I was 11 years old when I started fishing in earnest that summer with my neighbor, Mr. Roper. He lived across the street, was the neighborhood Santa Claus every year and owned a small-engine repair shop in town.
The lattermost of those qualities meant that he knew just about every good fishin’ hole within 50 miles — and that he had, or could likely get, permission to fish the majority.
We fished for whatever would bite. But, I readily admit, among the most relished and relived days we shared are those times we spent crappie fishing.
We chased them in the borrow ditches of Grand Prairie farm reservoirs, the cypress knees and treetops of White River lakes and the stumps and buckbrush of sloughs and bayous.
All we needed was a bucket of minnows, a good hook, a bobber and a stretch of line tied about midway of a sturdy cane pole and then again at the tip, or “business end.”
We literally wore those cane poles down till they had a nice, gentle arc in them. Then, we’d tangle with a largemouth bass, a big catfish or a grinnel and have to break in a new one.
Turns out that my upbringing was not a unique one.
“I enjoy fishing for all kinds of fish,” said Keith Sutton, a noted outdoor journalist whose work often appears in this publication, then adding, “Crappie, however, rank near the top of my favorites list. I started fishing for them at age 6 and immediately fell in love with these calico sunfish. That love never diminished.
“Put me on a backcountry crappie lake with a cane pole and a few minnows and jigs, and I’m as happy as a man can be.”
Pretty strong words from a fellow who is likely better known for his writings on another kind of fishing, so much so that his long-held nickname is “Catfish.”
While Mr. Roper was the first of my outdoor educators when it comes to crappie fishing, he had a settled style, rarely straying from a cane pole, minnow and bobber to give jigs a try.
So, Mr. Tabor, Mr. Mayes and a handful of other more experienced anglers became part of my inner angling circle. I learned more about fishing with jigs, using jig or “pokin’” poles, catching crappie with ultralight rigs, trolling and more.
That education has further continued on trips taken with college buddies, my wife and people I’ve met through stories.
Sutton, meanwhile, learned the uses of hooks, lines and sinkers from his maternal grandmother and some of his great uncles.
Later, he added Lewis Peeler of Vanndale, whom Sutton said “has been my constant hunting and fishing partner since we met in school 44 years ago. He’s shared with me many memorable adventures.”
Now, Sutton shares most of his hunting and fishing excursions with his six sons, although his wife Theresa, he said, “regularly gives me a trouncing when we go fishing together.”
Otherwise, the former Arkansas Game & Fish Commission editor and writer gleans knowledge from people he shares boats with for stories in this publication or for one of a myriad of outdoor magazines and websites for which he has written over more than four decades in the field.
Most outdoorsmen in Arkansas are thinking about deer or duck hunting at this moment, likely wondering aloud why someone would write about crappie and crappie
fishing in November. Well, there’s several good reasons.
“While most crappie anglers prefer fishing during the spring spawn when crappie are nesting in the shallows, I much prefer fishing in the dead of winter,” Sutton said. “Fewer anglers are on the water then, making the fishing experience more enjoyable. And crappie usually gather in huge concentrations this time of year. If you can find them, you can catch a limit quickly, and I seem to catch more big crappie in winter than other times of year, particularly those 2-pound slabs we all hope to catch every time we’re on the water.”
It may not yet be the “dead of winter,” but fall has these fish shifting into their winter mode. My personal experience has shown above-average catches of crappie this time of year. Indeed, they can be stacked up and hungry as they fatten up for the spawn that will come with spring. Plus, the scenery can be spectacular.
One haunt that Sutton will often fish in colder weather is Lake Greeson, west of Hot Springs. There, he angles for crappie and other fish with one of his friends, guide Jerry Blake. In fact, Sutton credits Blake with being one of the biggest contributors for his most recent publication, a standalone called The Crappie Fishing Handbook (www.catfishsutton.com) that was published in January.
“I interviewed and fished with dozens of talented crappie anglers in preparing this book, all of whom contributed special tactics they use to catch America’s favorite panfish,” Sutton said. “The contributions of all were important in making this a useful guide for anglers. One person, however, shared more of his time and expertise than anyone: Arkansas crappie guide Jerry Blake of Pearcy who runs actionfishingtrips.com, one of the country’s best crappie guide services.”
Sutton said he spent days and days on the water with Blake. One timely tidbit from Blake, Sutton said, is, “His best advice: Learn to fish for crappie year-round. They can be caught during any season if you learn their seasonal behaviors.”
In his latest book, however, Sutton goes well beyond that advice with what he writes. In what he called “a labor of love,” he shares insights from his youth and earlier adult years gained from fishing eastern Arkansas with “elder uncles” back in the 1960s and 1970s. The lessons then swim all the way up to some of the latest hot tips from Ronnie Capps and Steve Coleman, a pair of professional crappie anglers who have won more than $1 million from tournament fishing and call heralded Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee their home waters.
The pages of The Crappie Fishing Handbook include ways to catch crappie new and old, tips for fishing different kinds of water, ways to fight clear or muddy conditions and so much more.
So, if you share the love of crappie that Sutton and I do, consider wetting a hook and catching some fresh fillets while everyone else is enamored with ducks and deer. And, if you’re sitting around at your deer camp or duck club between hunts, then a little reading will only serve to get you ready for what you’ll be doing after season closes.
Staff writer James K. Joslin can be reached at (501) 399-3693 or jjoslin@arkansasonline.com.