Question: Kent, where will the crappie be in October?

Driscoll: In much of the South, where I primarily fish, the crappie will be in shallow water after moving out of their deep-water haunts. Since the water and the weather have cooled-down, the crappie will be feeding more actively than they have in the summer when the weather’s hot. I expect to find crappie in the bays, depending on water clarity and the lakes I’m fishing. I generally fish in stained-water lakes, so from the middle to the end of October, I expect to catch crappie in 4 to 6 feet of water. By the end of October, in the lakes I fish, the crappie probably will have made their migrations into shallow water and be feeding heavily on shad in preparation for more-cold weather. If you’re fishing more-clear lakes like Sardis, Enid and Ross Barnett in Mississippi, the crappie will be a little-bit deeper, possibly in 6- to 12-foot-deep water. When the water temperatures are in the low to the mid 60s, the crappie become very active to bulk-up for the winter.

Question: How will you catch these crappie?

Driscoll: I’ll use two techniques of spider-rigging. Oftentimes I’ll tie two, 1/4-ounce Roger Gant hair jigs 24-inches apart on a loop off the main line. This way, I’ve got a 1/2-ounce of lead holding my line down. The other rig I like at this time of year is much like the first, but instead of using hair jigs, I’ll fish with 1/4-ounce Blakemore Road Runner jigs with silver blades. So, again, I’ll have a 1/2-ounce of lead getting my line down to the crappie. I usually will put a tube body or a twister tail on the jigs and then tip the hooks of both these jig rigs with live minnows. I prefer a medium-size minnow, so that when you combine the size of the jig with the size of the minnow, your overall bait is 3-1/2- to 4-inches long. I don’t use the really-large minnows at this time of year, because they make the bait too long. I want to use a big bait but not too big a bait.

I’ll be using 16-foot B’n’M Buck’s Graphite poles to fast-troll out the front of the boat in shallow water. Those 16-foot B‘n’M poles allow me to reach out 16 feet into the more-shallow water, and they’re really limber, which means I can push them with my boat really fast in that shallow water. Now, if you’re fishing in the late winter, generally the slower you troll, the more crappie you’ll catch, because the water temperature will cool down and the crappie will become more lethargic. However, at this time of year, since we know the crappie are actively feeding and chasing bait to try to fatten-up for the winter, I can push my baits faster than when I’m trolling. When crappie take the bait, they actually will bury the pole three to four eyes (guides) deep in the water because of the voracity and the aggressiveness of their strikes. At this time of year, you’ll catch big, hawg-sized crappie.

Question: You’ve mentioned that the crappie move shallow at this time of year. Shallow is a very-nebulous term. With a 100-foot bottom, 20 feet will be considered shallow. If you’re fishing over a 6-foot bottom, 1 to 2 feet may be considered shallow. So, what depth are you generally talking about when you say that crappie will move shallow from the middle to the end of October and possibly until the end of November?

Driscoll: In stained water, I consider 3 to 6 feet shallow, and in more-clear water, 6 to 10 feet is shallow, compared to the deep water where the crappie were holding when the water was hot.

Question: Okay, now that we’ve defined what shallow is, what types of regions will you be trolling?

Driscoll: I prefer to troll the backs of bays, looking for 1- or 2-foot drops just off the shoreline. For instance, if I’m fishing a stained-water lake and find a drop-off from 3 to 6 feet, that’s where I want to be trolling. In clear water, if the bottom coming from the bank is 6-feet deep and then drops off to 8 to 12 feet, that’s where I want to troll. Now another factor that increases your odds even more is if there’s some type of structure along the edge of the drop-off, such as stumps, stake beds, brush pilings or even weeds. Many times the weeds that may have grown-up in the spring and then have been flooded in the fall actually will be matted-up and lying down on the bottom. I want to run my jigs and minnows right over the tops of those structures. By moving fast, I can cover a lot of water and find and catch more crappie. More than likely, I won’t be very-far off an old creek channel, because generally, creek channels are the most-dependable drop-offs you can locate. Drop-offs are marked on almost every lake map, and they easily can be seen on any depth finder. However, many times you may be able to pinpoint a drop-off between the creek channel and the bank. Those are usually the most-productive drop-offs, since they’re not easy to locate. Too, often they’re not marked on lake maps.

Question: Now that you’ve told us how to find them and what baits to fish to catch them, what size crappie can we expect to catch during October and early November?

Driscoll: On most of the lakes I fish, I’ll be catching crappie that will measure 12 to 15 inches and weigh 1- to 1-1/2-pounds or more each. On the four big Mississippi crappie lakes I fish regularly – Arkabutla, Enid, Sardis and Grenada – I’ll have days where I catch a good number of crappie that will weigh 1-3/4- to 2-1/4-pounds each at this time.

Question: Everyone knows where to find TTI-Blakemore Road Runner jigs. How can people obtain Roger Gant hair jigs?

Driscoll: If Road Runner jigs aren’t readily available in the bait and tackle stores where you shop, visit www.ttiblakemore.com. To learn more about Roger Gant hair jigs and purchase them, call the Pickwick Store at 731-689-5666.