Question: Billy, where are you finding and how are you catching crappie in August and early September?

Blakely: Right now our crappie at Reelfoot are holding in 8 feet of water over a 12-foot bottom. The fish are suspended, and I think they’re holding on the thermocline.

Question: How are you catching them?

Blakely: We’re putting out 12, 14-foot B ‘n’ M trolling poles and slow-trolling over the stump beds. We’re also using the B ‘n’ M Capps & Coleman Minnow Rigs.

Question: How are you rigging?

Blakely: We’re using 8-pound-test Vicious line and a 1/4-ounce lead on the B ‘n’ M Capps & Coleman Minnow Rigs.

Question: Why are you using B ‘n’ M Capps & Coleman Minnow Rigs?

Blakely: Reelfoot Lake was created because of an earthquake. The earthquake created a big gap in the ground, and all of the trees growing where that gap appeared fell into the lake. For this reason, Reelfoot is a really-stumpy lake and is loaded with underwater trees. If you try to spider-rig or slow-troll in Reelfoot, you will get hung-up. You may spend  as much time trying to get your hooks out of underwater trees as you do trying to get your hooks out of crappie. However, we’ve learned with the new B ‘n’ M Capps & Coleman Minnow Rigs that when one of our hooks catches on one of those underwater trees, all we have to do is take the pole out of the rod holder, back the pole up a few feet and shake the pole, and the weight that’s above the last hook on the crappie rig will cause that crappie rig to come out of the wood. This is an extremely-efficient way to get your hooks and your crappie rigs back without having to break-off lines. By using this technique, we can continue to troll and catch more crappie. If you’re going to troll (spider-rig) for crappie with minnows, and you’re trolling over stumpy terrain, you’ll really appreciate the B ‘n’ M Capps & Coleman Minnow Rigs, if you’ve never used them previously.

Question: What size minnows are you fishing now?

Blakely: I prefer the small minnows that are about 2-1/2-inches long. The shad that the crappie are feeding on now are about 2-inches long, so I want to give the crappie a minnow that’s about the size of what they’ve been eating.

Question: What size crappie are you catching?

Blakely: Our crappie are weighing from 1/2- to 1-1/4-pounds here at the end of August. We can usually keep 40-75 in a morning of fishing in that range, and we generally throw back another 30 to 50 that are too small.

Question: How will you fish for crappie at Reelfoot once the weather starts cooling off?

Blakely: We’ll fish with single poles like the 7-foot, 6-inch B ‘n’ M Pole, and I’ll put a sliding bobber on it and fish with a jig. I’ll pitch that jig and cork around visible stumps because our crappie will begin moving into the shallow water as the weather gets cooler. We usually see that crappie movement about the last week of September or the first week of October here at Reelfoot.

Question: You also have a Cast and Blast program during September, don’t you?

Blakely: Yes, we have a 5-day wood duck and teal season that comes in during September, usually the second Saturday in September. We have a lot of sportsmen who will hunt teal in the morning until about 10 am, come in, eat some breakfast and then go out and crappie fish the rest of the day. Most of our people who hunt the Cast and Blast can get a limit of teal and wood ducks and a limit of crappie all in the same day.

To learn more about crappie fishing on Reelfoot Lake or Blue Bank Resort’s Cast and Blast, which includes wood ducks and teal as well as crappie, contact Billy Blakely at 877-BLUE BANK (258-3226), or visit www.bluebankresort.com.