Wayne Blanchard displayed one of the crappies he caught on 2-pound test line. (Photo: Brent Frazee)
Opt in for ULTRA Ultralights on Wintertime Crappie Quests
By Brent Frazee
“The fish don’t care how cold it is. They’ll still bite.”
This wasn’t fishing weather. The temperature had dropped like a rock and a cold wind swept across the docks at Lake Jacomo, a 970-acre reservoir in a suburb of Kansas City, Mo.
But Wayne Blanchard showed up for a morning of fishing anyway, joining his fellow diehards who visit the boat slips at Lake Jacomo Marina almost daily in the winter.
Too cold to fish?
Nah, Blanchard knew the crappies would bite.
“When it’s cold, I don’t get out in the boat,” said Blanchard, a retiree who lives in Grain Valley, Mo. “But I’ll fish the docks unless it gets down in the teens and the wind is blowing.
“The fish don’t care how cold it is. They’ll still bite.”
Aerators at the marina keep the water from freezing over. And brush sunk in the boat stalls provide a comfortable winter home for the crappies.
The fish are sluggish in cold water. They won’t chase a bait. But if you drop a tiny offering in front of them, they’ll open their mouths. Blanchard has been proving that for years.
Some fishermen like to fish ultralight for crappies, especially in cold, clear water conditions. Blanchard, however, takes it a step further.
He uses a 4 ½-foot ultralight rod, a small reel with a good drag system loaded with 2-pound test line. He hand-ties his own tiny marabou and chenille jigs.
He usually drops 1/64th-ounce jigs with a small weight attached to the line, but he will go as small as 1/100th-ounce when he is using a float.
Some fishermen will argue that you don’t need to go that light to get crappies to hit, but it’s hard to argue with Blanchard’s success. On this frigid day, he steadily caught crappies on his micro gear as he fished some of his favorite brush piles.
“After fishing out here so long, I know where every brush piles is and how deep they are,” he said. “I use a countdown system to get my jig right over the top of the brush. If you go too far, you aren’t going to get it back.”
Blanchard and his dock-fishing counterparts joke that they’ve decorated plenty of underwater trees over the years.
But they’ve also caught plenty of crappies.
Jacomo doesn’t necessarily stand out as a crappie-fishing destination. It has lots of fish, though many of them are “throwback” size. But Blanchard and his cohorts know that if they spend a couple of hours on the docks in the winter, they’ll usually go home with fish in their buckets.
“Jacomo has clear water, especially in the winter, so I think going down to 2-pound test line makes it less visible,” Blanchard said. “Plus, it’s more of a subtle approach.
“Going to real light line gives the jigs better action and makes them look more natural.”
That scenario is played out at reservoirs throughout Missouri each winter. Yes, the water gets cold, but it seldom freezes. And when it does, marinas often have aerators to keep open water circulating in the boat stalls.
That attracts a loyal following of anglers, often oldtimers, who keep regular hours on the docks each winter.
They come for the camaraderie as much as the crappies. They exchange fish stories, have friendly competition and solve the problems of the word. Oh, and they catch fish.
Bob Huggins of Grain Valley is another regular at Lake Jacomo Marina. He has been known to go even one step lighter than Blanchard on the tackle he uses.
He once spooled his reels with clear sewing thread to fish for the sluggish winter crappies. He would go to sewing shops instead of tackle stores to get his line.
“That approach definitely produced more bites,” Huggins said. “These dock fish have seen about every lure made. They get a lot of pressure.
“Sometimes, you have to give them something they’re not used to seeing. That’s why I like to fish this way.”
Huggins pours his own plastic baits, usually about one inch long, and tries to imitate the small minnows darting around at Jacomo.
He fishes those baits on 1/80th or 1/100th– ounce jig heads and uses a small ultralight dock rod with lots of flex to it.
There’s no lifting his catch out of the water. On sewing thread, the line would certainly break. Instead, Huggins often lips his catch once he gets it to the surface.
These days, the type of commercial sewing thread he likes for fishing is harder to find, he said, so he often goes to 2-pound test. But the same techniques apply.
He and his wife Barbara, both retired, have a boat and like to troll during the warm-weather months. But in the fall and winter, they are fishing off the docks, no matter how cold it gets.
“The worse the weather, the better the fishing,” Huggins said. “I’ve been down here when it is super cold and I’ll still catch fish.”
There are disadvantages to fishing the super light line, of course. Forget about setting the hook hard or even trying to horse your catch in. You’re going to break your line.
Likewise, if the fish at the end of your line has any size to it, it’s risky to try to lift it out of the water. Fishermen such as Blanchard or Huggins often either lip those fish or net them.
But big fish can be reeled in on light line, as many trout fishermen will tell you.
“If your reel has a good drag, you can catch some big fish,” Blanchard said. “I caught a 22-inch walleye out here one winter. And we’ll get white bass and wipers, too.”
So, when your water goes cold and clear, size down – and remember, it is hard to size down too far.
Brent Frazee was the outdoors editor for The Kansas City Star for 36 years before retiring in 2016. He continues to freelance for magazines, websites and digital outlets. He lives in Parkville, Mo., with his wife Jana and yellow lab Millie.
