Feb 25, 2017 4 min read

When the wind is from the east the fish bite the least. When the wind is from the south the fish close their mouth. When the wind is from the west the fishing is best.

Fish when the cows are standing up, when they are laying down fishing is a waste of time.

Like me, I am sure you have heard them all but there is one thing that is sure, it seems when I go fishing, the fish were biting the day before I got there and the day after I left.

However, I still go and at times I catch fish. Even those days when the fish are on strike, fishing is better than working.

As the old oriental proverb goes, the time spent fishing is not subtracted from one’s allotted time on this earth.

There is still a long way to go before the opening day of trout fishing season but it has been such a strange winter. As I write this, it is late February and the temperature was in the high 60s.

A trustworthy friend said he had already done well on crappie. With that in mind, I took an evening off from shooting and headed out to Cross Creek Lake.

While I knew it was early, I headed to the lake. The weather was warm and the lake had a good chop to the surface. Perfect for fishing.

Guess what? I worked jigs and small spinners for three hours and never got so much as a small bluegill strike.

Even when the crappie aren’t hitting, there are always the bluegill to nip at the curly tail on the jig. You don’t hook them but you still can feel them as they try to mouth the grub that is too big for their tiny mouths.

There is only one thing worse than not catching fish and that is not catching fish while everyone else is filling their stringer.

I was wondering what I was doing wrong when I bumped into Jason Phillips of Canonsburg and we chatted about deer hunting and fishing.

Jason, while young by my standards, was a very good angler and I felt a bit better when he told me he had been there longer than me and also hadn’t had so much as a nibble.

Oh well. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but there is one thing for sure: If the weather stays warm, they will be hitting again in the near future.

Over many years of Crappie fishing, I have noticed that a change in weather seems to move them back from the shoreline into the deeper water. When the temperatures drop, they are hard to catch. But get about four or five warm days in a row and they start to move back into the shallower water and they can be caught.

A light rod with no heavier than 4-pound line is a perfect rig for crappie, but there are as many lures used as there are anglers.

For live bait, a minnow can’t be beat. And that is what your artificial lure should imitate.

Small spinners work, as do small spoons. A tiny spinner bait is useful, as are streamer flies.

I haven’t used one for many years but an old-time fly called a Muddler Minnow is one fly I would like to try.

My favorite is a small jig with a tiny curly tailed plastic grub on it.

I prefer to retrieve it after it settles in the water much like fishing a plastic worm for bass.

When the water is choppy, the lure can be used with a bobber and many a successful angler uses exactly that. One advantage of the bobber is it can be cast further out when the fish aren’t hugging the bank.

Whatever method is used, crappie are a great fish to start the season with. They are also great on the table.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.