NEW YORK — New York is home to both black crappie and white crappie, although black crappie are the predominant species throughout the state. Shortly after ice out crappie congregate in schools in shallower, warmer water near structure, usually woody and vegetation to feed and prepare for spawning.
This provides good opportunities to catch them from shore during the Spring months.
If you’re looking to add something new to your fishing routine, give crappie fishing a try.
Crappie are a fun and exciting fish to fish. Anglers have given it so many other nicknames: calico bass, strawberry bass, speck, paper mouth and slab. Whatever name you decide to use though, crappie are a very popular New York sportfish. Both black and white crappie can be found in the state with black crappie being more common.
Crappie are popular for a number of reasons: their wide spread, fun to catch, can be caught both during the open water and hard water seasons, and are also very good table-fare. At times they can be fairly easy to catch, but at others they can be very frustrating. The current state record black crappie is a whopping four pounds one ounce; while the white crappie record is four pounds seven ounces.
Crappie must be 10 inches to keep and there is a 25 fish daily limit.
For an effective rig that provides fun action use an ultralight spinning rod with a small crappie tube jig tipped with a piece of nightcrawler. Small minnows fished under a bobber, spinners and poppers are other great options.
When looking at a crappie the first thing you may notice is that they have an upturned mouth and fairly large eyes. These are both things to keep in mind when you’re fishing for them. Because of their upturned mouth they typically feed-up, so it pays to present your bait or lure above the fish.
When using a thin pencil style bobber, it’s not uncommon, when a crappie bites, for the bobber to float up and lay on its side instead of going under like normal. Their large eyes allow them to feed under low light conditions and after dark; some good crappie fishing can take place after dark. Crappie, at times, also seem to be more color selective then other fish and it can pay to switch colors if your not getting bites.
When choosing baits or lures for crappie, you generally want to keep them on the small size, in the 1 ½ -3 inch range. Good natural baits are small minnows, wax worms, night crawlers, mousies or spikes. Artificial lures also work well and many companies make small crankbaits and spinnerbaits just for crappies.
Small jigs are the most used lure for crappie as they work well and come in a staggering variety of colors and styles. Jig heads in the 1/32 to 1/8 ounce will work in most situations. As mentioned above crappie are one of those fish that lure color seems too often make a difference. Carry a variety of colors from bright pink, yellow, chartreuse, white to more subtle colors like black or the many shades of watermelon.
Fly anglers can also have fun by fishing nymphs, poppers or streamers for crappie. Bobbers or floats are very useful when fishing crappie, and regardless of your age there is nothing quite as exciting as seeing a bobber go under. There are many types of bobbers to choose from, smaller is generally better though and you want one just big enough to stay afloat with whatever weight your using.
As most of the baits that you will use are small, spinning or spin-casting reels are a good choice. Match them with a light or ultra light action rod from 4 ½ – 8 or more feet in length. Longer rods are more forgiving and you’re less likely to tear the hooks out of the fish, their called paper mouths for a reason.
In New York State you can use three rods while fishing, which will let you try a variety of baits at one time. Many anglers also like to use two hooks or jigs on the same line when targeting crappie. Monofilament line will do for most applications, with 4-8 pound test being good choices. When fishing with bait, gold Aberdeen hooks, in sizes 4-8, are a good choice.
