Large crappies congregate in the shallows during the spring spawn, making it easier for anglers using tiny artificials to cash in. (Photo by Frank Sargeant)
Big crappies are where you find ’em,” says Brad Whitehead as he boosts another slab out of the dark waters of northwest Alabama’s Bear Lake. He hooks one after another by dropping a 1/16-ounce jig into brush piles he built himself in 6 feet of water.
Whitehead, who guides all over the region, finds fish concentrations by pushing his spread of jigs very slowly around cover he locates with GPS and sonar. When he hooks the first slab, he drops anchor and asks his clients to be as quiet as possible while they ease their jigs through the cover below. Where there’s one big one there are usually several, Whitehead says. The big females, however, don’t school...