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Midday Crappie Fishing by Don Dziedzina
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Deer hunting is really happening now. We have a shotgun season right around the corner and a few weeks later the second shotgun season will follow.

With the shorter days, we don’t have to get up at an ungodly hour in the morning and I really like that. But quite often when the morning hunt is over, you can put your shotgun away for a few hours and head out on the water for some midday crappie fishing.

A great place for hunters to get their deer is in southern Illinois. Probably eight of the top ten counties in Illinois are down south. I’m kind of partial to the Franklin County area because I love staying at the Rend Lake Resort. One reason being is that once the hunt is over, within minutes I can be in a boat and go fishing.

Last week I did just that. I went archery hunting with Jason Johns of Todd Gessner Outdoors. I have to say with the thousand acres of private land that he has for deer and turkey hunting, there are plenty deer and birds for his clients and some real trophies too. But that’s not what this article is all about. I’m talking crappie fishing here.

“Crappie fishing like this will continue for at least a couple of months.” Johns said. “This is so much fun and people can’t believe that we’re catching quality fish in such shallow water.”

What Johns is talking about is fishing for crappies in water that’s less than three feet deep and many times, less than two.

I couldn’t believe it myself. When my nephew, Tony Renella and I went to southern Illinois to tape some TV shows for Illinois Outdoors, we spent our midday hours on the water catching slab crappies.

Up here in northern Illinois I’ll go for crappies in deep water. Crappies will be found suspended in the cool water and most often they’ll relate to vertical structure putting their noses up to steel and wood pilings that are in water twenty feet deep and more.

Down south, the water is a bit warmer and the fall crappies there will also relate to structure. They’ll tuck themselves up tight to big logs and all one needs to do is dip small plastics like Mini-Mites along the side the wood and it’s “Fish On”!.

I thought that crappies might be found in fallen trees along the shores and thought that we would just dip our bait amongst the branches.

Johns explained the reality of it all.

“That can be done, but mostly small fish will be caught if any at all. The big crappies will look for big logs lying in the water and many times you’ll find them in just a few feet of water or less.”

The key is finding these logs. As a guide, Johns spends many days in between hunts on the water looking for lay down logs. When he guides people for crappies for a few hours during the day, he needs to know were they can be found as he’ll go from one to another, constantly moving. Sometimes one or two fish will come off a log or maybe a half dozen. With Rend Lake being over nineteen thousand acres in size, it could be time consuming for someone coming in cold, trying to find these logs.

On occasion when the lake is a bit muddy, the logs will be hard to see, even in only three feet of water. Sometimes they’re found by the trolling motor bumping into them. At times you can see a root system sticking up out of the water near shore. That can be the tell-tale sign that a twenty or thirty foot log is laying out in the water. Once you find them, it’s really some fun fishing.

So consider doing some midday crappie fishing. Look for some lay down logs. If you want to give Rend Lake a try, feel free to call Jason Johns at 618-927-3432 or visit ToddGessnerOutdoors.com. Acommodations and and guide services are also available throught the Rend Lake Resort, so they can be reached at RendLakeResort.com or by calling 800-633-3341. For information on lodging and more, visit the Franklin County Tourism Bureau at FCTB.com.

Some fantastic fishing and hunting opportunities are with us right now. Whether we go north or south the object is that we get out and enjoy the outdoors. I’m glad that I get to experience these fishing and hunting opportunities in southern Illinois. Because of that, it’s easy for me to say that great fishing and hunting is not that far away.

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