Hosea names two hotspots to try this month
Poverty Point Reservoir in Delhi is famous for whopper crappie — and lots of them. Local angler Twayne Hosea is famous for catching both, but that’s mostly in the spring. However, that isn’t the only time Poverty’s crappie fishing gets rich.
“It starts in September,” he said. “The fish will suspend over brush and other structure in deeper parts of the lake. When it starts cooling off, they’ll start chasing shad and you’d be amazed at how many good fish get caught.”
Hosea and his brother Dwayne have six 3-pound plus crappie from the lake to their credit. Don’t expect to catch those monsters this time of year, but you can catch some good, fat crappie.
“Most of them are probably a pound to a pound and three quarters, but there are some bigger ones out there,” he added.
Hosea said the old oxbow areas on the east side where Bayou Macon cutoffs were left in the lake is a prime spot to go. The water is 20-30 feet deep and fish suspend 10 to 16 feet deep. Some are deeper, depending on conditions. You just have to experiment and find the right depth. You can look for wads of shad or fish on the depth finder, but the easiest way to find the good areas on most days is “sight” fishing. By that he means, “just look where all the other boats are gathering.”
To find fish, find the deep water and structure. Use your depth finder or just watch others. The second thing is just keep working at different depths until you find the crappie. He usually starts about 10 feet deep and if he has no luck, goes to 14, then 16 or 18.
“If it is bright and sunny and has been, we might even go near the bottom and work our way back up,” he said. “Once you find a few, that’s usually where you’ll find them all.”
The second hotspot for September crappie is around the huge boat slips at the North Marina. You can fish around the slips from your boat, but hundreds of people actually fish from the boats in the slips. That water is also 20-30 feet deep.
“You have to be one of the slip renters or be on the renter’s list of approved fishermen to fish in their boat slip,” he said. “They pay a lot of money to rent the slips. You can’t fish off the walkways, but you can fish from the boats, just vertical jigging up and down.”
Hosea recommends jigs with soft plastic trailers. He fishes with two poles with double jig rigs on each. His favorite colors are Blue Thunder and Bluegrass. He fishes with ¼-ounce heads and 10-12 pound test line, mainly because fishing tops you tend to get hung often.
“And, because these are some pretty strong, healthy fish,” he said.
A multi-lane boat ramp and large parking lot is available to anglers visiting the lake at the State Park’s North Marina complex. More information on the lake and state park is available online at www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-parks/parks/poverty-point-reservoir-state-park/.
