Crappie

Crappie fishing around Mount Dora, Florida centers around the legendary Harris Chain of Lakes. Lake Dora and the connected waterways offer excellent crappie habitat, especially around submerged structure like brush piles, docks, and lily pads. The best time to target these panfish is during the cooler months, from late fall through early spring, when they school up in large numbers. Minnows are a classic bait, but small jigs in white, chartreuse, or pink can also be highly effective. A local tip: use a depth finder to locate schools of crappie before dropping your line. Many anglers have success spider-rigging multiple poles from a boat, slowly trolling through known crappie hotspots. The crappie in the Harris Chain are known for their good size, with some slabs exceeding two pounds.