There are many different fishing types and techniques and fly fishing is among the most popular. If we look back at the history of fly fishing, it has changed a lot. The fishing fraternity is divided on which season is best for fly fishing. Many angler would go for winter and many others will say spring is the best fly fishing season. There are a lot of different fish that you can catch in spring with fly fishing. In this guide, you will learn how to catch crappie on a fly rod in spring. If you are a beginner, find these useful blogs:
- How to catch crappie by using a fly fishing rod
- How to catch crappie in winter season by using a fly fishing rod
These two articles will help you learn a lot. Let’s start learning how to catch crappie on a fly rod in spring season.
How to catch crappie on a fly rod in spring?
Springtime is usually known as crappie time because at that time, the crappie comes to shallow water and breeds.
Crappie is an open-water fish that likes to eat insects or worms in the early morning. Let’s find out some tips that allow you to catch crappie on a fly rod in spring season.
These tips to catch crappie with a fly rod in spring are:
- Find the crappie in early spring
- Equipment for crappie
- Crappies fly, lure, or bait
- Estimate the spawn time of crappie for successful catching
- Crappie casting technique
1. Find the crappie in early spring
The crappie becomes more active in spring. As the spring season progresses, the crappies come to the shallow water to warm themselves. The shallow water bays, lakes, ponds, and streams are the first places where crappies first arrive.
The species lives in weed beds, lily pad fields, submerged timber, and under fallen trees and shorelines. Finding crappie in spring is the most important step before catching them.
The best time to catch crappie is from the morning to the afternoon, when they come out of the shallows to feed.
We also prefer to catch crappie on a fly rod in spring season because they hit the surface and are eager to eat topwater flies.
2. Equipment for crappie
Interestingly, you do not need to worry about the special crappie equipment. The fly rods work best for fly fishing, and the soft action rods are used for this purpose.
The 6 to 9 feet length rods, light fishing line, 7 to 9-foot leader tapered, and the drag or spool system are perfect for casting crappie in spring.
3. Crappies fly, lure, or bait
The selection of flies that you can use to catch crappie is:
- Crappies only attract their favorite flies. When you cast the line in weedy areas, then the most common edibles for crappies are:
- Green-eyed damselfly nymph
- Dragonfly nymph
- Aquatic insects
- Small streamers
- Larger soft hackles
- Small or large minnows
- Dry flies, wet flies
- Wooly buggers
All these flies, lures, and baits are very effective in presenting to crappies. By aggressively pursuing and fighting for food, they will do a good job of triggering the crappie.
4. Estimate the spawn time of crappie for perfect catching
The most important tip is to estimate the crappie spawn time. Because, in spring, the crappies go deep inside the water after spawning.
If you locate crappies in the water, use sinkers, weights, and slow retrieves to catch them. If the crappie appears in shallow water, try presenting the fly or food.
The crappie will try to bite or eat the food or the fly you are using. This will indicate you to carefully retrieve the line and pull the crappie from the water.
Try to remove the hook carefully since barbless hooks harm the fish and sometimes tear the mouth. So after spawn time, it becomes a bit easy to catch crappie on a fly rod in spring season.
5. Crappie casting technique
We use the fly technique for crappies in spring. Spring is an excellent time to cast crappie from the weed beds and shorelines. They are notorious for inhaling the flies and going deep into the water.
So you have to carefully and attentively cast the flies to crappie. You should pay attention to the line when it sinks or reaches the bottom. After sensing the suspicious movement of the sinkers, confirm the strike or bite of fish by slowly pulling the line.
The crappies could come from nowhere and grab the food. After the bite is confirmed, you quickly retrieve the line.
This technique is very effective in catching crappie from different structures of water bodies. You must maintain the rod’s accuracy and keep your attention on the surface for any signal.
Then you will succeed in catching it without any other difficulty or obstacle.
Final words
Spring season is perfect for lots of different things and fishing is one of them. In this guide we have tried to provide some useful information that can help you catch crappie in spring season using a fishing rod. You can also contribute with your experience in this guide. If there is anything that makes crappie fishing in spring easy and successful, leave us a comment below. We hope this guide will make you learn how to catch crappie on a fly rod in spring season. Cheers!