The crappie spawn is over, and winter is fast approaching. While winter crappie fishing is often seen as more challenging than in spring or summer, with the right know-how, it can still be highly rewarding. In fact, the Red River offers some of the best opportunities for winter fishing.
Woodworth resident Travis Brown has mastered the art of catching these cold-weather crappie and was happy to share his secrets.
The Red River gets its name from its distinctively stained, red-tinted water. While murky water often makes fishing trickier, Brown uses it to his advantage. Getting too close to crappie with your boat can send them fleeing, but the stained water helps mask your presence. This makes techniques like vertical jigging more effective.
“If you get your boat too close, they definitely know you are there, but the muddy water tends to make them less spooky and makes the drop-down method pay off better,” he said.
In winter, crappie stick to a predictable pattern: they gravitate toward deeper waters while holding onto structure.
“Crappie will be located on the same types of summer structure but will be found in deeper water,” Brown said.
However, not all structure is equal. The key to finding big groups of crappie lie in pinpointing the right spots. For this reason, Brown prefers fishing in river oxbows and lakes.
“Oxbows are half-moon shaped lakes with bluff banks; crappie will always be located in oxbows or river lakes,” he said.
Another perk of fishing these areas? They offer protection from winter winds.
“One of the best things about fishing the Red River is there is always somewhere to get out of the wind,” Brown said.
Spotting promising structure
While Brown uses forward-facing sonar to quickly scout for fish, you don’t need high-tech gear to succeed. Fallen trees visible above the water often signal submerged structure, which crappie love year-round. These trees can reach deep into the water, providing plenty of hiding spots.
“I tend to just turn the trolling motor on high and use forward-facing sonar to find where they are located,” he said. “It makes things easier, but it is not a necessity. If a tree is laid down in the water off a bluff bank, there will be crappie on it; it’s just a question of where they are located on it.”
Once he identifies a promising structure, Brown relies on vertical jigging with a natural-colored hair jig.
“When I can drop straight down on them, I use the ACC Crappie Stix GS13M with a Ghost grey hair jig from Mudhole’s Outdoors,” he said.
If the crappie are too skittish to approach directly, he backs off and casts from a distance using a different setup.
“Sometimes crappie are very sensitive and spooky,” Brown said. “When this occurs, I prefer the GS76SG from ACC Crappie Stix to keep my distance and cast to the fish.”
Natural-colored jigs perform well in both scenarios.
All in all, the Red River is a winter crappie hotspot, and one of its big advantages is the lighter fishing pressure.
“If I had to pick one body of water to fish every day, it would definitely be the Red River,” Brown said. “These fish see less pressure than any other body of water in Louisiana and seem to be the easiest to catch all year.”
So, before you pack away your boat for the season, give winter crappie fishing on the Red River a shot — you might just be surprised by the results.
