Question: Kent, at the first of October when the weather begins to change, and the nights get cooler, where can we find crappie, and how can we catch them?

Driscoll: The good news is, at this time of year, the crappie go on a feeding spree, trying to build-up fat for winter and get their bodies in condition for the spawn. Whenever we get 3-5 nights of some really-cool weather, and the air temperatures are in the 45- to 55-degree range, the water temperature will begin to drop from the upper 70s into the low 70s or even mid 60s. That temperature change is usually what triggers the crappie to start feeding. When the crappie start feeding, they’re just like we are. They’ll begin to bulk-up, put on weight and grow.

Crappie don’t have a lot of options like we do in the types of food they eat. In most areas of the country, crappie are extremely dependent on shad. Therefore, they’re going to follow their dinner wherever it goes. In the fall, the shad start moving from deep water to shallow water, and the crappie will follow the groceries. So, instead of looking for crappie at this time of year, I rely heavily on my electronics to locate those big schools of shad. I realize that wherever the shad are, the crappie have to be nearby.

Question: Kent, what kinds of places are we looking for to find shad and crappie during the fall?

Driscoll: I usually start my search on secondary creeks and rivers. I’ll leave the main lake, follow the creeks, look for the secondary creeks and then start searching along ledges and drop-offs in these secondary creeks. I’ll typically pull in to an area and use my Humminbird 997, which is a side-scanning depth finder that I can split the screen on to get two-different views. I use one screen to read the bottom and the other screen for side imaging. With the side-imaging function of the depth finder, I can scan up to 150 feet on either side of my boat. I’m using these electronics to find those schools of shad. Around those schools of shad, I’m looking for the marks that indicate game fish. I’ll use my depth finder to determine how deep the water is, and where the structure is located in that region. Then I look for shad holding on that structure. Finding crappie is like working a jigsaw puzzle. If you can identify the shad, find the crappie relating to the shad and locate schools of crappie and shad relating to structure, then you know everything you need to about catching crappie, except for one all-important factor – are the crappie biting or not? Once I get that information, then I try to determine the best way to get those crappie to bite.

Question: Okay, Kent, how do you get those crappie to bite?

Driscoll: I like spider-rigging, also known as slow-trolling with multiple poles. I fish out of the front of the boat, and I’ll use 16-foot B’n’M’s Buck’s Graphite Poles. If there aren’t any pole restrictions in the state where I’m fishing, I’ll fish eight poles at one time. But if I’m fishing in north Mississippi, the law there is that you can only fish five poles per person. So, if I have a partner, we can fish a total of 10 poles. Make sure before you start slow-trolling or spider-rigging you not only know the state limit on poles that you can fish at one time, but in some states you may even have to know the number of poles you’re permitted to fish on individual lakes.

Question: Why do you like the 16-foot B’n’M poles?

Driscoll: I like to cover a lot of water really quickly. I’ve learned that with 16-foot poles, I can do just that.

Question: What’s on the ends of the poles?

Driscoll: I like to fish the Capps and Coleman Minnow Rigs from B’n’M. If I’m fishing in 10 feet of water or less, I’ll use a 1/2-ounce sinker on the Capps and Coleman. If I’m fishing down below 10 feet of water, I like a 3/4-ounce sinker. I enjoy fishing the Capps and Coleman rigs because they’re pre-tied and come six to a box. They’re very easy for me to change-out, if I break-off a rig or a hook. If I determine that the crappie are more than 10-feet down, and I’ve only been fishing at 10 feet, then I can quickly take that Capps and Coleman Minnow Rig with the 1/2-ounce sinker and change out to a Minnow Rig that has a 3/4-ounce sinker on it in less than 20 seconds.

Question: What are you baiting with, Kent? When you say you’re using Minnow Rigs, we assume you’re baiting with minnows.

Driscoll: You’re right, I do bait with minnows. However, if the water’s muddy or the crappie are holding in really-heavy cover, I’ll take a Southern Pro crappie tube and put it on my hook ahead of the minnow. For instance, if I’m fishing on Lake Arkabutla in north Mississippi, I’ll use a chartreuse-and-orange Southern Pro tube ahead of my minnow, or a chartreuse-and-red or a chartreuse-and-black tube. When I’m fishing Sardis or Enid lakes, which are a little clearer than Arkabutla, I may use a blue, a red, a white-and-red or a blue-and-white tube. Then I’ll put the minnow on the hook behind the tube. I won’t be using a tube jig. I’ll simply take the tube and put it on the same hook that I normally have the minnow on by itself.

Question: Doesn’t that rig make a really-big bait when you’ve got the tube and the minnow on the same hook?

Driscoll: Yes, it does. But you can adjust the size of your bait by the size of minnow you use. At this time of year, I’m really conscious about minnow size. I look for dead shad on the surface and regurgitated shad in the live well where I keep my crappie. Then I’ll know what size the shad are in the lake on which the crappie are feeding. If the crappie are feeding on really-big minnows, I’ll bait with big minnows. But if the crappie are feeding on small shad, I’ll bait with smaller minnows. When I go to the bait shop in the morning, I’ll usually buy at least 2 dozen of each size minnow that the bait shop offers. Then I can match my minnows to the size of shad that the crappie are feeding on during the day that I’m fishing on that lake. The shad usually spawn in the spring, and they’ve been growing all spring, summer and into the fall. So, often the shad in the fall will be a good-bit bigger than the shad you see in the spring.

Question: You’ve said earlier that if there’s no limit on poles, you’ll fish with 8, 16-foot B ‘n’ M Poles. How deep is each of those poles fishing?

Driscoll: Imagine I’m fishing a creek ledge, and that creek ledge is about 10- to 20-yards away from the bank. I want one of my poles in shallow water just on top of the creek edge. I’ll have the second pole fishing a little deeper, and my third pole will be fishing a little deeper than that. The poles fishing in the deepest water will be my two front poles. I’ll also use different-colored tube jigs on each of my Capps and Coleman Minnow Rigs at first, until I learn which color tube the crappie prefer on that day. I vary my presentation and my boat’s relationship to the creek channel, until I determine exactly how deep the crappie are, where they’re holding, and what color jig they want to eat.

Once I start catching crappie, I try to solve more of the puzzle of why the crappie are in that particular spot, what type of cover they’re holding on, where the baitfish are in relation to the crappie, whether the fish are holding on structure or are they suspended, what’s required to catch these fish, and which color and size of minnow do they want to eat on that day? If I can put all these pieces together, then I know I’m in for a good day of crappie fishing, and you will be too.