Mr. Crappie

You’d have to search far and wide to find someone who knows more about catching crappie than Bobby Phillips. Here are his tips for being successful this month.

For most of the past decade, I’ve talked with 65-year-old Bobby Phillips on a weekly basis, picking his brain for a fishing report I put together for newspapers, magazines and radio. I’ve met the affable Phillips on several occasions, but one thing had been gnawing at me: I’d never shared a boat with him to watch him perform his crappie-catching magic firsthand.That ended one breezy morning last March when I met Phillips, one of the state’s best-known crappie anglers and former owner of West Monroe’s Honey Hole Tackle Shop, at the public landing on Stowe Creek on Lake D’Arbonne.

“Oh, we’ll catch a few fish, but the wind is going to dictate where we can fish,” Phillips remarked as we climbed aboard his boat to give the springtime spawning crappie a try.

Fishing scattered cypress trees in sheltered coves allowed us to dangle jigs in the faces of more than a dozen takers over the span of three hours that we fished.

While we fished, Phillips who is always glad to share what he’s learned, talked about various aspects of the art of catching spawning crappie.

“The key to the spring spawn,” he said, “is water temperature. It has to be 58 to 60 degrees before the spawning urge is triggered to the point the males will prepare beds and the females are ready to throw their eggs.

“You can have warm temperatures approaching 80 during the afternoons, but if the nights are still in the low 50s, they’re not ready. It’s the warmer nights that set the whole thing off.

“There are a few misconceptions about catching crappie in spring. For starters, the fish you catch on the spawning grounds are much more likely to be males. The big black males come in, prepare the bed usually around the shallow roots of a cypress tree and when he’s ready, he’ll go out to where the females are holding in 6- to 10-foot water, coax a female to come in where she’ll throw part of her eggs and return to deeper water. She may not be on the bed but 10 minutes, so it stands to reason that most of the ones you catch during the spawn will be males.

“After the female returns to deeper water, she may be coaxed into the nest of several more males before she’s finished depositing all her eggs. It’s Mother Nature’s way of preserving the spawn because even though you’re catching male fish, they don’t all spawn at the same time. At least some of the nests will have eggs deposited by the female and fertilized by the male.”

When it comes to fishing equipment, Phillips is a stickler for having everything just right. He fishes with a rod of his own design, one he custom builds for himself as well as customers. He starts with 10- and 11-foot blanks, removes the handles that come with them and adds flyrod handles and seats. When the rod is complete, he adds his name. Anyone owning a crappie fishing jig pole with the name “Bobby Phillips” inscribed can be assured of a rod that is about the finest there is.

His reel of choice is a manual fly reel, which he partially fills with trotline staging, and topped by his chosen fishing line.

“I’ve tried several types of lines, but the one I use now is my favorite, Berkeley Vanish in 6-pound-test. It’s a fluorocarbon line that is super-sensitive, and is practically invisible in the water so as not to be detected by the most finicky fish,” he said.

Phillips’ favorite jig for spawning crappie is a 1/32-ounce Black Lake jig, built by Chester Fredericks.

“This little jig is a synthetic hair jig that pulsates in the water,” he said. “I especially like the 1/32-ounce when the fish are not aggressive.

“The males are generally not taking in the jig to eat it; they’re simply moving it out of the bed. You may feel a slight ‘tic’ on the line, or it may feel mushy. You have to set the hook quickly because he’s not going to jump on it like a dog on a biscuit; he’ll open his mouth, flare his gills and gently suck in the jig, and if it doesn’t feel right to him, he’ll spit it out almost in the same motion. You have to be quick or you’ll miss him.”

Jig color depends on what the fish want at a given time. We caught the first half-dozen crappie on blue/gray jigs, but when the bite slowed, Phillips switched to gray/chartreuse to trigger more bites. In addition to tight-lining the jigs around the bases of the cypresses, we also caught several by fishing the jigs 2 feet beneath corks.

“Sometimes, a crappie wants the jig to be perfectly still, but you can’t hold it completely motionless by tight-lining, whereas the cork will allow the jig to remain still,” he added.

“Jig fishing is an art you learn after doing it a lot. Both shiners and jigs will catch crappie, but you’ll catch more on the lure in which you have the most confidence. Until you begin catching crappie with jigs and gain confidence, it’s a learning process.

“It’s like a young baseball pitcher learning to hit the catcher’s mitt. Until you’ve done it enough to hit the mitt consistently, you won’t have the confidence you need to throw strikes. Once you get it down, it becomes easier.”

There are times when shiners seem to work better than jigs, and when this happens, jig anglers would be wise to switch to shiners.

“In summer when the fish are not aggressive, shiners will usually get more bites than jigs,” Phillips said. “I suppose the live shiner struggling on a hook will get the attention of a lethargic fish better than a fake.

“Another thing about fishing for crappie in spring is that every day is likely to be different. You may catch them at a certain depth and on a certain jig one day, and they won’t touch it the next. You need to stay versatile and be willing to make a change if the situation dictates it.

“For example, today the fish liked a blue/gray hair jig for the first hour or so. Then they stopped biting that, and an inexperienced fisherman might think that the bite is over for the day and it’s time to head home. However, we switched to another color and presented it under a cork, and you saw what happened.”

Indeed, the bite did change as the morning wore on, and for me, an inexperienced crappie angler, that was a good thing. I was probably getting bites tight-lining a jig and trying to immolate Phillips, but I didn’t land a single fish until he handed me a pole rigged with a gray/chartreuse jig tied 2 feet or so beneath a small cork. I may not have felt the subtle bite on a tight-lined jig but saw the cork bobble and slide under a few times.

“Fishing with jigs is all trial and error,” Phillips said. “You just have to be willing to change if the situation dictates it. I would imagine that most of the complaints of inexperienced crappie fishermen result from their unwillingness to change lures, colors and tactics.

“Jig color comes into play more often when water conditions warrant it. If the water is muddy and off-color, I’ll always fish something with chartreuse in it; they seem to be able to see that color better. If the water is clear, I’ll fish more subtle colors such as gray, white or light blue.”

Another thing this crappie-catching expert has learned is to rely on additives to his jigs. He has become a firm believer in adding a small fish attractant to his hook.

“The Crappie Nibbles made by Berkley have proven to attract bites when they won’t touch a jig with no additive,” Phillips said. “These little Nibbles slowly dissolve in the water, and if you look closely, it almost looks like a cloud of smoke or fog around the jig. These things smell very fishy, and as they slowly dissolve, the fish apparently get the signal that there’s something good to eat nearby.”

Phillips, always the innovator, has developed another trick he uses when he buys a jar of Crappie Nibbles and before he ever takes it to the lake.

“These Nibbles have a tendency to stick together, so I’ll spread out a sheet of newspaper, dump the entire contents of the jar out and separate each piece,” he said. “Then I’ll take a box of Zatarain mild fish fry mix, mix it with a little garlic powder and sprinkle over the Nibbles. This not only keeps the Nibbles from sticking together, but the addition of the spices and garlic seems to make them more attractive to fish.”

Phillips is semi-retired after selling his Honey Hole Tackle Shop to David and Janice Owens a few years ago.

“I couldn’t have picked better folks to take over my business; they’re wonderful people who are carrying on the tradition we’ve developed here over the years,” he said. “When I sold it, they asked me if I’d consider coming in and working when I wanted to, and I agreed. This gives me the opportunity to keep involved with the fishing business and to mingle with customers and swap fishing tales with them.”

I came away from a morning of fishing with the expert with enough tips and advice to make me a better crappie angler. The platter of golden fillets that ended up that night on my dinner table made the trip doubly
pleasurable.

To contact Bobby Phillips to talk crappie fishing or order one of his custom rods, visit the Honey Hole on N. 7th St. in West Monroe, or give him a call at 318- 323-8707. He’s usually at the store Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The rest of the week, he’s fishing.

About Glynn Harris 508 Articles
Glynn Harris is a long-time outdoor writer from Ruston. He writes weekly outdoor columns for several north Louisiana newspapers, has magazine credits in a number of state and national magazines and broadcasts four outdoor radio broadcasts each week. He has won more than 50 writing and broadcasting awards during his 47 year career.