often switch to one pole and
drop-shot our bait.”
Brown says along with
fewer hang-ups, not spooking the
crappie is very important. Pulling
baits loose from hangups on limbs
can spook other crappie in the
brushpile. A good spot can be
ruined.

The System
“We start by trying to pick the
crappie off the top by spider rigging
multiple poles. We might catch
those fish and pull some up from
the brush. However, this doesn’t
work in all situations because the
fish just won’t come out to take the
baits.
“After we spider rig it and
present our baits like we want, we
will switch to one pole and take a
few minutes to jig the brushpile.
We use a drop-shot to get baits
down through the limbs. We’ve
learned that it’s not unusual that
the biggest crappie from the spot

4 Crappie NOW June 2017