Steve McCadams insists that June is perhaps the most overlooked month of the year for catch quality crappie.
Crappie Basics: June Often Overlooked and Underrated
by Richard Simms, CrappieNOW Editor
Steve McCadams has been a professional crappie fishing guide on Tennessee’s Kentucky Lake for nearly 40 years. There are very few crappie fishing secrets McCadams doesn’t know.
One thing McCadams says is that June is a well-kept secret for many crappie anglers.
“June is often overlooked and underrated,” said McCadams. “It’s actually one of my better months.”
He says in June he routinely sees crappie returning to the deeper ledges and manmade fish attractors in the 8- to 15-foot range. He says the fish begin to school again after being scattered back in May.
He says it is prime time for anglers to be vertical fishing jigs and minnow combos over structure or manmade stake beds that are plentiful in many parts of Kentucky Lake. He says many anglers will find improved results by tipping a jig with chartreuse Berkley crappie nibbles.
So don’t hang up your crappie gear just because summer has arrived. June can pay big crappie dividends.
Capt. Richard Simms is the Editor of CrappieNOW magazine as well as owner of Scenic City Fishing Charters. Formerly he was a game warden for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency before becoming a photographer and PR guy for TWRA. That lead to a 30-year career as a broadcast journalist and freelance outdoor writer. Check out his book, “An Outdoor State of Mind.“
