Spanish Lake Park offers good crappie fishing

Spanish Lake Park offers good crappie opportunity for St. Louis area anglers wanting to stay close to home. The park features two lakes, Spanish Lake is 34 acres and Sunfish Pond is 31 acres. Both have concrete boat ramps and fishing docks for disabled anglers and hold good population of crappie. The two lakes have depths of approximately 15 feet; they have plenty of submerged cover and shoreline irregularities. The water is generally clear to stained.

Recently I caught up with Tony Pearson, he is a crappie angler who spends approximately 50 days per year on Spanish Lake, and he had some advice to share with anglers looking for suburban crappie opportunities. Tony said, “Crappie fishing on this small lake is not much different than crappie fishing on big lakes.”

Upon on further questions about the techniques Tony uses he explained his approach to fishing Spanish Lake. He uses a 16-foot boat rigged with a small outboard on the transom and trolling motor on the front. Tony said, “I use two main techniques when setting up my rods. I either present lures into cover or drift areas where crappie are likely to be found.”

When dropping lures into heavy cover he recommends using a long rod and jigs just heavy enough to get them deep into the cover being targeted. Tony says, “A 1/32 ounce jig head with an 1 ½ inch curl tail or tube jig is my most productive lure. I seldom use anything heavier than 1/32 ounce because crappie feed on bait above them due to the placement of their eyes; they have better sight when looking up.” He also added when the fishing is slow, “I will tip my jigs with a wax worm.”

Color selection varies each trip and he changes colors regularly until he finds a color the crappies prefer. Generally, he uses natural colors but in stained water he opts for darker colors.

Tony’s advice for an angler not familiar with Spanish Lake is to target points where cover is present. There are many trees lying on the bank of the lake as well as some submerged brush piles. He said. “During the coldest and hottest months I target the deeper submerged cover but during the spring and fall the shallow cover is the most productive. My lure choice remains basically the same throughout the year.”

Spanish Lake Park rules restrict the use of gasoline engines. However, as long as they are not started, it is acceptable to use boat with them attached. The lakes are small enough that an electric motor is plenty of power when fishing these lakes.