It's Winter Crappie Time at Roosevelt

Roll up your sleeves, load up on sunscreen and grab your fishing poles: Arizona's mild winter days offer anglers lots of opportunities, especially for pound-plus crappies at places like Roosevelt Lake. If you don't know a lot about crappie fishing, don't worry, there should be plenty of boat anglers to emulate or talk to. In fact, on a daily basis at Roosevelt, you can expect to find 20 to 30 boats, or more, in what many affectionately call the crappie flotilla or crappie parade. Most anglers will typically slow-troll (1 to 1.5 mph) mini-jigs, live minnows and small crankbaits for these speckled beauties. It helps to have electronic fish finders, but if you don't, you can just wait until someone catches a crappie and then use the time-honored, low-tech practice of simply asking, "How deep were you fishing?" Crappie anglers are neighborly. Stew Kohnke, an avid crappie angler who also happens to be the Arizona Game and Fish Department's wildlife manager at Alamo Lake, said he and his son like to slow-troll white or green Roadrunner jigs tipped with live minnows. For new anglers, it is advisable to follow the example of the anglers already out there and join the slow-moving flotilla of boats circling the area where the crappies typically hold. The hot fishing area for crappies has been the western end where Tonto Creek enters the lake. You can also try the eastern end of this huge reservoir, especially around the Windy Hill area where there are launch ramps. Art Chamberlin, a veteran fishing guide at Roosevelt, said both ends of the lake are drawing crappie fishermen, adding that on the Tonto end recently, there were 31 boats on the water, and the Salt River end of the lake is said to have drawn 25 boats that same day. Chamberlin, who fishes with two jigs per line and two poles per person (be sure to get your two-pole stamp), was nice enough to share his secrets. "I'm fishing with two 1/16-ounce Jumping Cholla jigs tied about 24 to 30 inches apart. We're using Kalin John Deere on the top jig and black/blue/chartreuse on the bottom jig. We are using approximately 50 feet of line out at 1 mph most of the time." Live minnows are also a good bet. Some anglers like to mix it up and use a jig, while also trolling a small crankbait. Sometimes, the larger crappies will hit the crankbait.