Lake Washington, Mississippi
On The Fly Freshwater
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Sponsored By
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March 2025
By Jimmy Jacobs
Back at the first of March the On The Fly South crew was invited to participate in the 2025 Mississippi Fish Camp at Lake Washington near Greenville, Mississippi. That event is a gathering of the outdoor media, along with professional crappie and bass anglers.
At first, we were not sure that a couple of fly casters would fit in or be of value to the group. The purpose of the camp was to highlight the outstanding fishing in the area, with special emphasis on crappie and white bass. Our reluctance to join the venture on this 3000-acre oxbow off the Mississippi River was the result of several factors.
First off, at that time of year the crappie are not on the shoreline or around brush piles. They are in open water, suspended in the water column. That makes it the toughest time of the year to catch them. Blind casting in such a big body of water is not a prescription for success. Similarly, the pods of white bass are also roaming in the open water, making them just as hard to target.
Targeting crappie with LiveScope gear. Photo by Jimmy Jacobs.
Finally, we knew that most of these anglers would be using Garmin LiveScope electronics to find the fish. Having seen this gear in action in the flooded forest areas of Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee on an earlier occasion, we were leery of whether it has any application to fly fishing.
It also would not help that the weather was turning overcast and cold. Finally, occasional wind gusts would add to the scenario.
Still, it would be a chance to see some new water, so we headed west. The first day of the three-day camp was a Catch, Clean & Cook event among the participants. Polly Dean and I were in the boat of tournament crappie anglers Renee and Jason Clements from Ridgeland, Mississippi. As it turned out, they were just as unsure as we were about the use of fly rods for this fishing.
Jason and Renee Clements. Photo courtesy of Jason & Renee Clements Fishing.
LiveScope is a lot like a video game. It projects onto a screen what is under the water from the surface to the bottom for up to about 30 feet in front of and to the side of the boat in a 180-degree arc. It also is sensitive enough you can identify the species and size of the fish. That allows anglers to “sight cast” fish they can’t actually see.
First, we watched our hosts use long poles of 12- to 18-feet in length, as they dropped jigs down to catch several impressive 1 1/2- to 2-pound slab crappie. It was possible to see the weighted jigs on the screen dropping straight down to dangle in front of the fish.
Now it was our turn. Spotting a likely target on the screen, we would cast beyond its position. The Clouser Minnows in gray-and-white or blue-and-white patterns sank much slower than jigs, so we had to allow them to sink, compensating for the arc of their descent. Once at a level just above the crappie’s depth, we stripped them slowly above and past the fish. It was much like spotting a trout taking insects from the surface on a stream, then trying to get your dry fly to drift down into the fish’s feeding lane.
Fairly quickly, I hooked three fish, all of which I managed to lose before boating them. Finally, Polly brought a 1.76-pound slab to hand. And I even got the hang of bringing them in and we caught several more. In the process, our host fishing companions were equally surprised and impressed that we could get a fly to these fish and catch them.
Polly Dean and Crappie Cowboy Craig Nichols with one of her catches. Photo by Jimmy Jacobs.
The next day we were paired with Craig “Crappie Cowboy” Nichols (he got that name from being a former rodeo bull rider), another successful tournament crappie angler from Oklahoma. Having now experienced catching a few fish, we were even more successful. Polly even boated a 2.21-pound crappie, which was her personal best-ever for the species. Additionally, she managed to catch a one-eyed crappie!
Polly Dean with her personal best crappie. Photo by Craig “Crappie Cowboy” Nichols.
At one point, however, I had Craig doubting my reactions. Stripping my fly past a big crappie showing on the screen, we saw it lurch forward to grab the fly. But I missed the hook set. Twice more I presented the fly to the same fish and each time saw it go for the fly. Both times I missed the hook set again. I could not believe the fish had hit the fly three times, without feeling the hook. That mystery was solved when I discovered the hook had broken off at the bend. I had just been tossing a “teaser” at the crappie.
The bottom line was, both we as fly casters and our professional angling hosts came away knowing that fly gear could be quite successful for open water crappie, while using LiveScope. While it may not be classic fly fishing, it did work. We simply found a new way to catch these fish at the toughest time of their annual cycle.
Since crappie are prolific spawners and taste great on the dinner plate, this was one more option for creating a great, guilt-free fish fry!
