Crappie/Gills competing?

[Lunker]

Fished a small lake today for gills and pike, did very well for gills(read my metro post for fulls story Anyways, I also found some crappies that were suspended above the schools of gills, and i could get one or two out of a spot before the gills would move up and bite and the crappies wouldnt. It sucked because I couldnt get very many crappies up becasue of the gills. Any body else ever had this happen(im reluctant to say problem because the gills were all very big )? Any adivice?

[CrappieJohn]

I haven't had this problem with larger sunfish. I think this is commonplace where there is a solid, or over abundance, of young sunnies. They are at the bottom of the pecking order and are so voracious that it's tough to get a plain, unbaited hook down the hole. It is not an uncommon occurance. If you want the craps you will most likely need to move to where the sunnies lack comfort or safety...maybe even change lakes. I hear ya though...it's a real dog when you know there are better fish to be had , but you cannot get out of the sunnies. Shame a guy can't find a fiberglass model of a two pound northern to drop down the hole on a cord. Large enough to put the fear into the sunnies, small enough that it wouldn't bug the craps.

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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[This message has been edited by CrappieTom (edited 12-14-2003).]

[Guest]

I agree with Tom. Lakes where there are large stunted or small gill populations will have similiar effects if you are fishing the area where those fish are located. And when fishing in the Metro you will experience that quite a bit unless you move towards different off the spot structure. You will pick up a crappie or two and then the dinky gills come in like wild fire and attack anything that is dropped in the water. Most of the time those little gills will stay there for long periods of time and it can frustrate a lot of anglers because they hate catching those little maggot stealers. Whenever I experience this I relocate just off that spot in deeper water and look for anything that resembles some type of likely structure. Most of the times those crappies didn't move far and can be found rather easily and quickly. Or punch a few more holes and fish the same area you were fishing until you locate more fish. Once the little fish move in thats my que to find a new spot. I don't like catching ten little runts before I catch one that is decent. There are other spots where you can catch decent fish without fidgeting with the little ones, you just have to find them.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[This message has been edited by MJ5 (edited 12-14-2003).]

[Lunker]

I can see where this would happen with runts, but 60% of the gills were over 7" i was catching, with probably a dozen over 8" Lost one at the hole would have easily broken a pound. These were no runts!

[CrappieJohn]

Craps and sunnies will both feed on micro plankton and other water-borne insect life, but at this time of year I would have to say that the craps are doing meat yet and the sunnies the bugs. It may be such a thing that the forage the sunfish are seeking is in short supply right now and the presence of the craps is merely an intimidation...sunnies think the craps are getting thier food and thus swarm the area. Competition for food is a huge driving force in any biome where close to equal predators exist. The craps are probably interested in small minnow life that are sharing the spoils with the sunfish and those small minnows get driven out by the sunfish. The minnows react to that presence like they do to a school of craps and move out of fear....the craps follow. You are left with sunfish.

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

Sounds like you found a few nice gills, whats wrong with fishing those when the crappies move out

Those schools of gills come swimming through to see suspended crappies feeding and they want in on the action. Gills in large schools are not all that shy when they are hungry and food is in the area. Chasing off a few crappies is easy for them.

What were you using for bait? Like Tom said, often times those crappies are looking for a piece of meat and if you drop a minnow down you might keep the crappies around and push the gills away. If those gills are chasing plankton, insects, or other micro-forage, then the minnows won't be sought after as much. Might also want to try dropping down a 1/16 oz spoon tipped with a minnow head, that will work for me when I want to target crappies instead of gills.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[Lunker]

Was using waxies. Probably would help to bring along the minnows huh... Yea, it was fun with the gills. Probably the best panfishing day of my life as of yet, but woulda liked a few more crappies. Thanks for the info/help.

[Guest]

Lunker,

I'll be hitting the Metro all week and if you want to chase some crappies and gills feel free to come with. Drop me an e-mail.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[rubber duck]

Hey how about using a spearing decoy that looks like pike or musky?

[muchowja]

Was sight fishing the other day and getting some nice sunnies. A few crappies came into the hole to take a look at my jig and grub and the larger sunfish would run into them and chase them away. It was kind of funny but I would have liked to catch a few of the crappies. So it's possible the sunfish were keeping the crappies from taking your bait. They don't call them 'bull' sunfish for nothing.

[CrappieJohn]

I just got back from one of my holes where crappie and sunfish share the water. I was fishing a currented gut that was staining the water with run-off from the streets and found that crappies were always present, but the sunfish did the eating until the sun dropped into the trees and then the worm turned. During full light the craps were not real organized and were scattered all over thru the mid portion of the water column. As soon as the first shadows were cast on the ice in this area, the craps began to tighten up the posse and fairly well covered the 8 foot water. From that point on, getting a sunfish grew harder and harder as the light faded. I had to be home by 5 and would have liked to seen where the bite would have gone as darkness came over the water. I have no doubt that when these two species are found together in a body of water, that each will have it's own prime time for feeding...it is when there is an overlap of those feeding times that we see this competitiveness.

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

I caught crappies and gills in the same area today. The crappies were higher in the water column but once the gills started to rise that was all she wrote for the crappies. Those aggressive gills trampled over the crappies. Gills won the battle on this one.

Sometimes I'll be fine fishing crappies and gills out of the same hole without losing one of the species. The crappies will suspend and the gills will stay below. But today those gills were hungry! And nothing was standing in their way. The water was only 15 feet so not a lot of room for suspended crappies when those gills were out to play. Deeper water lets the crappies suspend higher away from the gills. 30 feet of water with crappies suspended 15 feet up, a common occurance, then the gills stay in the bottom five feet or so. But sometimes that doesn't even hold. I guess it all matters on the given day

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[This message has been edited by Matt Johnson (edited 12-21-2003).]

[LOWinEYEin]

I had that same problem this weekend (With the sunny)I stuck on a small minnow and before the jig got to my depth, a crappie would hit it. lots of fun

[CrappieJohn]

I was back on the ice for a couple hours today at the puddle referred to in an earlier post. About the same as yesterday. Tons of sunnies and a few craps just at dusk.Craps came to the Berkley gulp once again and the sunfish favored the waxies. I'd been marking craps the whole while, but the sunnies today were quite aggressive and pushed the craps out of the bait's drop until I went to the artificial stuff. A couple sunfish came to the gulp, but they seemed to suck it in and spit it very fast. The craps took it and inhaled the stuff.

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

I was back on the same lake I posted this about. This time I fished until after sundown. Realized there is a day bite there, but its much easier to wait until dark. Crappies really turned on.