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June 12, 2007

This angler knows how to catch crappie at night

Bobby Peoples

A few years ago, I went to a gospel singing and the man singing the real-real-real low bass part in the group that night was a fellow named Jesse Wall. Now Jesse has some real connections to the gospel music industry. J. D. Sumner, who performed with Elvis, appeared on the Gaither videos and was part of many Southern Gospel groups over the years was a good friend to Jesse.

J. D. Sumner spent time at Jesse’s home on Lake Sinclair, and Jesse took him fishing on several occasions. Sumner passed away several years ago and Jesse now enjoys talking about his memories (singing and fishing) of Sumner. I was intrigued listening to Jesse talk about his fishing trips with Sumner, and later he told me a few more details about his fishing techniques for catching crappie at night on Lake Sinclair.

Anytime I see Jesse now, he tells me about his latest fishing trip and he has sent me several photos of his catches. The latest photo was Jessie with a seven pound largemouth bass! That was an unusual catch for an angler who only pursues crappie. It just happened that the bass bit one of Jesse’s crappie minnows while he was crappie fishing.

Now Jessie can be a little tight lipped about his crappie fishing, especially where he fishes, but he agreed to share his techniques for an article. Jesse has been fishing the same nighttime fishing spot for over twenty-five years. That particular spot has been so good at producing crappie that Jesse sees no reason to change spots. Now he admits to trying other spots but he keeps coming back to that same honey hole time and time again.

Jesse isn’t about to mark his favorite spot on your map, but he will give you a few subtle hints as to the kind of place he fishes. The spot is deep (how about fifty-feet deep) and it sits over a river channel. He can be found on that spot several nights a week and he only fishes from around 8:15 until 11:30 p.m.

Jesse says he has found that if the fish don’t bite (and some nights they don’t) at his favorite spot then they aren’t going to bite any other place so he doesn’t bother moving to a different place. His technique doesn’t involve some revolutionary way to catch crappie. In fact it is down right simple and I am sure it would work in any number of locations on either Lake Sinclair or Lake Oconee.

Jesse motors out to his favorite spot, anchors the back of the boat and allows the front-end where he positions himself to move freely. He uses a single fluorescent light which he positions above the water at the front of the boat. He uses four to six pound test line on his reels and uses only live crappie minnows as bait.

Jesse says the crappie are almost always located about 8-10 feet deep and he often catches his limit of 30 crappie but probably averages around 25 crappie for each night of fishing. Jesse stays at home when the wind is blowing and he likes to fish all year but his favorite period to fish is from early June up until November.

Jesse says some nights the hybrids and striped bass are a problem but he just gently takes them off his crappie hook and releases them. The same can be said for any largemouth bass he catches, like the seven pounder he recently caught. Jesse is only interested in catching crappie.

Jesse catches the crappie to eat, and he has developed a unique recipe for cooking the crappie. He salts the crappie and then dips them in instant cream potato flakes that he has prepared in the microwave oven. I will have a hard time doing away with my favorite crappie fish batter but the next time I’m at the store, I plan to buy some instant cream potato flakes and give it a try.

You might want to try the techniques employed by this crappie angler who I might also mention sings a pretty good bass part. I know J. D. would be proud.

Good fishing and see you next week.

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