Fishing for the thump

Crappie might taste good, but it’s another sense they satisfy more

Crappie fishing — especially in the spring when the fish get active during the pre-spawn and spawning process — appeals to all five of my senses.

Seeing: Being on the water, witnessing nature’s spring blessings.

Feeling: The thump of a fish taking a jig, the sensation running up the line, through the graphite B&M Pole and finally into my right hand.

Smelling: The aroma of fish in hot grease, which, of course, also involves …

… Hearing: The sizzle of corn meal popping in the oil.

Taste: Ah yeah, you know, fresh hot crappie tickling the taste buds on the tongue.

Now, can you guess which one is the most satisfying to me?

To look at me, you’d think it was taste. A large person, I appear as one who relishes a platter of fried fish, and I certainly do — pass the hot sauce, hushpuppies and turnip greens, please, and keep ’em coming.

But, no, that’s not it.

Nothing in the sporting life (Note: the word sporting is inserted here because I am married, women tend not to understand such things, and divorce attorneys are not cheap … but I digress) touches me like the feel of a crappie taking a jig.

Yes, it’s that thump.

Pardon me, while I take a second to reflect … oh yeah, that’s it. (If I were a smoking man, I’d be lighting up right now.)

I crave that thumping sensation. I can’t get over the last thump I felt and can’t wait for the next one coming my way.

And the plan is for me to get a lot of thumps in the coming weeks on Barnett Reservoir. It’s mid March now, and the fish are just starting to move up. Exactly a month from now, most of them will be in a foot or two of water to spawn, and I will be right there with them, hopefully getting my brains thumped out.

It’s Rabbit’s fault

Rabbit Rogers, Barnett’s crappie guru, passed his love of crappie fishing to me, teaching me that it’s the fishes’ bites we’re after and not necessarily our biting into their fried remains.

Rogers fishes darn near every day that he is not deer hunting or busy completing his “honey-do list” at home for his wife and former tournament fishing partner Jane.

(Note to readers: In journalism, it’s correct style to identify a person by last name, like when attributing quotes and such. However, in this case, Rabbit is the correct use. Most of the people who know him know not his last name. He’s just Rabbit and that’s it.)

Rabbit rarely keeps his crappie, and it’s not because he doesn’t like eating them. Nope, he’s sane.

It’s just that he catches so darned many he’d have to keep buying freezers to store them and his house would simply be a walk-in freezer.

So why is he out there, day after day?

“Mainly, it’s the thump,” Rabbit said. “It’s kind of hard to explain but that’s it. There’s just something magical about it. Every time I get a crappie to inhale a jig, and I feel that bite, I love it.”

It’s so important to him that it dictates his fishing style. Rabbit is a one-pole, one-hand crappie fisherman.

Unless he’s in a tournament and there’s absolutely no other way to compete, you will not see him sitting behind an array of poles in rod holders. Trolling, drifting or pulling, call it whatever you want, it is not Rabbit’s game.

“All of that stuff works and it will produce a lot of fish, but there’s one thing it does not produce,” he said. “The thump.

“So why would I do it?”

Of course, Rabbit also likes the other nuances of crappie fishing, like finding the right pattern. He has been known to leave biting fish to go see what’s happening elsewhere, or changing jigs just to see if he can find one the fish won’t hit.

When he finds the bite to be “polite,” which is his way of describing bites that are hard to detect, he is quick to change colors to see if there’s one that will produce the harder “thumps.”

Hooked on a feeling

There is nothing polite about the way crappie hit during the spawn. They generally attack jigs with a vengeance and try to snatch the lure and pole right out of your hand.

“Gotta love that,” Rabbit said.

Heck yeah, you do, and I am addicted.

The advent of modern braided line, available in ultra-small diameters and low-pound test, and today’s jig pole graphite technology has increased the sensitivity of the thumps. Even the politest of bites produce the satisfying feel I desire.

Worry about the visibility of braided line? Not me, because when I use mono on crappie, I still use a high-visibility (green or chartreuse) line. The braid I use is even chartreuse, which gives me the added advantage needed when using 60-year-old eyes to tie knots in such small diameter lines.

It would be easier to fish with other lines, but I crave the sensibility.

And, I treasure the thump.

Come on spring.

Please!