The legendary Mr. Crappie, Wally Marshall, knows that big crappie
can still be caught once the spawn is over. (Photo courtesy Wally Marshall)
Crappie Spawn is Over – Good Fishing is NOT
by Brent Frazee
The crappie spawn is winding down and many fishermen are packing away their ultralight gear and jig boxes.
But not so fast, says the legendary Mr. Crappie, Wally Marshall.
Marshall knows the fast and furious action of catching for crappie on the banks may be over. But that doesn’t mean they can’t still be caught.
“When I was growing up, I was like a lot of fishermen,” said Marshall. “We thought of crappie as a spring fish, and that was it.
“But today, I catch crappie year-round. For post-spawn fish, I follow a simple rule. Find the baitfish and you’ll find the crappie.”
Understanding the species’ behavior is a key. Crappie spawn on hard surfaces such as gravel banks, rocks, laydowns and logs once the water temperature climbs into the 60’s.
The spawn can be drawn out as long as a month on one large body of water because of variations in water temperature and other conditions. The males do the hard work. They build the nests and guard the fry once the eggs hatch.
The females are shallow for only a short time period. They lay their eggs, then move back out to deeper structure to recover.
Once the males and females recover, they are ready to gorge. They move out of the shallows, chasing baitfish to satisfy their post-spawn appetites.
The bad news: They are scattered.
“They’re not going to be all bunched up in a big school,” Marshall said. “You might find one here, one there. You have to stay on the move to catch them. You can catch a limit, but usually not in one place.”
Marshall uses several methods to catch post-spawn fish:
- Casting: When Marshall locates suspended crappie with his forward-facing sonar, he often will make long casts to put his bait in front of the fish. Obviously, he likes a Mr. Crappie lure – this one called a Sausage Head Spin with a Slabalicious plastic bait. It is basically an underspin jig head, a tube-type bait with a solid main body. He prefers a one-eighth size head so he can get as much casting distance as possible.
- Vertical jigging: The larger crappie will often suspend near bushy flooded timber. Marshall looks for good cover just out from the spawning banks. When the fishing is tough, he often goes to a hair jig called the Shoo Shiner that his company makes. He will use a 1/32nd-ounce jig but put a 1/8th-ounce weight about one foot to 15 inches above it. “That way, I can drift it down right on top of them,” Marshall said.
- Shooting docks: Boat docks provide shade, protection and a ready food supply. Marshall likes to use a long rod to shoot a jig under the docks for hiding crappie. He often targets docks off a main-lake point or at least half-way out of a cove.
- Pitching: To avoid spooking crappie suspended around brush or timber, Marshall often pitches his baits to the fish he marks on his electronics.
Once the early post-spawn phase transitions to the heat of summer, the fishing only gets better at some reservoirs, Marshall said. At Truman Reservoir in west-central Missouri, for example, the crappie will congregate in the flooded timber and bite readily.
“I love to vertically jig with one of my Sausage Head Spins and a Crappie Thunder body,” Marshall said. “I shake it once, then hold it there. I do it again and they can’t stand it. I can’t tell you how many crappie I’ve caught that way at Truman.”
One thing is certain: Marshall never runs out of baits. He is a master designer of soft-plastic lures.
He traces his fascination with making plastic creatures back to his childhood days.
“I had one of those Creepy Crawler sets where you could mold plastic bugs and things,” he said. “I remember my mom telling me, ‘You’d better turn that thing off. You’re smelling up the whole house.’
“Well, we would take the little things we made and go down to the creek behind our house and catch fish on them.”
His first career was as a master plumber in his hometown of Garland, Texas, but his life changed course when he won a major crappie tournament in 1987.
He started by collaborating with such well-known companies as Blakemore, Lew’s, Bass Pro Shops and Strike King, but he eventually decided to go out on his own.
Today, Marshall – a member of the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame – owns the Mr. Crappie brand and makes everything from curly tail to straight-tail to paddle-tail swimbaits.
Marshall uses his baits to win tournaments, put out instructional videos, and promote crappie fishing in general.
“The great thing about crappie fishing is that you can get a lot of bites and you can eat what you catch,” he said.
Brent Frazee is an award-winning outdoor writer who lives on a private lake in a suburb of Kansas City. He was the outdoors editor of The Kansas City Star for 36 years before retiring in 2016. He continues to freelance for magazines, websites, newspapers and tourism publications.
