Warm-Water Spoon Fishing: Foolproof Technique & Tackle Tips
Story and Photos By Margie Anderson

Do you have a tendency to give up on crappie fishing once water temperatures climb past 70 degrees? A lot of anglers do. Once the spawn is over and the fish have moved off the banks, plenty of people figure that crappie season is over, and they switch to fishing for bass or catfish.

Summer crappie fishing may not be quite as easy as fishing the spawn, but it can be just as rewarding. In warmer water, fish need to eat more, so a lure with more action and flash can be just the ticket. In other words, try a spoon.

Location
LeRoy Price, an Arizona bass and crappie guide, says that crappie aren't any harder to find in summer than bass are.

"In fact, they can be easier to find, because they school up and they're easier to spot on the graph than fish like bass that hang out alone," asserts Price.

Price spends most days on the water, so he has an advantage over fishermen who can only get out on the weekends. However, he claims that anyone who knows where the crappie spawn will be able to find them come summer.

"Just start in the spawning coves and work your way out down the channels," he advises.

Once they're done spawning, the fish start moving out toward deeper water. How deep they go depends a lot on the lake itself. In the canyon reservoirs out west, which may be hundreds of feet deep, the majority of the fish will be found in the thermocline. The upper levels of the water are too hot to hold much oxygen, and the lower levels are fairly barren, too. The middle section is where fish find the most comfortable conditions and the most food, so that's where they stay.

A good depthfinder can help you determine where the thermocline is. Right after you launch your boat, get out into deep water. Turn the sensitivity up on your graph and watch for a layered effect to show up. The thermocline is where the zooplankton and baitfish hang out, and this will actually show up as a shadowy layer on the graph. Many Western bass pros use this technique to determine how deep to look for fish.

In spring, you know to look for brush to find crappie, and they don't change their preferences just because it's warmer. Arm yourself with a good lake map and go in search of channels and other structure that intersect the magic depth, especially if you see trees or brush.

Price believes a spoon is one of the best ways to catch summer crappie because you can fish it so many ways.

"Whether the fish are in a tree or in the weeds or even out in the open cruising around, you can get a spoon to them and work it pretty fast," he says. "A spoon lets you cover a lot of water really quick, and you can get it down deep in a hurry."

Price follows the channels out of the spawning coves and keeps an eye on his graph as he zigzags back and forth. With no eyelids, fish seek shade in summer, especially in really clear water, so Price pays special attention to any brush or submerged trees he finds. Crappie love channels because even a slight current delivers food right to them.

Sheer vertical structure is dynamite for summer crappie as well. Places like bridge pilings and bluffs provide shade and make it easy for the fish to move up and down quickly so they can stay in the comfort zone.

Weeds grow so abundantly in summer that it can be daunting to even think about fishing them. Faced with acres of weeds, how do you know where to fish? Price suggests looking for where the bottom drops down and the weeds end. Crappie in the deeper waters below will be on the lookout for any minnows that swim out of the weeds, so fishing a spoon along these edges is often very productive.

Don't be afraid to use a larger spoon, especially if the baitfish in your lake run big. You'd use a 3-inch grub for them, so there's no reason why you shouldn't use a decent-sized spoon. Fish don't notice the size as much as they do the flash, so go for it.

What To Use
The kind of spoon that will become your favorite probably depends on the type of cover you fish. If there are a lot of trees, a slab-type spoon will drop through the branches more easily than a spoon that has a lot of wobbling action. The Hopkins Hammered Spoon is the most famous example of this type of spoon. For very clear water or spooky fish, try a Crippled Herring. They look just like a baitfish and come in a variety of baitfish patterns.

When you find a good tree in a channel at the right depth, fish it thoroughly even if you don't see fish on it. It can be difficult to distinguish fish from the branches, so take a few minutes to probe the tree thoroughly. You want to fish it from every direction because you never know where the fish will be holding.

When you drop a spoon down, don't just let it free-fall or you'll miss most of the bites. If you're dropping it through trees, a baitcasting reel will work better than spinning gear. With a baitcaster, you can keep a thumb on the spool so you can control the fall, and if the spoon hits a branch or gets hung up, you can jiggle it free and let it continue.

On vertical structure like a bridge piling, you can use just about any spoon you want. The cupped spoons have a little more action than the slab-type spoons, and they are great for these open-water areas. Pilings and bluffs are not usually places where you'll find depths of 100 feet or more, so when you fish these spots, you can drop the lure right to the bottom, then crank it up a couple of reel turns before you start to jig the spoon.

Again, don't just let the spoon free-fall. Keep the line taut and follow the spoon as it falls. If the spoon stops before it should and the line goes slack, set the hook.

Spoons that have a great action on the fall include Kastmasters, Dardevles and the Mepps Little Wolf. Choose them not only for their action, but also for their color. You can get an almost infinite variety of color combinations, so whether you choose a natural finish for really clear water or fire tiger for stained water, you can find the perfect spoon.

If you find fish scattered along a break or channel in open water, trolling for them might be the easiest way to catch them. Sometimes they are more concentrated, so you might opt for casting instead. Either way, you can use a spoon to your advantage.

The great thing about spoons is that depth is so easy to vary when you're fishing one. A 1/2-ounce spoon isn't too big for crappie, and you can fish it just about anywhere in the water column.

One of the most popular retrieves when casting a spoon is pumping it back. Cast the spoon out, count it down to where you're seeing fish, then fish it back by cranking while pumping the rod up and down. This makes the spoon swim up and down in a wavy path, letting it cover a variety of depths on its way back to the boat.

Price suggests starting out shallow and working deeper as you continue. Sometimes catching fish out of the school spooks the rest of them, but if you can pull them off the top, the rest might not notice right away.

Oklahoma crappie guide Todd Huckabee insists there are some fish shallow all the time. This is especially true if the whole lake is shallow.

In summer, shallow water usually means weeds, and you may think that you can't fish a spoon in the weeds, but think again. The venerable Johnson Silver Minnow will work its way through weeds with very few snags, as will other weedless spoons.

Spoons can really attract attention in weeds with all the flash and flutter they provide, so don't write them off just because you have to contend with a little vegetation.

Tackle Tips
Some anglers tip their spoons with a bit of cut bait, but that really isn't necessary. A spoon attracts fish with its action and flash. Most of the time the fish just react to it and bite without thinking. It doesn't need to taste good, since once they notice any lack of flavor, it's too late.

If you absolutely must have a little something extra on your spoon, give a Mepps Little Wolf a try. The orange tube on the hook may be just what you need for added confidence. You can also try using a feathered treble hook, but always test the lure out to make sure the change hasn't affected the action.

Most spoon aficionados use a swivel, particularly with spinning gear. Spoons can give you some serious line twist, sometimes even with a swivel. Line twist and snagging are just about the only drawbacks to fishing spoons, and you can have that with any lure. To make up for those minor annoyances, spoons provide tons of flash and action, and you don't even have to keep them alive.

If you're thinking of giving up on crappie until next spring, invest in a selection of spoons instead. You may have to act more like a hunter than a fisherman at first, but once you locate the summer crappie haunts in your lake, you'll be amazed at how many fish you can catch on spoons.