August time Crappies

[Guest]

Hey guys.
I fish a lake that is about 900 acres. It has nice Crappies and we can catch them with some regularity in the wintertime in the holes, and also in May and June when they are up shallow. But once this time of year hits we lose them for weeks until the fall turnover when they are back in the same winter haunts. The water clairty is about 7 feet and the weedline goes to 8 feet.

any ideas? thanks, Westlin

[united jigsticker]

Howdy Westlin,

When fishing Crappies in August I always like to hit the breaklines adjacent to where I found them in springtime. Inside turns, corners, points, etc. are all prime spots I will search with the electronics for suspended fish. 10-20 feet of water is my target depth here.

I hit the open water areas first because I can visually see schools on my Vex. If nothing looks promising I'll head to the outside weededge, again in corners, inside turns, and points in the same areas adjacent to spring hot spots, and start casting a jig.

Another good point is to look for deep docks and floating diving rafts. The shade will concentrate these fish if the depth is right.

It is getting a little late for wood, but if you can find a steep shoreline break where a tree has fallen and is hanging in 8 or more feet of water, this would be well worth checking as well.

You have an advantage. You know where they are in spring, and where they are in fall...As the old saying goes, they gotta be somewhere inbetween.

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Good fishing,
UJ
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[CrappieJohn]

Midwestlin... You don't indicate how you are approaching these fish...jigs?bait? Or when during the day. If you are fishing jigs, try casting to the weedlines and letting the jig drop thru the water column to see if you can ilicit some hits. Be sure that you are not directly over the fish if the water is super clear. Try downsizing what you are using...instead of 1/16 ounce jigs, try using 1/32 ounce ones. Try hanging the jig under a slip float. If you are fishing at mid-day, switch to either early or late in the day. Crappies seem to disappear very well at this time of year, but in reality are never very far away. Usually a simple switch in tactics will put them in the net.

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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[Guest]

Tom,

I am fishing these fish under a slip float with 1/32 oz jigs tipped with small minnows when fishing near weeds. I catch some sunnies, a few bass and of course, the Northern Pike, but never the Crappies. These were spots that were good in June though.
So it sounds like I go where UJ said, and thats just deeper from where I am fishing, and look for schools on the graph. Will they be suspended or right on the bottom?

[united jigsticker]

Westlin,

I can't give a straight up answer as to whether they will be suspended or close to the bottom. I always look for suspended fish, but if something catches my eye closer to the bottom I will stop and fish that too.

Most of the time, open water Crappies are either active or they aren't. It won't take long on a school to detirmine if you're dealing with hungary Crappies or napping nannies.

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Good fishing,
UJ
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[CrappieJohn]

Midwest...Look deep but suspended.Another pointer here... when you are spotting fish on the locator or vex or whatever, what you will want to look for will look more like a really wide tree top limb tips squashed between three or four feet of water. Crappies are not that thick through the back and do not cast a very large "relection" for the sonar to pick up. If I find anything like this at mid-water column or lower, I try setting a float to upright about a foot higher than the lowest signal you see. Most of the time the larger fish are on the bottom of the pile. If it is cloudy or real windy, the closer to the surface you get, the more apt that that senerio will reverse.

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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[united jigsticker]

Good points on clouds and fish sizes and schooling Tom!

If I find that the suspended fish are small I will look for more of a bottom oriented school. If I find the suspended fish are larger, well obviously I am not going to seek out smaller fish

Again though, Tom's points were gold.

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[Dano2]

I was catching my crappies in and along the edge of a pile of reeds in the middle sof the lake this spring, using a 1/16 ounce jig with a red and white tube, tipeed with a crappie nibble.
This lake is very weedy pretty much almost every where you go.
Are you guys using crappy minnows much at this time of year, or do you think they may go for the same presentation?
I've been on different lakes getting my wally fishing down and haven't been to my crappy lake in awhile, but was thinking of hunten em down again soon.
chances are, they wont be where i caught them earlier, usually I catch some nice gills in that area this time of year,
but I'm wondering if i should start my search there, and just work my way deeper.
thanks

[CrappieJohn]

Dano...I'm not much for live bait personally, but that doesn't mean you should not consider taking it with you. I carry a wide variety of plastics with me: tubes, twisters, nails, 1", 2", a multitude of colors. The jigs are 1/32 and 1/16 ounce and hardly ever any larger. I use two and four pound line, again hardly ever exceeding four pound.As you are probably aware from reading the current posts about the craps, they can be a tough study especially without some good electronics and a boat. You need to be able to up-size or down-size as the fish dictate and that can change from morning to night, day to day. Plan on it being that way. If you can find some deep weeds next to the emergant weeds in deep water, you can usually find crappies if they are in the body of water you are fishing.Look for the better fish to be just on top of the deep weeds as Scott suggested earlier in another post. Sunfish will always be nearby and can help fight boredom if the craps are tight lipped. When we have the high skies that have been so persistant lately, you may want to concentrate on the early and later periods of the day and go fish bass/northerns during the mid-day. At any rate...go get'em!

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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