Mississippi River Pool 2 Crappie Report, 10/25/09

When I think Pool-2 of the Mississippi River I think big walleyes and low boat traffic, not slab crappies. While our walleye bite this morning yielded good numbers of fish, size wasn’t quite what we were looking for. With that, our focus shifted from big walleyes to anything that would bite, which just happened to be some beautiful fall river crappies!

These crappies averaged about 12.5 inches with the biggest few touching 14 inches. They were incredibility aggressive and had no problem clobbering walleye plastics. Location was key when finding these crappies as they grouped tightly and as usual, when one was caught there were more to come. Keeping a close eye on small eddy’s and current breaks along steep rock shelves made for perfect crappie habitat and an easy place for these fish to ambush minnows. Most of the fish we found were suspended 4-7ft down in 10-13fow, typically hitting the baits on the drop.

Not planning on a panfish trip we had very little terminal crappie tackle in the boat and had had to make-do with what was available. Kevin started by putting on a clinic, catching numerous specks pitching a 3/16oz jig with a full paddle tail. Fortunately for us, BFishN Tackle’s H20 precision jig in the 1/8oz size makes for an outstanding crappie jig when tipped with the bottom half a of paddle tail plastic. Pitching our makeshift crappie rigs tight to shore followed by a slow retrieve, checking in with the bottom every once in a while, did the deed hooking up with 20+ specks (all C&R).

Overall our makeshift crappie trip turned out fantastic, especially considering we had no live and a box full of walleye gear. The best part of chasing these Pool-2 crappies are that we started and finished the day walleye fishing, giving us a quick break from pitching wing dams. Crappie fishing on Pool-2 is something I’ll definitely pursue in the future and makes for a nice change and quick break while out walleye fishing.

We’ll see ya out there

Pete