Crappie populations vs location

[7 grand kids]

As long as the wind is going to blow I'd like to start a topic and get some comments from the crappie crew.

Take a moderate size lake of 800 to 1500 acres with multiple deep water holes. A well known winter spot for crappies is over deep water of 25-40' and holds good populations of crappies. The well known winter area ia adjacent to a lot of shallow water area that is not known for spring success. A well known spring spot is a bay or backwater that is a half mile or even a mile away from the good winter area. The well known spring spot is adjacent to a deep water area that has only sporadic crappie success during the winter.

It is my feeling that there are different populations or groups of fish in larger bodies of water and they will not travel that far if appropriate spawning or shallow water is close by. I beleive the populations get fished differently because of tradition and the convience (ease of access, etc) of the fisherman.

Any thoughts on this?

[united jigsticker]

"Spring" to me means after ice out until pre-spawn.

In that case, unprotected areas such as the large shallow area you described, will take longer to see shallow water action.

The initial shallow water spring bite is a just a feed bag for the Crappies to "belly up" for the up coming spawn.

Backwaters and protected shoreline areas with dark bottoms and old vegetation warm the quickest and draw Crappies and baitfish in the soonest.

Check this larger area later when mid lake water temps are holding about 58-60 degrees for a start. The fish will hold in pockets of fresh weeds, but growth will still be limited, so you may have to get down just above the slop to lure a few out.

Come evening time though, that spot could be a smorgasboard when the lake calms down.

Check that spot on the weededge in late June and July... I am betting its a honeyhole for fast action Crappies on Plastics....Ain't that right Tom???!!!

------------------
Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[CrappieJohn]

Great topic and lots of relevant info already. Many factors come into play. You have a fish that is well known to group according to age/size class. You are dealing with a fish that has a very rigid ( in my opinion) pecking order. and a fish that can re-write the rules faster than we can interpret them. At 800+ acres it is entirely possible to have several "schools" available and occupy many different areas of the lake. If you took into account how many crappies there are in this body, it would only stand to reason that they are not going to be all found in one general winter area, nor during the spawning season.It is at the spawn where you'll see the most mixing of the fish form one group to the another, especially the smaler, ye mature, breeding males. They are much like deer...the biggest get the best and the most. Smaller fish just move on to another chunk of realestate to play the game. During the hot weather months you'll probabaly see some over- lapping beginning post spawn until the fall turn-over. But these different groups will indeed have some historical grounds that they'll occupy the rest of the year and they will move to and from these areas seasonally. I think it is the healthiest case senario that can be found when the lakes have many different micro-biomes full of crappies. It spreads the kill rate out over a greater distance and maintains a genetic healthiness that keeps things on the up side. In my favorite puddle, we see a similar situation as that which you described. And there are historical places where I can catch large craps with ease and a quarter mile away in the same type of environment, with the same sort of structure, the fish will average much smaller. Again...good topic!

------------------
Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
[email protected]

[united jigsticker]

My fingers have tired over the short time I have been on FM posting about Crappies...Rather then write about them, lets go fishing, and demonstrate actually catching them...

My boat or yours?

------------------
Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[CrappieJohn]

Tonka boy....That is what I meant by calling each pod of fish a micro-biome. It will include all age classes withing that immediate area. The question posed is a toughie to take apart and digest. Basically everything has the potential here to be right. It is entirely feasable on an eight hundred acre lake to have a half dozen different holes with very similar make-up, but to have only one produce good fish because it is under cloud cover at the opposite end of the lake. It would be a much simpler senario dealing with a lake of 50 acres and even there things could get muddled.

------------------
Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
[email protected]

[Tonka Boy]

Great topic! There are so many variables into finding patterns/locations it's a wonder we ever put 2 and 2 together. That's truely the fun part for me. That and being in the great outdoors.

You guys really know your stuff. Thanks for the insight.

------------------
Tonka Boy

[Bobb-o]

I fish a small lake that is approx 250 acres quite frequently and have discovered at least 3 or 4 different schools in different areas of the lake.

------------------
a Leap year huh? sweet, an extra day of fishing!

[Matt Johnson]

Excellent topic!

I've noticed often times in the spring, as well as much of the year, that different size classes of crappies will relate to different areas. Whether it be shallow or deep, flat or structure, etc. If I'm fishing an obvious fish holding area during winter and I'm catching 6-9 inch crappies, I can make moves where I'll find myself catching those larger fish in the 10-13 inch range like Tonka Boy said. Sometimes its the same area, but most of the time its not. If I'm catching those smaller crappies in 10 feet just off a weedline, I might have to make a move to 25 or 30 feet just off the break to an underwater saddle to locate those bigger slabs. Sometimes a move to an area that doesn't look like it will hold fish can improve your catch as well, say for example, a large mainlake basin flat, often times when a fisherman is in search of crappies he looks for some type of structure or hole, but I've noticed larger crappies roaming the mainlake flats, especially once midwinter rolls in. This being evident that the size of the fish is different depending on the area. Although this isn't always true, and like fishing goes, things can change from day to day, lake to lake, season to season, etc. There are those days when you will catch crappies anywhere from 6 to 13 inches right out of the same area and within minutes from each other.

And then the topic of "like areas" comes into play as well. I think this was touched earlier as well. If you locate these larger crappies on a specific area, say an underwater hump in 25 feet of water, then you will have a good chance of locating more crappies of that size on another nearby underwater hump with a similiar depth. I've noticed this to be true on larger lakes especially. Lakes where punching holes every 15 feet doesn't allow you to adequately cover the area you should. Sure, once you find the spot, punching holes within short distances is key. Same goes for a majority of structures. If you find fish in a 30 foot hole, then you will typically find a school of fish in another nearby 30 foot hole, assuming the lake has another one, or more. Often times the depth won't reflect each other but its a general rule of thumb. I try to keep a note of where I caught the fish, things like structure and depth, then I'll search out other areas on the lake with similiar structure, and more times then not, I'll find fish in those other spots. And those fish are generally similiar is size as well.

When it comes to spring, I like to work the areas just off the shallow weedbeds for my larger crappies. You will find those shallow beds full of smaller crappies and panfish, but I've found my bigger fish just off the initial break on top of the tappering weedline in pockets and bars. You will still get into your larger fish in the shallows, but the fish are mixed, where by fishing just off the break you find typically larger fish.

Year classes and location is always interesting. A lot of variables that come into play...lake size, fish population, surroundings (fish, forage..), etc. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the posts!

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
First Choice Guide Service

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[Tonka Boy]

Crappie Tom,

I think you can take that even further. Within each hole there is always a good chance you'll find different year classes. I often will be sitting on a school of say 6-8" crappies. I then move maybe 20' and get into a school of 10-12" crappies.

Unfortunately not all rules are concrete.

[CrappieJohn]

Matt has brought up yet another twist to this mystery. He mentioned finding the larger crappies just past the major breakline and not in the weeds so much with the smaller fish. I think that when crappies have gotten to be in the 11-? size range, they have grown out of the danger zone as far as predator fish go....the smaller ones make better targets. This allows the larger fish to find comfort and safety in different water and in fact they have become a worthy predator by this time size wise. They are less the ambush feeders as they were when they were in or at the weeds. They may still be found in weeds and they may even pluck a bite to eat there, but I think they are there for shade from the sun. Night time brings on the feed bags as we all know and crappies of all sizes then will migrate to where the food is and if it is in the weeds, well.... Another interesting thing I have noticed for years is that if there is a major breakline adjecent to their preferred spawning waters, especially if this break is preceded from shore with a moderate rate of drop that covers twenty or thirty feet,the larger fish will show up deeper than the others and use that water for spawning well before the shoreline activity is noticed.. When I see the first flush of spawning fish on the shoreline, I can bet that any larger fish caught will have already dumped and have begun to fall into the post spawn staging waters. I can get wild action off the shores for maybe three weeks at this point, but if I want big fish action I have got to trade tactics to target them specifically. Now the killer here is that, in answering this particular post, numerous schools of crappies could be found within the confines of that lake. Each will have it's spread of size and year-class fish. At one end of the lake you would be conceivable to have the smaller fish in shoreline waters spawning, the larger ones in the school spawned out and staging for post-spawn, yet all the while finding the larger fish just showing up at the deeper spawning waters at the other end of the lake. And who knows what in between!

------------------
Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
[email protected]

[7 grand kids]

Good discussion, always good to develop different ideas.

Like Tom said I think larger bodies of water do have severeal if not many distinct population of crappies. In my original post I mentioned there were two distinctly different seasonal spots that fisherman occupy. In this particular body of water I have noticed that the good winter area has virtually no one fishing the adjacent shallow water during the "spring migration". I think with some of the ideas expressed here I am going to give the "winter end" of the lake a little better checkout this spring. I maybe wrong, but I am not convinced that all the crappies on the winter end of the lake make a 1 mile trek to the spring spot when there is good adjacent shallow water (on the northwest side too) nearby. I not sure on the migratory habits of crappies, but I think of have read some articles that say they tend not to move very far. Maybe you guys can comment on this.

Better yet, I'll just fish all the spots.

[CrappieJohn]

They'll move a pretty good piece. If there is still good ice I'd be trying those transition waters now. Your larger fish will be the first to move and you may have a hole of honey open up all to your lonesome for a couple more days.

------------------
Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
[email protected]