Beginner Mistakes: Crappie Fishing

Alright guys, uh welcome back to the Crappie Connection. We're at the spring show Grizzly Jig 2026 and I'm gonna let these guys next to me do a little introduction to themselves. All right. I'll go first. Uh I am Eric Watts out of Little Rock, Arkansas with Natural State Fishing God Service. Uh full time guide over on uh Lake Momel, Lake uh Washita, DeGray. Wherever I can stick a hooky in and chase a crappie.

Nice. Mr. Kirby. Kirby Ham, aka Crappie Kirby Guide Service out of the Kansas City area, and I guide on Hillsdale Lake. Melvern Lake, uh John Redmond, Toronto, Clinton, a lot of great fishing. Milford Lake, uh if you wanna get up north by the Manhattan area, but a lot of great fishing that is uh kind of a Kind of a secret. We got good fish. We got good quality fish.

Well we don't want to put that pressure as you guys get down in Mississippi where Hãy subscribe cho kênh La La School Để không bỏ lỡ những video hấp dẫn Y you know, I think about today and I was like I've got two guys here that fish professionally for a living, that fish a lot of days, a lot of days on the water and

Um, you know, we come across and we have different mistakes that we've encountered, but also different mistakes mistakes that we see different crappie fishermen make while we're fishing and I really want to focus on, you know, how to For guys to look at that and say, Hey, you what? I did that before and this is how I fixed it.

Or I see different fishermen making this mistake from, you know, jigging the pole wrong and all these different things that are mistakes while crappie fishing that if guys could fix They'll become better fishermen. Yeah. And that's what we want to do today is talk about some of the common mistakes that fishermen make when they're out, especially for spawning crappie. And that's kinda where this time frame's gonna come out. We're gonna we're gonna air this during the spawn. Um

I've made so many mistakes. How long is this show? Is what I need to ask you and Hunter. We'll talk about it to this dead. How about that? There's no time limit on our shows. Let's go for it. Alright, let's go. Eric, you wanna lead us off? Yeah, um so one of the the big mistakes. I fish a lot of clear and relatively deep water. Um, so one of the mistakes that I've seen a lot of people make on our waters is

getting up way too shallow um for some of these fish and that sounds kinda weird. Um you know, we're used to fishing the banks and, you know, kinda working uh timber or whatever along the banks uh rocks or whatever the case may be. Well um in some of your deeper, clearer lakes, a lot of times those fish are gonna spawn much deeper than you expect. Um, I find fish spawning in six to ten feet of water.

And, you know, those your males are anyway making your making beds there and then those females, those bigger females, if you're, you know, looking for better quality fish a lot of times are out even deeper. You know, they may be twelve to fifteen foot, just out hanging out, waiting on the right moment to

to run up and do their thing. So, um, you know, not getting hooked on the shallow water only, uh, during the spawn. You never know. And you know, weather patterns of course are a big factor in that. They'll push those fish out a little bit deeper, whatever the case may be, but Um, that's one of the things that, you know, I personally had to figure out uh when I first started spending more time on the clearer, deeper water is like where the heck are these fish?

Uh but you know, the more time I spent out and look getting out a little bit deeper, I started spotting fish more often and you know, getting the bait in front of them irritating them a little bit. Definitely would be a mistake that you know, you want to avoid. You want to fish where the fish are, number one. If you're not with the fish, you're not gonna catch fish. That's right. That's true.

That's true. I'd say my biggest mistake that I do, and and Brad knows me, we fished together several times on each other's shows. Yeah. Um I get too excited, man. When I'm going fishing during the spawn, I like to fish it one way. And that is braid with like an underspin and uh you know, a casting rod. That's my favorite. I love feeling that thump on the retrieve.

Um but what I find I do I get so excited to get out there and s and so excited to get to my spots and you have to check a lot of spots till you find which spots are producing. But what I've found is in my haste. m my eagerness to get there, I think that maybe I have blown it out or I haven't taken into consideration into the wind and I'll find myself drifting into the place that I want to catch. I need to curb my excitement down. Kirb Kirby. Kirby Dan.

So that uh I have uh a a good chance of presenting at these crappie that are going shallow. So that's my first one. I got a slow

Oh yeah, well we've got a lot to cover with this'cause we've all made a lot of mistakes. I have as well. But you know, and I'm gonna think of one of the mistakes I I believe a lot of people do when it comes to crappie fishing and the spawn really it's gonna cover year round is

They're overpowering their jigs, their baits by line size. And that's kinda detailed. You'll see and I'm get on and they'll say, uh, yeah, I've got this one thirty second ounce jig and I'm using ten pound line. Yeah. And I'm like Well, You're overpowering that jig with the line size. Yeah, the line the jig can't get down because the line's so boring.

It's heavier than the jig. I mean, I mean it's gonna float higher up. So I think a lot of times we can overpower our jigs by line size. True. For sure. So that's something that's so easy and you're like, Oh man, I never think about The line size. Uh my overall and I'm gonna ask each one of you your your favorite line size.

Okay. Well in conjunction, uh this is a great tip that uh some of you guys out there can, you know, cash in on, compliments of the crappie connection. But if you've ever liked to present bobbers. Okay. Oh one hundred percent. Uh so uh y a lot of times and this goes for bank fishermen as well, you'll cast your bobber out, you get two or three of'em set, and then all of a sudden that bobber Just starts moving real slowly to you.

Coming to me, you reel up the slack, you set the hook. Well there's nothing there. And after about three or four times of like, how the heck am I missing all these fish?

you will figure out that you have the the wrong type of line or you will have too heavy of a line that's actually sinking and pulling that cork in. So you want to make certain that your monofilament And your jig is proportional to keep your line afloat first and foremost because you don't want that slack when you're trying to set that hook when the crappie actually hits. Uh and then you want that jig to get down fast to the area that you're presenting to the males or the females.

So, what would be your line of choice? Uh. Uh like I said, I really enjoy casting to them with an underspin, but you know, but that's like a a guilty pleasure. When I'm guiding, I want my you know, I I'll put minnows, you know, tipped with baits and and or just straight hook minnows on bobbers. Yeah. Um but with the casting I always use braid, usually like an eight pound braid. I don't necessarily have a

I like the spider wire ultra cast. It's very silky and you can get a good thirty to forty yard, you know, cast. And when when you're thinking about casting always cast parallel to the bank. Don't cast to the bank. Cast parallel to the bank and work it back because you'll cover so much area and you'll find those fish so much quicker than if you're just going straight. That's a good little secret tip. Altyazı M.K.

Yeah, yeah. It took me a long time to learn that. And then the other thing is when I'm using the slip bobbers, you know, you kind of just put them in a line and I like to tear'em, you know, put one close. one a little bit deeper and one a little bit deeper, kind of in a in a row. And what you'll find is one will start producing more so than the other. In depth rise.

And then within an hour you can pinpoint the ledge they're on or the structure you're on or the depth they're on, then you can set all three of'em. So start out slow, metedious, don't get excited, use uh you know, mono. Uh don't use uh fluorocarbon because fluorocarbons even though it's clearer, it's heavier and it sinks. So I like a copolymer blend and I have been stuck on the longest time. I'm not sponsored by'em. But if you're listening, gamma.

Flex or gamma copolymer. And it's a combination of monofilaments and the fluorocarbon, and it's very Durable and that's that's all I use. And and and I I think Driscoll gave me a spool of it. And I went through that after about two years and I'm like, this stuff is really good. It's got a great feel, little bit of stretch, a lot of durability and so I just I just bought some offline. And if you're listening, gamma. And what weight on that? Six pound must.

Six pounds. I think it's gonna ring out across the board. But I might be wrong. Eric, what's your line of choice there? You know, my go to I'm I'm a lot like Kirby here. I like braid as well. Um I keep all of my spinning wheels have braid on'em. I usually run a r around eight pound braid, eight s ten on some of'em. Um

I like the sensitivity of the braid and the r durability of it. I mean I've got some braid on some of my reels, I'm not gonna lie to you. It's been on there for years now. Uh stuff just doesn't break. I mean, so it's always there, it's always dependable. And I'll tie a leader on. I'll usually run

a uh mono or co polymer uh leader and I I tie'em pretty long, i which kind of defeats the purpose, but it it still gives me the feel that I'm after. Um I'll tie'em, you know, anywhere from six to eight feet long. Um and I'll A little small swivel, I'm assuming. No, I'll just do Right.

Yeah, tie straight on. I'll do a double uni knot um to to l tie those knots together. And I'm usually going to run like right now through the through the winter months or back through the winter months anyway, I would run a six pound leader line uh now during the spawn um I've switched over to our four pound uh just to keep it alight because I wanna you know, some of the days we may be slipcorking, some days we may just be casting straight jigs and swimming them back.

Um, but I want to be as light as possible. Um I'm fishing up relatively shallow, uh, like I say, six to ten foot for the most part. Um so I and I'm using, you know, one thirty-second to one sixteenth ounce jig head. So, you know, I wanna have some line that will allow me to get down quick enough but also be able to maintain uh control of the bait. That's year round, that's the biggest thing for me. I wanna have full control of the bait. Um and one of the things that that

Uh Kirby just mentioned a minute ago um in talking about looking for those fish or or not blowing those fish out, it made me think of another mistake that I've made and I think, you know, a lot of people will make now given the technology that we have. Um, I think sometimes and right, this actually goes back to what we were talking about before the show. Um, I think sometimes we can get too caught up in the technology and we forget to take our eyes off the screen or turn it off.

and just focus on kind of traditional or old school fishing, like going back to hitting the you know, the basics and that's kind of what the spawner's about for me. That's you know, when I can get away from a home lake that doesn't have a whole lot of visible cover, um, you know, at the banks or up cl up shallow, um and I can get onto some of the, you know, more traditional bodies of water that have a lot more stumps or or brush or whatever up close. to the banks.

Um, that's one of the things that I really love to do. If I can turn that graph off and uh, you know, start pitching some some corks up there, uh jig and bobber up there, I'm not gonna do the live bait thing unless I get some kids out and I'll do it. Yeah. Uh but I just don't want to deal with minnows. That's just a personal thing.

And listen and I know they work. I mean that's tried and true, right? They work. It's just it's just one of those personal things where hey if I can't catch'em on a jig, they just won't bite that day. You know, that's just that's just not happening. Um, but anyway, going back to just the basics of, you know, remembering, you know, what I learned as a kid, fishing with my grandfather and and my dad and uncles over in Mississippi. Um, you know, whenever I come down for spring break or

Um, you know, it you know, spawns going on and we'd get back there on on Barnet behind the spillway, you know, it's just yeah, you know what I mean? That's that's how I cut my teeth fishing, right? I don't know if we've talked about that before or not, but that's how you know, as a baby boy, that's what I was first exposed to and um, you know, that's that stuff still, you know, brings a bail in my heart, man. I mean, I I look forward to those opportunities to get out and do that stuff.

Yeah, I mean my biggest thing that I think a lot of people get caught up on, and I'm one of them, a and a mistake that I'm guilty and I'm sure both you guys and everybody listening is we have the perception of how the fish are gonna bite. Okay.

All right, I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna use a slip bobber or or whatever the technique that you got in your mind and you go out to the lake and you're like, Well they're just not biting today. That yeah. And yeah. And having that mistake of forcing your technique and style on two fish. Can't do it. Let the fish tell you what they want.

Fish and and I did a podcast yesterday with a gentleman that was struggling on fishing. Yeah. And we broke down some of the things that he w was doing right and possibly doing wrong as well. But I I see even for my mistakes myself that I've been on the lake and I'm like Oh, these fish just not biting today. And then I I'm on the ride home I'm trying to break it down and say, What did I miss? What did I not do?

And probably the number one mistake that it was for that day is I didn't pay attention to those details. Hey that wasn't working. Kill it. Do something else.

A great thing to go along with what you're saying is immediately when you get On the boat ramp, turn your graphs on. Don't drive to where you're going. Turn your graphs on because you can learn information immediately from just unloading your boat. Because usually there's uh a school of Shad or something that's eating the plankton uh around the actual boat ramp or the marina, whatever the case may be. And it's very easy to look at that on your

Pause it, zoom in, and see the size of the presentation you need to be offering these fish. Because You know, uh seasonally shad don't look the same thing. You know, you want to m what they say match the hatch. You don't want to be giving'em something giant when they've been eating zillions of little tiny shad fries. So keep that in mind and in the spawn.

uh, you know, you don't want those big baits. You want the smaller stuff. Uh like when I go to my marina and I get my minnows, I'm mad if they're not

at least medium. If they're large I I'll load up in the truck and go get small to medium minnows because that's the size of the shed. And you can tell that seasonally, uh, not just in the spawn, but any any time Check out the balls of shad that you're driving over, pause that screen, zoom in, and you know, the the forward facing sonar Garmin uh i it'll tell you basically the width of the bait because it's in foot sections. I got a I got a good tip on meno size. Okay, let's go.

A good way to tell if you go to a new body of water on the correct size of minnows to use. is go into a bait shop and look at the tank that has the least amount of minnows in there. Yeah, that's a You're monitoring the old timers. Nice. I mean, I've done one deep on that one because I was thinking. You look at all the different sizes, you have small, medium and I recall Grenada Lake and you're talking about

Small Grenada Lake. We used to spot a rig with minnows four, five inches. Yeah. We would and you're like you you go into a area like that and you're like, who in the world they're probably catfishing with that bait. But a lot of times if you went there early, that was a size that was always sold out. Oh that makes perfect sense. They're not going to be able to do

They knew already what size they're to use, so yeah. I've learned through the years that I would go into a bait shop and I would look to see what tank had the least amount of minnows in there and that would kinda key in on the size of bait to use. Excellent point. Now another thing you need to take into consideration is that and God bless me or them, but a lot of marina owners are at the mercy of the minnow.

Luckily in Kansas City we have a place called Minnesota Bait, shameless plug, but they offer you small, medium, or large where you go to your local marina, it's one tank and these are the minnows we have. And that can hinder you. No, yeah, it can hurt you for the future.

truly hinder you if you're going out to to use minnows that day. I also got another mistake. This one's for my bank fishermen. All right. Bank fishermen out there, and I know bank fishermen listen to the crappie connection. Bank fishermen You're trying to cast out where we're at. We're trying to cast out where you're at and you're wrong. Bring those corks in because we're trying to get shallow. The crappie are trying to get shallow.

And it just it just I always laugh when I go to my favorite spot where I gotta get on that ledge, that two to three foot ledge. Right. And there's ten or fifteen people standing along that bank with bobbers thirty yards out from where the crappie are. I was always the guy that would try to really cast it all the way out there to those guys of the boats and then like you said, I'd see them cast'em back my way and I'm like What are we doing here? All backwards. Everybody's confused.

Somebody's wrong here. Either in the middle or I'm wrong. Fisher right in the middle looking both ways. Like, what the heck are you guys doing? Instead of cast unparalleled. Yeah, cast parallel. And and with the technology that we're finding, you know, it's easy to f to to see where these crappie are spawning. And with the technology that these rod companies are coming with, the presentation

uh for crappie fishing on the spawn has completely changed. Now you don't even need to actually cast to him. You can just simply put some braid on a eighteen or twenty foot BGJP. And we can cover from that door. All the way over to here without making a cast. You know what I mean? That's that's a big thing. We just simply just pull it. Let out

Three or foot a line and that that rod also serves as a great tool when we're fishing from the bank to all the bank fishingers men that are still listening to me and not mad at me. Uh but you know when you have a fourteen foot rod, you know, you can let like seven foot of line out, go halfway down, dip it into the water and see where you go slack so that you know the depth that you're fishing. Use your fishing rod not only as a fishing pole,

but also as a tool to help you find the correct depth. And remember these fish are trying to go shallow. So always fish above'em and start out close to the bank and work your way out until you find them. And when you find them, Nine times out of ten you're gonna find the males first protecting the nest and then later on, a little further out, staging are the bigger females. So also do miss do us a favor.

Big mistake. Don't keep the females, all right? And this will help you. This is a great tip. This was gonna sh I was gonna share this mistake. This is where I get the come on man. Eric's about to come on man. Already I'm actually gonna agree with you. I already know. Who out there has been slaying the crappie on the spawn? Your favorite crappie hole. You're catching them. Everybody's having a good time. It's one after another. We're doubling. We're tripling up. And then bang, they stop.

It's not because y you've caught all the crappie. What you need to do is go to your live well or go to your wire basket or your stringer and check the last crappie you caught. I guarantee you it's gonna be the female. And that's why all those males I'm telling you. I'm telling you, I got it.

What you do is you take that female out of that basket, out of the live well, out of that stringer, and you put it right back gingerly, right where you've been fishing, or kind of pitch it from where you caught it.

Let that female you give it ten minutes, they're back there trying to herd that. And I don't know if you guys have ever I've been blessed three times to actually see the spawn and it's not like You know Chocolates and roses, a steak dinner movie, lobster, a massage, you know, bubble bath, candlelit. No romance. Brutal. All right. If you've ever seen chickens reproduce, it's not good for the female. They get bum rushed by about 20 to 30 males that actually hurt. Otters. Yeah.

We go down some some deep rabbit holes here at the Crappy Connection. We were watching uh otters mate, but anyway. Uh, it's not good. It's very brutal for the female. Uh they basically bombard her and and hit her over and over, you know, with their snouts. To get her to dispense the eggs. Alright. And if you've ever been on the lake when the spawn the day that the spawn is actually happening, it's

something that you probably have seen. Maybe you've been out fishing and then all of a sudden you see like a crappie floating over here or a crappie floating around. Hey, that's a good keeper crappie. I'm gonna go over there and net it. You go over to net it, you get within net range and boom, boom, boom, it's gone. When those males do their business they're exhausted.

They lose complete complete control and float to the top. I've been on a lake where the spawn has been going on, it's it's crystal clear, I can see it, and I'll see 15 males just floating on the top. Smoking cigarettes. I was going to say it sounds Talking about. Don't call me, honey. I'll call you. But that's a true story. Go deep. Put the females back, you're gonna help the the r the reproduction of the lake and you're gonna catch more fish.

I don't know if I ever thought about that. That might be one of the mistakes I've had. Yeah. That's a good one right there. And then another thing, if you are looking to catch a big fish, uh I can't believe I'm sharing this tip when I say turn the females back, but wherever you're catching The big or whenever you're catching the males along the bank

All you gotta do is turn to the opposite side of the boat and set a slip bobber deeper and you'll catch the big females. Because they're there. They're all moving shallow, but the males come in first and they literally herd the females from out deep. Yeah I've seen that. Their business. Yeah. All right, I'm done with my BS. Go ahead, Eric.

Man, that's I I don't even know where to go from there. I don't even know where to go from there. No, um I think those those are absolutely great tips. Um I never really considered the uh the the exhaustion factor of those crappie, those male crappie after but I have definitely seen those fish floating up before, didn't really know why that was happening. Um, but that makes perfect sense. I mean, you know, we can relate, right?

Oh yeah. Um you know, I think another mistake a and it kinda goes back to Kirby was beginning of that conversation, but Um not trusting what you're seeing on your units. Yeah. Not trusting what your actual fish finders are showing you. Yeah. Uh, you know, and and as fishermen we get in the mindset, like earlier, that hey, this is what the fish are, this is where they're gonna be, yeah. I already know and you're using your electronics.

are not using your electronics. Yeah. And not really trusting to what you're seeing on those units. And and knowing what you're looking for because crappie on a structure is not crappie spawning along the banks. Okay? So when I fish when I'm vertical jigging or when I'm casting to structure, I see a good cluster of fish

on a a structure. You know what I mean? And you can pick'em apart. You can just stay above it and and and you can see yourself catching every one. When you're in the shallows and you're scanning, you just wanna see that dart. Yeah. You wanna see that dart here and that dart there, two or three darts.

coming around. They're not holding still. You won't be able to focus on'em, but they're just running and gunning. They're in the nightclub. They're smoking clove cigarettes and looking for anything that'll dance with them. That must be a uh Kansas thing, yeah. I had a question about that. I got a question about that. So is that uh when those fish are up shallow like that and you're looking for those darting fish around, is that a time where we'll switch over to prospective mode? You know what?

I'm on the Garmin Pro staff and I hate to say I hate to put you on the spot like that. I haven't ever changed my perspective. Now I know people that have master it. I've seen bass fishermen actually dissect a bank with a fish there and a fish there and a fish there.

But these c these crappie are moving so fast that it would look the same as if you just scanned it normally. You'd be like, Oh, there went something, oh, there went something, there won't there went something good. But they're not gonna be sitting still. You know, that goes back to even way before live scope and w really I'm talking twenty five years ago and that I noticed with cropping. And I'm not a big fan of it so I'm I'm I'm not gonna sell the technique.

But guys in the south, especially around Cyprus, use uh yo yo's a lot for cropping. Oh yeah. And like I said, I'm not a big fan of it, but I've watched those guys do it twenty five, thirty years ago and Uh I actually stopped and talked to a fisherman. I was like, Hey, are you catching any fish? And he said, These fish are coming in waves. He said, Literally, and he would have it

of twenty five or whatever it might be along the outside edges of these trees and he says, sit here and watch'em with me. Yeah. One of those wouldn't go off at a time. He would a it was like a wave of fish would move in. Yeah. And then all of a sudden that same wave of fish would move out.

and he might catch five or six or whatever it might be, but it was more than one and it wasn't just, you know, here or there. It was almost like a wave of fish would move into the trees or move out. It could be either aura, who know at that time for sure. But those fish kinda moved in and then all of a sudden they'd move out and that's when he would catch fish on those trees. So that's how much they actually are moving. Yes. Yes, absolutely.

And it's waves as of the fish that pull in and they'll pull out same token. Well it's it i it's just kinda gotta I always try to like think about crappie fishing like As humans. Uh w what do they do? They're they're basically going to the nightclub to get laid. I mean... They're lying.

And the the shallow bank is the nightclub. The males are just you know, they're looking for anything to dance with them, anything that they can do. They'll see somebody you know, at the bar they'll try to hurt her to be alone and then his buddy comes in as wingman and is ruin it and then and then things go horribly awry. Uh but anyway, yeah, you you gotta kinda think like a an animal would think or I I don't know, it's hard to explain is is I know you've we've talked on the boat.

d about the rabbit holes we've gone through thinking about crappie and why they do what they do. Uh but they're just animals. They gotta eat, they gotta sleep, they gotta reproduce, they have to stay comfortable. and just the things that you do, you know, uh in my seminar I I you know, I said, uh hey, I like I like pizza. You know what I mean? I i if I wanna eat pizza

Don't give me something that looks like steak. Don't give me something that looks like goulash or mashed potatoes. I want uh something that looks like a slice of pizza. So match the hatch. try to relate to'em a and figure out what they're doing at that particular season. Of course we're talking about the spawn right now and and it's all about reproducing. It's a and and most of the

The males that reproduce and and you'll catch good ones, but most of them are juveniles. They're not the trophy fish that you're looking for in tournaments. You know, maybe you'll catch one here and there. The big ones you catch are usually the females. Yeah. Yeah.

I have seen that a lot of times the um the first wave of spawners tend to be a little bit bigger. So as far as the mails go, they tend to be a little bit larger and as the season progresses, uh, because it can last, you know, several weeks. Um Months, yeah, in some areas. Um but that it seems like those first couple of waves are typically a little bit larger fish and I

I don't really know the the science behind that. That would be an interesting one to ask a biologist. Um, I may reach out to one that I know about that. Um, but it seems like you you'll catch some of the larger males early. Um and it's it's always cool

to kinda monitor w one of the things we hadn't talked about a whole lot is kind of water temperature. Um, I think that's one of the biggest factors, not not the number one factor, but probably pretty high on the list in terms of of water temperatures, uh, in terms of conditions for for spawning to h take place. And um you know, I'm always looking for those waters that water to in my area anyway, break over fifty again. I know once we once we hit fifty

Well well, you know, the the the thing is, like, we didn't get below fifty in central Arkansas. Our waters didn't get below fifty until uh shoot. Mid late January, yeah. Mid to late January. Um you know, we did just didn't get there. So Um, you know, it once it the water's got down some more and they warm back up, started hitting getting close to fifty again, then I know all right, it's time to start checking. And one of the th the main things that I look for, um, and this is this is kind of me

dropping a secret. Um but one of the main things that I look for to know that we're really moving into spawn is, you know, all winter long we're out catching fish in really, really deep water. We're thirty five, you know, forty feet deep. And whenever I start catching smaller fish or finding only smaller fish out deep, I know it's time.

And that kind of goes back to my last point about those bigger fish, those bigger males or whatever going up on the bank first. It's like they leave from those deep areas.

And it's almost like they immediately start going straight up shallow. And and I think it happens in waves like we talked about. I think what happens is they'll you know, they'll transition, they'll they'll kinda pre spawn, hang out for a little bit and roam, feed a little bit, but then they'll run up and back back and forth uh from the bank kind of pre prepping, checking the water temperatures and s you know, whatever the case may be.

You know, I I think uh last year I did a guide trip and we get to the boat ramp and literally there's eighty boats out on the lake, eighty boat trailers. Wow. And I kinda noticed a couple of guys taking off before me and they all went to the right and I go left. And my clients are probably a little bit panicky because th the mass of fishmen are over on the They d they they went the opposite w direction that I'm going. Yeah. And They know something. Him.

Th we kept we went left and stopped and I'm sure they uh were a little bit panicky, but they asked me where's everybody else at? And then I'm like I don't know. And I I really I mean I didn't know at the time. I know where they're at now, but uh I went back left. B but I I threw down the electronics and and I I still knew the fish were in the area that I was at. And I think a lot of people on the same token the mistake they can make is they rushed to the bank.

Yeah. All these fish don't spawn at once, especially in the south. Now you get further north, that spawn time frame is tighter. Yeah. And it could be two weeks, ten days, whatever it might be. I know like Ross Barnett. Um, I feel like our spawn probably starts the second week of March. And I don't I'm pretty confident when I say this, I still think it's carrying on the first week of June. Uh. No a and Gerby's with he's been in the boat with me.

Yeah, yeah, but I I'm hoping you you're going down the path that I'm interrupting you to go. No sé. Or well, if you're gonna cliffhang, uh and and it excellent points by Eric about the temperature a and those big males. But a lot of people don't take into consideration, once again going back to the th that these fish are just animals. Okay. They're just they're just doing what animals do. We're all animals. You know, we're all God's creations.

But one thing that I want you to consider not only about the temperature rising and getting comfortable for these guys, because a a woman has to be comfortable before she is wooed uh as these Crappy do, but but think about something. Most of the love songs out there talk about moonlight. Oh, your hair. So beautiful in the moonlight and you know s you know.

all these wonderful love songs about moon. Uh if you take a look at some of the the creatures that you know, that are out there, like the chicken we talked about earlier and like deer. A lot of people hunt deer. Yeah. The menstrual style of these animals is triggered by the moonlight that they absorb. The deer's menstrual cycle which puts the bucks in the rut is due to an exposure of moonlight. All right? Chickens, the same way. Roosters will Yeah, ginger.

Roosters will only breed after the full moon. Yeah. I'm a chicken expert. Oh man. I You're kidding me. We're gonna have to change. Beyond this. I don't know. How about the chicken bar in a little bit? Gosh. Okay. I didn't know you were a chicken expert. All right. Just let me spread my BS. I'll spread it thinner. I didn't know about the chicken part.

Crappie are no different. Monitor your moonlight. When you get those warming water temperatures, it doesn't have to be sixty-one degrees. It doesn't have to be, you know, sixty degrees. It can be fifty four degrees after a solid three days of moonlight. Moonlight affects the mood of females and males. It puts them in the mood. Moonlight sets the mood. Okay.

That's a good tip. I didn't take that into consideration. That was a huge mistake, and I've fished a couple of lakes that I'm like, what the heck? Where's the spawn? Where's the spawn? And lo and behold it happened, you know, five to a week earlier because of the moon phase. You know? Yeah, we got the s we got the south, we got the mid, and we got kind of the northern to Kansas all covered here.

What date would be the pig spawn for you? Yes. I've got one. All right, you go first because you're the most subtle And and this comes back from a uh fishing legend in my area that I've always remember him saying and I totally agree. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok Uh Rabbit Rogers. Oh yeah. I've heard you talk about it I I've got a lot of respect for the gentleman. Yes, sir. Uh April fifteenth. Yeah. Peak of the spoon if there was the very top portion of our peak, April fifteenth. Okay. For us.

And yours is gonna be April sixteenth. You got an extension. What is this? The price is right you're doing one day over there. No,'cause I was actually gonna say mid April and he nailed it right kinda right there in the middle. So I'm like Mine is in April. The first week in May, the last four or five days in April May first. Well yeah, May first but but all the way up into May fifth into the northern lakes like Milford, uh

It's just lights out that last week in April. So it's it's obvious because, you know, you're having, you know, spawns happen in February in Florida just as the nation heats up that date back Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. I I just wanna throw that out there. Like that'd be neat to ask. Yeah. But I I definitely remember Tax Deadline Day being the uh pick of the spoon. Nice, nice, nice nice. Second week of March. Yeah. Ending first week of June, peak would be April fifteenth.

Yeah. A and ours just a couple of weeks later'cause we're just a f you know, a few miles Dustin, you know, he does a today's bite with me and it seems like if you would take back all our weekly fish reports that we do Typically he's about two weeks behind what I'm at. Where's he located? Where Oklahoma? Grand Lake, Oklahoma. It you nailed exactly about two weeks behind what I would consider. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna see Dustin at uh Bass Pro Shop in Springfield here in a couple.

You gotta make sure uh you give him some for not coming to the uh grizzly jigs. I'm gonna give him some trouble. He'll do that. I'm like, where the hell are you banned all these customers? Like, I went to the museum. I'm like, Dustin. I'm like, good for you. Yeah. We were gonna buy the tickets and then that went so f we kinda ping ponged off one another.

Well definitely a fun show today guys. Appreciate you joining in and jumping on here and I never know where they're gonna go and I didn't know where this show was gonna go today, but it's actually been extremely fun and educational as well. So thank you guys. Where can they find you, Kirby?

They can find me at crappycirby dot com. I encourage you guys to keep checking that uh site if you wanna book a guide, whether it's a corporate guide with, you know, up to eight to ten people. We've got a couple boats that can take those out, or if it's just you and your grandson or your your your wife or whoever, you know, will take a couple people out and we'll catch a lot of fish. I'll clean, cook'em, and uh process'em for you to have a great fish fry. Oh yeah.

You guys gotta incorporate that'cause you can charge like four or five hundred dollars that show. I all I gotta do is fry, you know, ten fillets. We can do that. Uh and then Genius. Check Crappie Kirby out. I'm gonna announce this on your show first. I have even announced this on mine, but I'm gonna start a crappie Kirby's. School of confidence for uh You can ridicule me directly to the I've learned more about chicken today than I've known in my whole life.

But but but that's that's where we're at. Yeah. I mean Eric, I know as a guide you have to have confidence. I've fished with Brad Chappell. It it's nice to be in a crappie fishing plateau where you don't have that panic or that wonderment. of are we gonna catch any today? And and that's why you do what you do. That's what you do what you do and that's why I do is to give people the confidence to be able to catch crappie any time of the year on any plateau.

So check out Crappy Kirby's School of Confidence. It's gonna hopefully I was actually actually asking you to teach a course, but uh but you know, it it it's good to to have and and share the wealth of information that we have been blessed with by being out on the water so much with our guide businesses, but then coming to great places like the Grizzly Jig Show and learning from the legends like

Sam Heaton and the and the Russ Baileys and and all the great tournament pros because you can just pick up so many tips that will help you put fish in the boat. Yeah. That is uh You know, I I I just want to piggyback on that because you you nailed it on the head the nail on the head right there. Uh confidence is key and Brad you mentioned a minute ago as well um being adaptable. Um I'm paraphrasing there, but being adaptable on the water.

And that's something that comes from just spending time on the water. The more time you spend, you know, studying and really trying to learn what's going on, you know what changes to make on any given day. Or or even even given any given moment uh of the day'cause things can change and you know, they'll go they're biting one color in a moment and then you're you know, just shut off on it or you s you know when to switch it up.

Um, so I always encourage everyone that fishes with me or uh people that I meet at the boat ramp or at the grocery store, wherever. you know, don't be afraid to change up what you're doing, try different things. You know, I I go out a lot, um, you know, from time to time on my on my own. And on those days I catch way more fish, way less or way less fish go in my boat when I'm by myself. Oh yeah. Yeah. 'Cause you're trying new stuff. Try new stuff. That's that's exactly the point I'm making.

And I don't mean to come off arrogant because there's times that I'm in a panic and and you panic when you have people paying you What are we gonna do now? Where are we gonna go now? How are we gonna address this? Why don't we go right? And but when you find'em, yeah, it's like Whew Yeah. Thank goodness I had the confidence to try this, to try that, to finally land on'em. Yeah, oh no. No, I can't imagine.

I think that's part of it, man. But it it it makes all the difference in the world when you spend that time out there just learning, paying attention to the details, paying attention to the shad, the bay fish around, whatever forage is is in the lake at that time, uh, paying attention to your water clarity, wind direction, all these different little details

And the even the fish's response to your bait, the more you do that, the more confidence you get. And you know, you what to try, when to try it, and uh and also

Brad, we didn't mention this one but w we were talking about mistakes kinda around the spawn, but this is just a general mistake that I I want to drop a a little piece on. Listen. Uh one of the biggest mistakes, especially with forward facing sonar, one of the biggest mistakes that I see people make is staying with the same fish for way too long. Overfish in a spot.

Just staying there way too long. I'm guilty of it, especially when I first got four faces sonar. I would sit there on the same fish for hours upon hours upon hours. Listen, one of the best take this phrase And I'm I'm gonna coin this one, but you guys can use it any time you want. All right, all right. Listen I need a comment. Listen, here here's the phrase. I'll give I'll give Kirby a minute to get back with his Here's the phrase. Bye. Move fast, fish slow. Mão festa, fechado. I can't. Right.

That's an easy one right there, Ed. And you know, obviously nothing's gonna replace time spent on the water. Nothing. And and I know you both are gonna high five me on this because there is nothing more exciting than finding a new place on the lake. Yes. That you can present to your guests. Yeah. So that's the best feeling on the planet.

I gotta ace in the holes. You know? A and and and that's just uh happens because of our passion. Yeah. You know, we could take'em to our favorite community holes or, you know, our secret little you know, moss backs that we've put out or whatever. But when you find something new and it it it you know, it connects all the I's and dots all the Ts or whatever, ri invert that. You can do that in the editing hunter.

Uh but it it's just like, Oh yeah. Yeah. It's a it and you don't even have to fish'em'cause you can look and be like, Oh Look at there. Yeah. And mark that on there. Yeah. I'll be back with some friends. Yeah. Yeah. Well uh definitely uh mistake if you don't join us on Tuesday night on today's bite as well. Uh every every Tuesday night, seven o'clock Central Standard Time, YouTube and Facebook, make sure sure you join in on us.

I would like a comment from everybody watching, listening, what have you. Comment your biggest fishing mistake that you make yourself. Yes. And if you call that. Action. That we'd love to hear a fishing mistake that you make while you're fishing so everybody else doesn't make that same mistake. Very good. Very good. But other than that, make sure you hit that like, follow button, subscribe. Let's hear from these guys. Appreciate you guys. Come on.

See, I knew already that you were gonna Come hang out. Chapel here. Eric Watts. Crappie Kirby. How rest my