Bon-Sac-A-Lait, (good crappie) fishing is on.  Lake Livingston is well known for great  Sac-A-Lait fishing and now is the time to get in on the action as paper mouths move shallow to spawn.  Crappie fishing can be hit or miss with fluctuating water levels and water temperatures.  Now with stable conditions and warming water crappie have begun their move to the shallows to spawn.  Here, the average angler can cash in on some great fishing by dabbing minnows and jigs in shallow water around brush tops, lay-downs, cut banks, grass and boat houses.

Serious slab snatchers now have beaux coup specialized equipment for Crappie fishing.  Light weight telescoping poles and scaled down reels all make today’s crappie fishermen more efficient at presenting baits into likely crappie hides.    I  recently watched  a  Crappie angler as she swung a 20 pole dropped a bait in a hole and there with keen concentration on her cork would snatch a slab and with a perfect arc in her pole heave the fish into her lap and drop it into a waiting five gallon bucket.  She could re-bait and re-cast all in about the time it takes you to say Sac-A-Lait  She was skilled, quiet and efficient as one spawning Crappie after another fell victim.

The technique I most often use for catching spawning Crappie on Lake Livingston comes from my lessons learned while growing up fishing the Atchafalaya Basin in South Louisiana.  stump Jumping is what we called quietly dabbing a bait to a piece of visible structure.  If you didn’t catch a fish off of the structure or if you caught two or three you didn’t stay long moving quietly to the next piece of structure.  Probably only two or three fish claimed that piece of structure and sitting there for very long would prove to be futile. Moving from stump to stump picking up a  fish or two here and there and soon your live-well would be full.

Live minnows, jigs spinners and crank baits will all take spawning Sac-A-Lait.  When using live minnows I like the smaller ones.  These are commonly called Crappie minnows at local bait shops.  This size minnow more commonly match the size minnows in the creeks and are what the fish are used to feeding on.  When it comes to jig fishing two of my favorites on Lake Livingston are the tube jig in black chartreuse and the Micro- craw   in pumpkin seed both rigged on a 1/16th oz jig head.

With whatever tackle or technique. Minnows, jigs, stump jumping or just lazily fishing off a dock or pier, now is the time to get  in on the action for beaux coup bon Sac-A-Lait. Fishing on beautiful Lake Livingston.