Quick tips for landing spring crappies from shore

It’s not often shorebound anglers have an advantage over people fishing from a boat, but that’s the case if they’re going after black crappies in May and June. That’s when the water temperature finally nuzzles up to the 20°C mark, and mature, plate-sized slabs congregate in large schools preparing to spawn around pencil reeds and cabbage weeds.

Spring crappies especially love to filter into man-made boat canals, where they mingle around the wooden pilings of boathouses and docks. These super-shallow areas warm up quickly, making them black crappie magnets. And the wooden structures offer the perfect vantage point for anglers to quietly sneak up on the fish and drop small jigs dressed with soft-plastic worms, grubs or fry—or lively minnows or leeches—right on their noses.