No June swoon
Though often overlooked, this month offers some of the year’s best crappie fishing on Kentucky Lake
With the spring spawning run for crappie finally over on Kentucky Lake, many casual anglers have hung up their rods, reels and bobbers for the year.
But die-hard crappie anglers like Steve McCadams know better.
McCadams has been one of the most popular guides on the lake for more than 30 years, and some of the best crappie fishing he’s ever done has taken place during this first true month of summer.
Ignoring the June crappie bite, he said, is a major mistake.
“June crappie fishing is overlooked and certainly underrated by most anglers,” McCadams said. “The stable lake levels and weather patterns combine to produce some excellent fishing conditions, and the crappie will stage for several weeks in the midrange depths before going deep for summer.”
Casual anglers prefer the spring crappie bite on most lakes around the country because the fish are usually easier to find during that period. Anyone who can float a live minnow around a visible piece of shoreline structure has a good chance of tying into a spawning crappie.
Kentucky Lake offers particularly good shallowwater crappie fishing because much of its shoreline is surrounded “buck bushes” that serve as a major draw for spawning crappie.
The fish get a little harder to find once they leave the banks, but McCadams said they’re well worth the extra effort.
“You have to know what you’re looking for on your electronics, because the structure you’ll be fishing during June isn’t going to be visible structure,” McCadams said. “But once you know what to look for, you’re likely to find some huge schools of fish — and they’re gonna be hungry.”
THE FISH ARE HUNGRY
The crappie that survive the spring spawn often emerge from the annual ritual in ragged shape. They’ve been working mostly on procreation the past few months, and they’re ready to gorge themselves to regain their physiques.
They often land on the first good structure they can find as they migrate away from the spawning areas.
“We’ve already had good numbers of crappie showing up in the creel of anglers working midrange depths of 11-14 feet,” McCadams said. “You’ll also catch a few fish on the deeper ledges at 17-19, but they won’t make their move out to the deepest ledges until the real hot weather arrives. That’s the time of year we refer to as the summer doldrums.”
Once the summer doldrums take hold, the most popular pursuits on the lake will be swimming and skiing. But for now, anglers have a chance to catch daily limits of crappie to keep their freezers full until the fish move back toward shallow water this fall.
“It certainly gets tougher during the hot summer months,” McCadams said. “Not only are the fish harder to find, but most people don’t enjoy being out there fishing in 100-degree heat. Right now is your last best chance to put some crappie in the freezer before the doldrums.”
Mark Tuttle, a Kentucky resident who fishes the Tennessee side of the lake regularly, said he discovered summertime crappie fishing on Kentucky Lake almost by accident.
“I was just out fishing — not crappie fishing or bass fishing, but fishing for anything I could find,” Tuttle said. “I started seeing big schools of crappie on my depth finder, and they were easy to catch. That was five or six years ago, and I’ve been taking advantage of it ever since.”
LOOK FOR MIDRANGE STRUCTURE
While spawning crappie can be caught just about anywhere along the shoreline during the spring, the fish usually prefer to find a good hiding place as they venture into deep water. If they don’t stay hidden, they’re likely to be eaten by larger predators like catfish and striped bass.
If you can locate a brush pile or a stake bed in that magic range of 11-14 feet, it’s likely to be holding crappie.
“The fish are really relating to structure now that the post-spawn phase is finally over, and they’re gonna have a big appetite,” McCadams said. “Those stake beds, brush piles, and submerged stump rows are holding a lot of fish, and the action should hold up for the next few weeks.”
Catching crappie at those depths is often as simple as dropping a bait straight down to them.
“Vertical fishing with jigs is about the best method this time of year,” McCadams said. “A lot of people tip their jigs with Berkley PowerBait or a live minnow to add scent, color and movement. A lot of your bigger fish this time of year are caught on jigs tipped with minnows.”
LOTS OF EATING-SIZE CRAPPIE
Crappie that weigh 2 pounds or more are harder to find this time of year because they’re not carrying eggs and because many of the biggest females have been plucked by springtime fishermen. But eating-size fish may actually be easier to catch now than they were a month ago.
McCadams said popular jig colors so far this month have been red/black, blue/ chartreuse, motor oil with glitter and cotton candy.
“Crappie fishermen who ignore the month of June are really missing out,” McCadams said. “It’s a different kind of fishing than what most people are used to doing in the spring. But it’s certainly worth the trip.”