Log Fishing for Crappie

A True Crappie Fishing Adventure

It was 2 p.m. and Clifford's suggestion that we do a little log fishing before lunch went over like a ton of bricks. Had I known the thrills this new crappie fishing technique had in store for me, my response would have been different.

But, as it was, I had never heard of log fishing, and I was hot, tired, and discusted. Since sunup we'd tried every trick in the book for catching spawning crappie...in my book anyway and we had iceboxed only eight fish,

Now muddy Grenada Reservoir was like a sizzling-hot copper griddle, and Mississippi's hot April sun had broiled my winter-whittened skin to a well done lobster finish. I was ready to call it a day, or at least to pull up in the shade, have refreshments, and rest.

How about a sandwich and something to dring first, I countered, hoping to postpone the log fishing until after lunch.

Clifford cranked the motor, drowning me out...delibertly, I think. He fishes harder than any other angler I've been with, and while so occupied he's completely oblivious to all surroundings and human needs. Everytime I pause to admire a lovely landscape or relax for a moment, he catches a big slab-sidded crappie, wrecking my reverie.

Clifford headed the boat into a graveyard of skeleton trees left stranded to die in the middle of the reservoir when the dam was closed seven years earlier. "Keep your eyes peeled for big floating logs" he yelled at me. "Rotten cypress logs covered with moss and weeds are best."

The captured flood water in the dead forest was dingy and dirty, and it was deep, judging from the exposed stumps and snags. It must have held as little appeal for nesting crappie, I thought, as it did for quenching my burning thirst.

Besides, I was far more interested in my companion'e deft handling of the boat in the maze of tangled underbrush and fallen trees than I was in moss-covered logs and the prospect of catching any more fish.

"Yonder's a good cypress log" Clifford said, spinning the prow of the craft at a right angle. "How deep is it here" I asked. "Oh, about 20 feet, I guess" he replied. He killed the motor, and the boat banged against the floating tree trunk.

"You expect to find crappies spawning in this kind of water" I asked in amazement, for it was contrary to all my experience. "Drop your jig at the end of the log" he told me, ignoring the question.

I worked a tiny yellow jig through a clump of coffee-colored weeds at the butt of the log. A crappie grabbed my lure and pulled everything except my handle out of my spinning rod into the silty water before I succeeded in turning the fish.

Clifford dropped a redfin shiner at his end of the log and immediately and sloshed out an even larger crappie than the two-pound slab I had. "Boy, what a saddle blanket!" I exclaimed, using a Mississippi nickname for a big crappie. It's derived from the fish's black bars and broad flat shape.

"In reply to your question," Clifford said quitely, "I definitely expected to find spawning crappie in this kind of water."

Clifford Marter, a lank, handsome man in his mid-30's is one of the better, if not the best, crappie fisherman in the reservoir area of north-central Mississippi. It's Clifford's business to know about crappie...where they're striking, what they're striking, and when...for he operates a fisherman's supply store and restaurant on the eastern end of Grenada Lake.

His customers come early, in a rush, and want prompt and dependable answers to their questions about baits, techniques, and hotspots. Clifford Marter has earned a reputation for dispensing reliable information, and his business has flourished.

These flood -control impoundments...Arkabutla, Sardis, Enid, and Grenada...are strung along a 75-mile stretch of I-55 highway, beginning about 25 miles south of Memphis... Inundating almost 200 square miles of lush vegetation, and seeded with the sturdy stock of the rivers that were dammed, the reservoirs are literal crappie hatcheries and fattening pens offering some of the finest panfishing lakes available in the United States.

It is difficult to name a season or even a day when crappie can't be taken in at least one of the reservoirs or spillways below the dams. Almost every expert Mississippi crappie fisherman has chalked up a three-pounder or better, and with experienced anglers familiar with the waters limit catches 30 fish a day are more common than rare.

Log Fishing...Conclusion