Kyle Metzger shares his solid plan for catching crappie on the East Pearl River
It’s no secret that artificial shrimp lures are a hot commodity when it comes to saltwater fishing in Louisiana. Mojo, Marker 54, H&H, Vudu, Savage Gear and H2O all are popular brands of shrimp for anglers in search of speckled trout. But what about using artificial shrimp on freshwater species?
Fifty fish a trip
Kyle Metzger of Pearl River is an admitted artificial shrimp fanatic. But he hasn’t always been this way. During his career with the Coast Guard, he’s been stationed in Florida, New York, Puerto Rico and Kentucky, where he did a lot of bass fishing. Like most fishermen who are transplants to Louisiana, Metzger fished with more traditional lures when he was first stationed with the Coast Guard in New Orleans in 2022.
That’s when he began fishing the East Pearl River for bass.
“I used to use something called a Stogie, made by Wyze Guyz Tackle,” Metzger said. “It was 5 inches, and I would use it for everything: flipping, wacky, Texas rig and fluke style.”
Then Metzger started honing in on the marshy section of the East Pearl, where he noticed the bass constantly chasing after shrimp.
“That’s all I would see down there,” he said. “Bass exploding on shrimp that were skipping across the water. It was quite the scene.”
Metzger began catching bass and noticing shrimp antennas sticking out of the fish’s mouth. That’s when he made the change and discovered the power of artificial shrimp lures.
“I picked up a pack of Kickin’ Shrimp made by Wyze Guyz and started hammering the bass in the marsh,” he said. “I’m talking 40-50 fish a trip.”
Metzger slowly perfected his technique using shrimp lures and began winning tournaments on the East Pearl.
Crappie eat shrimp too
As he fished with the shrimp lures, he would also catch sac-a-lait.
“It wasn’t a lot,” he said. “Maybe one or two every trip.”
But it was enough to get Metzger thinking.
“If I can catch crappie with a 3-inch shrimp, imagine what I can do with a smaller shrimp,” he said.
Metzger walked into Gus’ Tackle & Nets and scanned the wall of baits in the crappie section. He walked out with something called an Iddy Biddy Shrimp made by the Crappie Psychic.
“I liked the way it looked,” he said. “It had large eyes like a shrimp, and the skirt was long and slender.”
After a few weeks passed, Metzger had the chance to try out the new bait down in the marsh of the East Pearl River. The lure passed the test, but more importantly, Metzger was turned on to a new species of fish.
“I’ve never been much of a crappie angler, but with each trip I was learning more and catching more,” he said.
Now, Metzger targets sac-a-lait on a regular basis and has been perfecting his technique in the marsh.
“It’s not your typical crappie fishing landscape down here,” he said. “But if they are there, I’ll try and catch them.”
Plenty of vegetation
I made a trip with Metzler, where I experienced his expertise firsthand. We launched at the Pearlington launch in Mississippi. As we were idling through the no-wake zone, Metzger looked around and said “What a beautiful day to catch crappie,” then laid the hammer down on his 2019 Phoenix 721 with Mercury 250 Pro XS 4 stroke engine. The ride took all of 10 minutes to reach our destination.
We started fishing a canal in an area that is referred to as “The Port.” It’s a set of canals on the Mississippi side of the Pearl.
“This is some of the cleanest water on the river,” Metzger said.
The reason for this is the immense vegetation growing underneath the water and on the surface. On the southern end of the Pearl, there are a whopping five main types of grass: eelgrass, salvinia, alligator grass, duckweed and hyacinth. The root systems from the vegetation do an incredible job filtering the water. I can attest to the clarity as I could see my jig drop down three feet on my first attempt.
As we pushed up the bayou, the current was falling hard, which made fishing in the same spot a bit difficult. However, Metzger said his normal method is to cover water until he catches one so this was not a problem.
Metzger uses Hummingbird 360 but also gauges the grass on the surface by sight.
“I just look at the surface grass and key on the sections of the bayou where the grass extends off the surface,” he said. “Then I look at 360 to spot some pieces of grass where they might be holding.”
A few at a time
As we made our way up the bayou, I placed my jig about 6 inches away from a mat of salvinia and felt a thump! My arm instantly yanked up, and I slung an 11-inch sac-a-lait into the boat. Metzger instinctively set the power poles down and we both began to jig the edge of the grass. We picked up four fish off that grass mat before the spot was empty and we were forced to move on.
“That’s the pattern out here,” he said. “They won’t be stacked up like they are upriver, where there’s lots of structure and wood. Down here, it’s a few fish at a time.”
As we continued up the bayou, Metzger missed a fish and dropped his Iddy Biddy Shrimp down again and connected.
“Put your jig right there,” Metzger said, pointing to a spot far from the grass mat.
I targeted the place where he was pointing, slowly lowered my jig, and held it firm. Within seconds I felt a thump and landed another sac-a-alit.
“I like to use the current to my advantage down here,” Metzger said. “There are so many twists and turns in this bayou that force these fish to locate to areas where they won’t get swept away by the current.”
In this instance, the fish were suspended in 8 feet of water, hanging along a ledge that was about 3 feet from the outer edge of the alligator grass. While the fish were in a very accessible location on this trip, Metzger said sometimes that’s not the case.
“There’s plenty of times where they are grouped up underneath the gator grass, and I have to find holes to lower my jig down — I’m not particularly fond of punching for crappie,” he joked.
After a few hours of adding crappie to the box, Metzger and I headed back to clean the fish for a fish fry later.
Like most crappie harvested in the marsh in Southeast Louisiana, the fish that we caught were mostly blacks. Metzger said that’s typical of all of his trips.
“I’d say that about 75 percent of the fish I catch here are black crappie,” he said.
The setup
When it comes to the tools of the trade, Metzger keeps things simple, using the same gear that he uses when bass fishing.
“I use a med-light spinning rod with 6 or 8-pound 100% Vicious Fluorocarbon,” he said.
Metzger ties on a 1/16-ounce Iddy Biddy Shrimp with a black body, white tail and orange eyes. The weight in the jig is distributed throughout the body, allowing it to fall slower.
“They have a nice, slow fall, that looks really good in the current,” he said.
For electronics, Metzger utilizes his Humminbird 360.
“I like to use the Humminbird to see how far the grass extends out into the bayou,” he said. “Many times, I find a stray piece of grass that they will be holding to.”
While he would prefer to use LiveScope, he said it can be hard with all the grass.
“LiveScope really doesn’t play because they are tucked in the grass from the current.”
The lower portion of the East Pearl will continue to produce this month; however as February sets in, and the fish start to spawn, you’ll have to look for them in dead-ends and closer to the shore, where they can lay their eggs on wood or firm vegetation.
