Photo by Ron Sinfelt

May isn’t exactly the top month for catching crappie. But be that as it may (no pun intended), plenty of time remains for chasing papermouths across the Sooner State -- particularly if you know where to look.

So before you write off the prospect of another tasty meal of fried crappie filets, consider the following honeyholes for a solid slab outing before the Memorial Day holiday -- one such being 89,000-acre Lake Texoma, which actually harbors several honeyholes within its aquatic confines.

“I’d probably pick Texoma as one of my better crappie-fishing spots,” said Paul Mauck, an Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation fisheries biologist for the south-central part of the state.

That’s especially accurate as far as the upper part of the lake is concerned. Owing to the delta effect of sand and sediment pouring in from the Washita River, the upper end of Texoma has several pools that are cut off from the main lake.

In fact, according to Mauck, these are really mini-lakes unto themselves, with maximum depths ranging from 10 to 20 feet. Add in abundant shallow habitat and vegetation, and in many of these isolated pools you have a crappie haven.

“Those areas have been having more stable water levels now of their own, so we’re seeing more of an improvement of shoreline habitat,” Mauck confirmed. “That’s conducive for crappie in these pools and we’re seeing some really good crappie populations in some of these areas.”

Such areas include the Widow More Creek Cove, Butcher Pen, Kansas Creek, the upper Cumberland Pool near Tishomingo, and several pools around the north and south dikes. The latter two have riprap on the face of the dikes, which can help cause the crappie fishing to heat up -- literally.

“A lot of times, those areas heat up before the other crappie spots do on the main lake,” Mauck said. “They are shallower and a little more dingy, so they can warm up quicker.”

But don’t forget that the main pool of Texoma can produce some really good crappie fishing, too. “On the main pool, you’ve got to fish around the brushpiles in May,” Mauck said. “We’ve got 38 brushpiles that we’ve put in and freshen up every other year. They’re in almost all of the major coves on the Oklahoma side. Those brushpiles are marked with pencil-type buoys that have an ODWC and hook symbol on them to mark them as fish attractors.”

Mauck offered that the crappie fishing can also be good around boat houses, ledges, and rocky shorelines on the main pool too. In fact, in many such areas, people have put out their own fish attractors.

“The fishing can be good all the way into May and even on up into the summer,” he said. “A lot of people have quit fishing for them by then -- but it’s not over.”

With a 10-inch minimum-length limit and a 15-crappie bag limit in place at Texoma, the crappie there -- primarily white crappie -- can reach pretty good sizes, observed Mauck. “We have fish that get well up over 2 pounds,” he said, “and we get reports of fish caught over 3 pounds. While we don’t see a lot of crappie over 2 1/2 pounds, that’s still a barn-door crappie.”