Crappie Fishing: Fish One of the Best Crappie Lakes in California

I was raised a crappie fisherman by a dedicated crappie fisherman. During springtime in Ohio, you’d find Dad and me tucked into the flooded flowering willows aboard his old-school, 12-foot Sears V-hull. Back then, it was cane poles or repurposed fly rods, round red-and-white bobbers, No. 4 Eagle Claw hooks, and a bucket of minnows from Les’ bait shop. No wild turkeys for us. No snow geese. No winter steelhead. All crappies, all the time. 

So it was with great interest, after moving to West Coast in 2015, that I happened upon California’s Clear Lake and crappie guide Ed Legan. Over the years, Clear Lake, located west of Sacramento, has established itself as one of the premier crappie lakes in the West, if not the entire country. Now 73, Legan, who calls the town of Clearlake Oaks home, operates the aptly named outfitting venture, Fishing with Ed. And fishing is just what Ed does for 99 percent of the calendar. 

“I came to Clear Lake because of the bass fishery,” he says. “Later in life, I started catching crappie and fell in love with it. I like catching lots of fish. When you can go out and catch 100 to 200 crappie a day ranging from one to three pounds, it’s pretty amazing. I love the ‘thump.’ I love to watch that line twitch and jump.” 

To the uninitiated, Clear Lake looks much like any other 43,000-acre body of water, with its main lake to the west and two smaller arms to the east, one above the other, both running roughly east and west. But, as Legan explains, there’s more to Clear Lake than meets the eye. 

“Clear Lake has 100 miles of shoreline and three different arms that fish differently,” says the guide. “The city of Lakeport [to the west] is the shallow portion of the lake, with a maximum water depth of 24 feet. Moving east, the northern arm, or the Clearlake Oaks area, is roughly twelve miles long and two miles wide. This is where the crappie fishing generally starts, due largely to the six and a half miles of channels that were built here. I believe that’s where the crappie come and spawn.” 

The southern arm, which Legan refers to as the Clearlake side or the Redbud Arm, features launch facilities at Redbud Park. “There’s probably 1,000 [boat] docks down there,” he says. 

That’s Clear Lake in a nutshell, but if you’re looking for traditional crappie structure, e.g. timber and a jumping-off point, you’re not going to find any—none that is visible, anyway. 

“I’ve been here coming up on 30 years, and I know of two trees in the lake,” says Legan. “And they won’t hold fish.” 

Instead, the fish largely orient to rock piles. As Legan explains, Clear Lake was formed some 400,000 years ago as a result of volcanic activity. 

“One eruption blew out one side of the volcano and spewed lava rock throughout the lake,” he says. “Therefore, the bottom is loaded with rock piles, and this time of year (February), we’re fishing open water.” When it comes to crappies, some lakes offer quantity while others provide quality; seldom does an angler find both in one body of water. However, Clear Lake, without question, is an exception. 

“I’ve been fishing this lake for 30 years now, and crappie fishing it for the last 10 years,” the guide says. “I’ve probably caught 20,000 crappie during that time, and not one of those was a white crappie. We just don’t have them here.” 

It’s interesting to note, though, that the California state record crappie is a white crappie taken from—you guessed it—Clear Lake by Carol Carlton in 1971. 

CATCHING CLEAR LAKE CRAPPIES

Like many anglers today, Legan relies on Garmin’s LiveScope real-time sonar to locate fish, plot his strategy, and then stay on those schools as they inevitably move. Interestingly, though, when asked about his “single most vital piece of on-board equipment,” Legan didn’t immediately reference the sonar, but rather the direct connection between himself and the fish.  

“I would say the rod (you use) makes a lot of difference,” he says. “You need a 7 1/2-foot, ultralight, tapered rod. That’s the key. If you come out here with a catfish rod, you’re just never going to get ‘em. You can’t shake the bait. You can’t feel the bite. It’s just not going to work.” 

There are plenty of crappie rods on the market today, and Legan’s partial to the Okuma SST 762-UL spinning rod mated to a 1500-series Okuma reel, though he admits that any lightweight, functional rod-and-reel combination, as long as the reel has a good drag, will work just fine. When it comes to fishing line, though, Legan insists on one and one only. 

“I had a go-to line for years,” he says, “Then I saw people using K9 Products’ line. It’s a high-vis-green, 6-pound test with almost no memory and no color fade. I spool it up and it doesn’t spiral off in a tangle. After I spool it up, I run it under hot water. That takes all the tangle out. Spray it with a little silicone spray, and that’s it.” 

But rod, reel, and line are only part of the equation. Legan’s a live minnow guy at certain times of the year, but in late winter he’s using a variety of techniques, all of which include one of a handful of tried-and-true artificials. 

“I’ve always run a Keitech 2.5-inch Swing Impact swimbait in white,” he says, “but my number-two and number-three baits now are from Bobby Garland, those in ‘monkey milk’ and ‘purple monkey.’” 

Legan runs his plastics on 1/16-ounce lead-heads that he self-pours onto No. 4 hooks in double rigs, top and bottom. Typically, his plan of attack is as follows: Using LiveScope, he’ll locate a school of crappies, then work his way to within 60 feet of the outermost edge. Initially, he’ll work the top of the school, skimming his double rig above the fish, searching for active crappies that are willing to come out of the school. 

His second method involves casting to the school and allowing the jigs to free-fall on a slack line. “I’m watching where the line enters the water,” he says, “and I’m looking for that ‘tap.’” 

A third technique is to cast and let the baits touch bottom before lifting and retrieving very slowly, pausing every two or three feet to, as Legan puts it, “stop and hold.” 

“I’m trying to find what range—what depth—that the active fish in that school are suspended.” 

CRAPPIES AND CONSERVATION

Historically, angling emphasis in the West has been focused on salmon, steelhead, wild trout, and bass. However, crappies have experienced a surge in popularity over the past decade, raising concerns on more than one lake about the possibility of over-fishing. Though they can be finicky at times, it often doesn’t take a high level of angling acumen to fill a five-gallon bucket with these fine-eating panfish. Therefore, it is wise that waters such as Clear Lake impose a daily bag limit in an effort to maintain the quality of the fishery, not to mention the quantity. 

“Crappie are considered ‘sunfish’ in California,” Legan explains, “So, they’re lumped in with bluegill. The limit here, then, is 25 fish daily (in the aggregate) and no minimum size limit.” 

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