Taking Advantage of Late Winter Warm Spells with Brad Whitehead

March 02, 2026

Taking Advantage of Late Winter Warm Spells with Brad Whitehead

Phillip Gentry

 

Officially, Winter lasts from December 21 until March 20. Along the way, Mother Nature has a tendency to loosen her grip on the cold weather and provide a string of warm days that often result in a boom for crappie anglers. B’n’M pro-staffer and veteran fishing guide Brad Whitehead from Muscle Shoals, Alabama said late winter warm spells offer a great opportunity to load up on slabs, a taste of spring several weeks in advance.

One of the challenges he faces when fishing late winter warm spells is trying to target crappie at different depth levels as some fish will immediately head upward in the water column while others remain in deeper water.

“It may sound chaotic, but what I do is start the day essentially power trolling with down rods in the front of the boat and long ling from the rear of the boat,” he said. “This allows me to target fish from right off the bottom to as shallow as 6 feet.”

Whitehead’s strategy involves using a number of rods to target multiple depth levels for crappie.

He starts by deploying 6 poles in rod holders out the front of his War Eagle boat. His choice is B’n’M’s Buck’s Graphite Jig poles in 14-foot lengths. He rigs these with 10-pound Vicious clear monofilament line and 1 ounce egg weights and 1/8- or 1/16-ounce jigs. The heavy egg sinker allows him to troll at the .8 – 1 mph that’s customary to long lining without sacrificing the depth of presentation for bottom hugging fish.

Around the transom, he’s deploying 8 B’n’M Pro-Staff trolling rods lined with 6 pound Vicious hi-vis line and either single or double 1/16-ounce jigs with no additional weight. Just for good measure, he adds 2 more PSTs, one on each gunnel to complete his long lining set up. Whitehead said in this fashion, he can pretty well target every crappie he finds in a four-football field length run along a creek tributary. From here, he makes adjustments to hone in on the fish.

“I’m not a huge Live Scope user but I do scan back and forth with it to try to figure out what level the fish are holding at, then I can make adjustments with the baits in both the front and the back of the boat,” said Whitehead.

Artificial baits are Whitehead’s go to for all but the hottest months of the year.

One of the inherent problems with late winter warm spells is that they can get windy, especially as the day wears on. Whitehead said the best wind strategy is to target sloughs or coves that are out of the blow, or at least find areas that block the wind enough that he can still maintain control of the boat.

“On calm days, crappie will come straight up and actually sun in 4 or 5 feet of water over 20 feet of water, but when the wind blows, they’ll head to shallow water because that’s the warmest they can find,” he said.

Trying to turn around in a narrow slough out of the wind is usually more trouble than it’s worth, so Whitehead will motor his boat into the back of a creek, turn around, and troll from shallow to deep in a relatively straight line.

When the wind blows, he looks for areas out of the wind that allow him to maintain control of his boat.

“If we can catch 10 fish in a 400-yard stretch, then why not start in the back and troll out. If we get 10 or close to 10 or feel like it’s a good area, then I roll the lines up, motor back to the start and run it again,” he said. “In 5 runs, we can have 50 fish in the boat. If not, we go to another creek and try it again.”

He also said that if the creek or flat is relatively shallow, he may roll up the down rods altogether and choose to long line an expanse of shallow water.

“At the end of the day, the key is to develop a pattern, fish go where the bait is, so pattern the bait. Find that warmer water and then put your bait in front of the fish,” he said. “The fish I like to target are like having a bee in the front seat of the car with you. You can’t help but swat at it when it comes near, so I put enough baits in their face that I catch all the swatters.”

********************

To arrange a guided fishing trip with North Alabama fishing guide Brad Whitehead, call him at (256) 483-0834.

******************

Wherever fishing takes you, B’n’M has been there. Visit our website at bnmpoles.com to view our catalog of new products for 2026.

 

---

Also in Weekly Tips and Techniques