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It's been a few years since I've targeted crappies with spinning gear. It's almost a rite of passage in these parts during the spring, but the past couple years saw me riding out the sucker spawning wave through late May/early June. I had a couple free hours this afternoon, so I joined up with a couple buddies that I haven't fished with in a while, and hit a local lake.

The fish were sitting right on their spawning beds, and holding tight. If you could find where their nests were, they were willing bite. Setup was a chartreuse 1/32 oz jig tipped with a 2" yellow curly tail, suspended about 2' below a weighted float on 6 lb Gamma Copoly. I managed to catch a few nicely colored males; they were almost jet black. Doesn't quite come through in a photo.

We brought a bunch of nice black crappies to the boat, as well as a few bluegills, rock bass, and largemouth bass. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and a change of pace is good once in awhile. Of course, it's not the same as sucker fishing on the fly.