WHEN DOGWOOD BUDS ARE THE SIZE OF A SQUIRREL'S EAR

Local knowledge—it’s the earthy flavor and time-tested confidence in the voice of a weathered character who can forecast the weather, crop yield, and animal behaviors with just a finger in the wind and an eye on the past.  I’ve had the pleasure of knowing a few such minds.  Most were outdoorsmen, and could unfailingly concur on a single truth—turkeys start gobbling, shad start running, and crappie start biting when the dogwood buds grow to the size of a squirrel’s ear.  In central Virginia, that system is more practical and manifestly observable than any calendar or watch of any ability.

Photo by Matt Reilly

    The latter prediction has been the most valuable to me.  Crappie will bite year-round, but after the new year has brought sufficient sunlight and warmth to bud the state tree, the water temperatures in our stillwaters have largely warmed and teased shoreline vegetation to the surface, providing the tuxedoed panfish cover in which to stage their spawn.  Around these grassbeds, crappie become much more accessible to a pair of youngster in a john boat.

    During my younger years, my family and I almost always ended up at my grandparents’ lake house on the Northern Neck in early spring.  The lake held my interest more than the house did.  There were fish to be caught in what was then my playground, and crappie were no minority in its waters.

    My cousin and I typically launched the small boat that was kept tied up to the dock two or three times per day, returning for meals and in the instance of any bouts of dangerous weather.  At 35 acres, the lake was easily navigable with the small trolling motor mounted on the stern, which we commonly re-designated as the bow for simplicity in navigation. 

    I was often assigned the captain’s role.  With crappie on the mind I would point us towards some distant creek mouth or cove and we would be freed from the constraints of land, lake breeze in our hair.

    Finding ourselves in an intimate arena, attention was turned to our tackle boxes.  We regularly took crappie on Roadrunners, small spoons, grubs, Beetle Spins, and crankbaits, but there was no science to our choice.  Whatever struck our fancy found its way to the water.

    One particular morning, we enjoyed good success in the upper end of a creek throwing small crankbaits and landing some quality fish.  It seemed that the skinny areas held the best fish.  So I would man the motor, positioning my cousin in the bow for a long cast through a narrow lane of shrouding laurel.

    Concentration was paramount in making the deep cast, but as the bow of the boat slowly slid into position, the voice of a hoarse dragon erupted from the thick bushes adjacent.  Heron Cove was so dubbed when we discovered a nesting green heron as the source of the commotion.

    Composure regained, my cousin made the cast.  Thump.  His crankbait collided with a stump.  He kept reeling, and connected with the papery mouth of a big slab.

    The long, riverine nature of the lake and a handful of recently purchased gold spoons came together in my mind one day early in the season, when the white flowers of the dogwoods were still scarce among the hardwood banks.  With the aid of the trolling motor and built in rod holders, we quickly developed a trolling system, and with the speed set just fast enough to keep our lures out of the woody snags on the bottom, patrolled the lake in search of a suspended school.

    Crappie are highly mobile schooling fish.  So when we landed the first fish just minutes into the routine, I experimentally employed an old trick, tying 20 feet of fishing line through the hole left by the hook in the fish’s mouth and tagging the end with an inflated pink balloon.  The rest of the afternoon, trolling was abandoned for following and placing casts around the bobbing balloon.  

    Evening came.  After dinner we took to the water once again in search of our ballooned friend.

    We found him in a favorite evening cove and freed him.  With Roadrunners we beat the banks, the evening light slowly creeping out of the scene as we competed for numbers.  We were tied somewhere in the 30s, but short-striking fish caused many to lose the hook at the boat, sometimes even breaking free and back into the lake after they had been hoisted from the water.

    The light was soon gone and the temperature dropped.  Sweaters broke out when the water lapping against the hull was our greatest perception of place.  A classic breeze filled our senses, and we were comfortable, amid a murky southern lake dimpled with the snowy petals of dogwoods and a sporting springtime tradition carried on.□

*Originally published in the Rural Virginian

PICKEREL LOVE FALL TOO

After spending the morning working finishing up one article on late winter bass fishing  for JAKES Country Magazine and the afternoon beginning another article for Virginia Wildlife on the topic of pickerel fishing, I decided to make a quick trip out to a local farm pond to stage some photos for the first article and fish for an hour or so in the beautiful, cool weather that has been the norm as of late in Central Virginia.

    On my second cast, guess who came to visit!  Mr. Chainsides in all his ferocious splendor came tearing out of a weedline after my swimbait.  Talk about relevant!  

Photo by Matt Reilly

    A few more casts resulted in a big crappie of about 14 inches.  Pickerel and crappie are some of my favorite springtime pursuits; but they are just as plentiful and predictable in the fall.  Hope everyone is getting out there and capitalizing on this wonderful weather and good fishing.

    Remember, pickerel love fall too!□

CHRIS CRAFT: LAKE ANNA'S CRAPPIE KING

Springtime is crappie time at Lake Anna; and no one knows this better than seasoned Lake Anna fisherman and guide, Chris Craft.

Photo by Matt Reilly

        Craft started fishing at a very young age, and has clocked countless hours of fishing on Lake Anna over the past 25 years.  He began fishing tournaments with an adult fishing club at the age of 16, and continues to fish tournaments on Lake Anna today. 

Craft's reputation as a crappie guide is really taking over;
and he gets plenty of press for it.  Here, Shane Baker (left)
films an installment of Angling Virginia to begin airing in
June on Richmond Fox 35.  Photo by Matt Reilly

        A little over eight years ago, after plenty of hard work and on-the-water research, Craft established CCBASSN Guide Service, guiding on the lake for largemouth bass, striped bass, and crappie.

        LakeAnna sports a strong reputation as a largemouth bass destination, and a productive striped bass fishery.  But despite Lake Anna’s variety of sport fishing opportunities, Craft’s reputation for crappie fishing has really taken over.  “Crappie fishing ranks number one for me these days,” he admits.  “They are fun to catch, taste great, and are a great fish to get a young angler started in fishing.”

                

Crappie are fun to catch, and a 25-fish limit is easily attained
if you know how to fish for them.  Photo by Matt Reilly.

        As it turns out, crappie fishing is a family affair.  Craft’s father, a passionate crappie fisherman who more than appreciates the fish’s table fare, provoked his interest in Lake Anna crappie.  On assignment, Craft delved into patterning and “figuring out” how crappie tick in the Lake.

                

        I was given the opportunity to witness his findings first hand, and was more than impressed.

                

        After meeting at Anna Point Marina, we headed straight for a creek edged with willow grass beds sporting 57-degree water.  “I start looking for crappie in the spring when water temperatures reach 45 degrees.  The temperatures for the best action are 50-65 degrees,” he professed.  

        

        Crappie are very temperature-sensitive fish, and are extremely mobile.  Rains or cold snaps can drop water temperatures mere degrees and cause schools to move significantly along the shoreline of spawning coves from one day to the next.  But Craft’s day-to-day monitoring is precise.

Two-inch Kalin grubs in "John Deere Green" and  "Green
Weenie" are local favorites.  Craft rigs them on a North Anna
Bait Company sickle hook.  Photo by Matt Reilly.

        Creeks and coves edged with willow grass beds are Craft’s go-to spring crappie spots.  “The reason crappie go to the grass in the spring is to spawn,” he said, positioning the boat several yards off of a favorite grass bed.  Crappie will often hold tight to grass edges, or even in the grass beds; but it’s important to leave some space between you and the cover.  “Many of the large spawning females will hold several feet from the grass edges, so I really believe that it’s key to stay off of the grass,” Craft explained. 

               

        The local favorite, and Craft’s personal choice, for crappie lures is simple.  Two-inch Kalin grubs in two colors, John Deere Green and Green Weenie, repeatedly get the job done.  For jigheads, a 1/16^th-ounce sickle hook, engineered by Craft’s own North Anna Bait Company, is unbeatable.  A hook bend that is more of an angled corner than a bend penetrates and locks in the corner of a crappie’s mouth and stays buttoned.  Both are available at Fish Tales Tackle Shop at Anna Point Marina.

                

A male crappie in spawning colors
fooled by the John Deere Kalin Grub
Photo by Matt Reilly.

        It wasn’t long before John Deere and the sickle hook did their job and Chris’s rod was bent.  Lifting a slab of a male crappie, in full speckled-black or “tuxedo” spawning colors, from the water, he got sentimental:  “In terms of numbers and size, Lake Anna is the best crappie lake in Virginia,” he waxed; and he’s got the stats to prove it.  Every spring, crappie trumping two-and-a-half pounds are pulled from Anna’s fertile waters; and 100-fish days are not an uncommon occurrence.

                

        For this reason, Craft’s busiest month of the year is April.  “I’ve got crappie trips almost every day,” he said.  Anglers are well aware of his reputation.

                

        In fact, Craft’s reputation is so well-known that he’s taken on past-client-turned-associate-guide Braine Oxendine, who specializes in crappie fishing March through June, to handle overflow and crappie requests during Craft’s bass fishing season.

                

     

Brian Oxendine, Craft's associate guide, specializes in
crappie fishing, and pursues them well into the summer.
Photo by Matt Reilly.

  “Longer periods of daylight and increasing water temperatures trigger the movement from winter haunts to shallow bedding areas,” Oxendine explains.  “After the spawn ends, the crappie will move in waves out to flats, points, and docks where they can feed and recover from the spawn.  They move deeper as the summer approaches.”  Don’t let the title “Associate” fool you, Brian is a very knowledgeable and accomplished crappie fisherman.

                

        Together, the “Crappie King” and “Connoisseur” represent Lake Anna’s best “slab,” “speck,” and crappie fishing guides up for hire.  Moreover, both are relaxed, humorous, and fun-to-be-with fisherman at heart.  If you can’t book one of the pair this spring, try a fall crappie trip, one of Craft’s other specialties, or a combination trip.  To book a trip, email Chris at ccbassn@aol.com, or call 540-894-6195.  For regular fishing reports and pictures, visit www.ccbassnlakeanna.blogspot.com.

Originally published in the Rural Virginian

ANNA'S SPRINGTIME SLABS

    Two weeks ago, spring sprung.  Air temperatures are clinging to the 70s; and water temperatures, making progress towards 60.  The shadberry has bloomed, and fish are beginning to spawn.  The action yearned for through the winter is here and waxing quickly.

Springtime crappie, in all stages of the spawn, are very
predictable.  Photo by Genevieve Reilly.

    It was my dedicated fishing partner and brother, Phillip, who made the request:  “I want to catch something I’ve never caught before.”  Quicker than the leaves popped, my mind was full of crappie.

    Several lakes within an hour’s drive of our Fluvanna County home offer quality crappie angling, Lake Anna and Lake Orange being the most predominant, often yielding fish larger than a pound.  And with the spawning ritual well under way, these fish are very predictable.

    As I am more familiar with Lake Anna, we planned to paddle the lake’s Pamunkey branch the following day.

               

    After a late-morning start, we arrived at Fish Tales Tackle Shop at Anna Point Marina around 10 O’ clock.  With our ‘yaks in the truck, the plan was to launch at Hunter’s Landing on the Pamunkey, and fish coves—after stocking up.

    The clerk at the counter introduced a man whose name escapes me, but who introduced himself as the tournament partner of Chris Craft, a guide on the lake (CC BASSN Laka Anna Guide Service).  He gave us the scoop on the crappie movements, and set us up with the Kalin grubs that have produced so well as of late.  “Fish along the grass lines,” he advised, “and retrieve slowly.”

    Less than an hour later, we were on fish.  Phillip found them first.  In the back of a shallow cove, a small school hid itself among some wooden boat docks and provided our first keeper.

    It’s very rare that I don’t forget something.  This time, (besides my kayak’s drain plug that I patched with duct tape and a 3D glasses wrapper) it was ice for the cooler.  So upon returning from the No Wake Zone convenience store at Hunter’s Landing, we opted to abandon the smallish school in the back of the cove and pursue some with more table and trophy value.

    We found just that when my brother, again, came through.  A solid 12-incher came from the end of a boat slip adjacent to a patch of grass.

    As the sun climbed to its apex in the sky, the fishing slowed.

    After searching a few docks on the main river, it was evident that shade was a necessary factor, and not just that which was offered by the docks.  So we made the move to one in a slight inset of the bank, surrounded by trees.  As I had hoped, we were fast to several more keeper fish, and the pattern became more defined.

    The majority of fish were between 8-10 inches; but several measured 12, with the largest being 13—Phillip’s, caught on a dock bordered by shallow grass.

    This remained the pattern for the larger fish; and though it seemed our average catch would have been larger had we fished grass edges, I couldn’t recall the location of any significant grass beds, and because we were dependent upon ourselves for power, and were consistently boating table-worthy fish, we decided the effort was unnecessary.  We kept fishing docks.

    Several of these structures provided numerous keeper-sized fish.  One in particular produced seven over 11 inches.

    It is also worthy of note that the structures that are most light-restricting (hint: the ones with garage doors) fish best at midday when the sun is the highest, provided you can skip a jig far enough under it.

    The kayaks provided a critical edge in this way.  At a lower angle, with a smaller craft and presence, one can get closer without spooking fish, and launch a lure several feet into the shade of a dock.

    I also came to appreciate the “restrictive” nature of the man-powered craft on the expansive lake.  In a bass boat, the angler is free to motor about looking for fish, whereas the kayak fisherman is forced to fish areas thoroughly as a result of wind drift and the effort required to move large distances.  Fishing “smaller” has its rewards.

Of course, catch a mess of specks, and you've got a mess of
cleaning to do!  A good scaler can do wonders here.
Photo by Genevieve Reilly.

    We packed in after five hours of fishing.  Of almost 80 “specks,” 22 slabs were in the cooler, and will make for a nice campfire meal in weeks to come.  If you’re looking for a close-to-home crappie fishing destination, don’t count ‘Anna out.  Fish in numbers and size can be caught; and the local authorities are friendly and ready to help.  Look for structure—docks, grasslines, and rock piles.  If kayak fishing, don’t be intimidated by traffic from bigger boats—stick to the bank, and wear a life jacket. 

    If you’ve got pictures, success stories, or both, send them in via the Facebook page or the contact link on the blog!

First published in The Rural Virginian