Photo courtesy of Donnie Jinkens.

Each February I find myself in a quandary of sorts: As the last of the bitter cold of winter begins to loosen its grip on the outdoors, I generally find myself suffering from a bad case of the I’ve-been-cooped-up-for-too-long blues. My remedy before my spring turkey fix in April is to break out my ultralight tackle and go catch a mess of crappie.

It’s true: February is a great month for crappie fishing. As the state’s lakes and rivers begin warming, the crappie feed with a reckless abandon you have to experience to believe. These silver-sided denizens of the frigid waters are primed to feed in a voracious frenzy before preparing to spawn later. To partake of the bounty, you just need to know where to go.

Last February, days before his second knee replacement, my dad conned me into a slab trip on Arcadia Lake. I reluctantly went as the morning dawned to overcast skies, a howling north wind, and the temperature just below freezing. Not a good day for fishing, I thought. However, my spirits lifted, along with my level of anticipation, after receiving a telephone call from Leon Mixer, who oversees the lake. He assured me our chances were good if we fished in the new indoor fishing dock, located on the southwest side of the lake. “The place has been pretty hot lately for slab crappie,” Mixer insisted. “Just make sure you get there plenty early, because the place has been drawing a crowd.”

We arrived at 5 a.m. and noticed we weren’t the first anglers there. Inside and enjoying success was an Edmond retiree who had a penchant for fishing a twin-jig setup. His curly-tailed jigs were bad medicine for the schooling crappie below, and in short order he filled his basket with the speckled table fare.

I rigged a pair of tandem-hooked crappie rigs for my dad and myself before impaling two pairs of feisty minnows that we lowered into the dark waters below. Soon the telltale taps on our flimsy rods indicated we had struck pay dirt, and in unison we reeled in pairs of hand-sized crappie before rebaiting for round two. Though the weather was freezing outside, we stayed comfortable inside, and we had an enjoyable conversation with the other angler as the three of us shared a frigid February morning at its finest.

So before you settle into the sedentary ways of avoiding a cold February day, consider that the crappie near your locale are just waiting to bite a hook. So, you can put another log on the fire, or you can bundle up and go catch a mess of tasty filets.

IN COLD WEATHER,
STAY INDOORS
Common sense dictates that when temperatures are inclement, it is wise to stay indoors, but why not have your cake and eat it too? How, you might ask? Indoor fishing docks.

Going to an indoor fishing dock can be similar to hanging out at a local coffee shop. Within the diversity of anglers gathered inside the sheet metal confines of these fishing houses, a variety of demographics are represented, but the crappie are the common denominator!

These enclosed fishing spots are the ticket in inclement weather, due to their warm, well-lit accommodations. Most are baited with Christmas trees, offering havens for small fish to hide in. The resulting baitfish buffet draws a variety of fish, with crappie and sand bass being two of the most likely hungry attendees lured in for the feast, but I have caught almost every species of game fish while fishing indoors.

In fact, one of the biggest catfish I ever hooked was one I got during an all-nighter at an indoor marina at Lake Texoma. The monster catfish put a serious bend in my crappie tackle, stripping most of the gears in my ill-equipped spincast reel before rolling onto the surface of the water. A crowd of onlookers did their best to “coach” me into landing the whiskered giant, but too soon the 3-foot-long catfish snapped my 8-pound-test line.

Though several lakes have private indoor docks, these lakes offer public access: Bell Cow, Carl Blackwell, Chickasha, Clear Creek, Duncan, Eufaula (two), Fort Gibson (two), Fuqua, Grand (five), Greenleaf, Hefner, Hudson (two), Humphreys, Keystone, Murray, Ponca, Sahoma, Shawnee, Skiatook, Tenkiller (three) and Waurika. You should note that some indoor marinas charge a small fee for fishing.