Crappie are the best eating fish in this fishery — and the backwaters, brush piles, and slower pockets near Midway hold good populations. Winter into spring is your window. Here's where and how.
The most important thing to understand about crappie fishing on the Trinity is that you're not lake fishing. River crappie don't suspend over open water offshore. They're tight to structure, hidden in cover, and found in the slower water — backwater pockets, oxbow edges, flooded brush, and standing timber near the main channel.
Think of the Trinity near Midway as a transition zone. The river-lake influence from Lake Livingston downstream means the backwaters off the main channel can hold fish in a way that a purely open river wouldn't. That's your crappie zone: the slow, brushy, protected water away from the main current.
Crappie fishing is best from late December through April. Fish are in transition — moving from deep winter holding areas toward shallow spawning structure. March and April are particularly productive as fish push shallow to spawn around brush and wood. Numbers and size both improve during this window.
Possible but tougher. Crappie retreat to deeper, cooler structure in summer heat. Fish early morning and evening and target the deepest brush piles you can find. Fall brings them back toward more accessible depths as water cools through October and November.
The most reliable presentation in most conditions. A lively 2" shiner under a small float placed at the right depth next to timber is hard to beat. Adjust your float depth until you find where the fish are holding — often 2–4 feet off bottom.
1/16 to 1/8 oz tube or curly-tail jigs in chartreuse, white, or pink work well. Jigs are more versatile — you can fish them at different depths and work them more actively than a float-and-minnow setup.
| Species | Daily Bag | Minimum Length |
|---|---|---|
| White Crappie | 25 combined with black crappie | 10 inches |
| Black Crappie | 25 combined with white crappie | 10 inches |
Verify at tpwd.texas.gov.
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