Tricks to catching suspended crappies???

[RangeFishing]

Today we were lucky and set up right on top of a spot that the crappies were schooling up on literally all day long. They were staying suspended anywhere from 2-15 feet off bottom and proved to be a super tricky bite.

While we did go home with out limit Im wondering what your tricks are to catching fish suspended in deeper water. We were in 40 FOW today.

I tried many many lures, tried wax worms, crawlers and crappie minnows (all of which caught at least one fish). But the bite was super on and off. We could drop it right in the middle of the bunch and tried jigging, tried leaving it be and letting them decide.

What are some of the things you try when the fish are suspended?? Any advice would be great!

[mainbutter]

Sounds to me like you attacked it right.. I certainly don't have an answer for you. If I find fish and can't get 'em to bite, I try a billion different things.

My "last resort" for any fish I can see but can't get to bite is fly fishing flies. I downsize and downsize and downsize until I get a bite, I give up, or I have to leave. I haven't tried small flies under the ice, but I have some ideas for rigging them up to get them down to fish I can spot on a flasher.

[BartmanMN]

The barometric pressure spiked up yesterday, which would tell me the bite would be finicky. Down sizing and possibly slowing presentation is what I would try on those days. You hit them, so good job. Those days can be very frustrating when you are sitting on them and they won't take anything.

[Zelmsdawg]

I don't know how much it'll help but my 2 thoughts were first, fish the fish that are higher up. I believe the higher the fish is the more active it is? Perhaps others have some opinions.

Then while it doesn't exactly answer your question, I know of lakes like that and while you can sit ontop of the school all day, I try to find areas where they leave the basin in the evening and just fish an hour or so as they move out perhaps on their way to feed ? They seem to bite more aggresive then.

[TruthWalleyes]

1) Typically the fish highest in the water column are the most active.

a)Not necessarily the biggest though.

2) I always start with a moderate to large lure and downsize from there

a)While downsizing, try different baits, euros, waxies, minnow heads, minnow tails, plastics

3) Horizontal and vertical jigs can make a huge difference also.

4) Type of jigging motion. 1/4" jiggles, deadstick, 6" rips.

I've even had days where i had to hook the crappie minnow in the side to get a bite, in the back or head didn't do it.

Also, crappies like to eat bugs, there are many plastics out there that represent all kinds of bugs.

Good Luck...Sometimes the bite is just off, but there is usually something that will trigger a feeding frenzy.

I should also add that fish DO NOT like spinning lures.

[Jim Uran]

If you can get the fish to rise up to your lure, that usually does it

Sometimes they want it sitting still, sometimes they want to play cat and mouse..

I'd fish with two lines, one float line with a small crappie minnow and one jigging line use plastics and play with your presentation.

The Lindy Toad and Bug are two presentations that come to mind for your jigging rod, or a diamond jig.

A demon or a Lindy Frostee for your float rod, tipped with a lively crappie minnow set just above the schooling fish.

[goblueM]

Something that I've noticed on a couple lakes:

IF there are fish stacked up, sometimes I will catch one or two right away out of a hole, and then the bite will die even though the fish are all still there.

Then I can go to another hole 20 feet away, repeat process. 10 or 15 minutes later I'll come back to the first hole and yank out one immediately.

Have others experienced this?

[OnAFly]

Yes, I believe the fish are spooked at that point. They see a couple buddies suddenly disappear and they start getting paranoid. Give them a few minutes where they see their buddies eat some bugs and not get yanked and they think the coat is clear and it's time to feed again.

It's similar to trout fishing. Catch a few out of a hole, let it rest for 15 minutes and catch a few more after things have calmed down. It's a pretty common tactic.

[pikestabber]

Something that I've noticed on a couple lakes:

IF there are fish stacked up, sometimes I will catch one or two right away out of a hole, and then the bite will die even though the fish are all still there.

Then I can go to another hole 20 feet away, repeat process. 10 or 15 minutes later I'll come back to the first hole and yank out one immediately.

Have others experienced this?

That's almost exclusively how I fish crappies suspended over deep water when they are in scattered little pockets. Generally, I punch 15-20 holes to start with about 10-15 feet apart throughout the area (assuming I have marked any fish). I will spend about five minutes in a hole, or less, and try to pick off the aggressive fish. If they keep biting, keep fishing. If not, and you yank out one or two and it slows down, move to the next hole. After you fish the other holes, start over. More often than not, that works for me.

As for a fish's aggressiveness in relation to the water column, start with the highest fish and keep your lure 5 or more feet above it. Tease it up. Don't drop any lower unless it won't budge. Generally, the higher you get a fish to go, the likelier they are to bite, IMO. I never drop right down to a fish and certainly never below a fish until I am certain it won't bite. Then I work my way down to the next fish.

[Jim Uran]

Another thing you can do is just wait it out lol.. Ive ran into them like that too, where you are marking fish like crazy and all of a sudden it's like someone turns on a switch and they start biting like crazy.

[rangerforme]

Alot of times if the fish are finicky and rising up to your bait they actually might be biting but detecting the bite is the trick. We fished a last last weekend where they would slowly come up to our lures, we couldn't catch one. Then I went to a super fine wire spring bobber and small tungten jig with a small plastic and would just jiggle it watch them rise up on my vex then just stop and watch the spring bobber, I must have caught 15 to my buddies 1 from that point on. They would barely, I mean barely put a tiny amount of slack in the line and you'd see the spring bobber raise up a centimeter and you had them.

So alot of times they may be biting but detecting bites can be a challenge.

[Jim Uran]

Very good point rangerforme, I switched to a smaller spring bobber rod this year and noticed quite the difference on detecting those light biters!

[TruthWalleyes]

Alot of times if the fish are finicky and rising up to your bait they actually might be biting but detecting the bite is the trick. We fished a last last weekend where they would slowly come up to our lures, we couldn't catch one. Then I went to a super fine wire spring bobber and small tungten jig with a small plastic and would just jiggle it watch them rise up on my vex then just stop and watch the spring bobber, I must have caught 15 to my buddies 1 from that point on. They would barely, I mean barely put a tiny amount of slack in the line and you'd see the spring bobber raise up a centimeter and you had them.

So alot of times they may be biting but detecting bites can be a challenge.

Couldn't agree more. They can spit the lure out just as fast as they suck it in. A camera can make these days a lot of fun. I outfished my buddy 10 to 1 by dropping a camera down on a very finiky day...But them darn crappies kept turning my camera just as one was coming up to the bait.

[Jim Uran]

LOL! They will do that, they are that sneaky!! HAHaH!

[websdown]

Seaguar GrandMax fluorcarbon if it is light out at night not really needed. But it is the clearest of Fluoro lines that we have tested., I use 4lb its thinner than 4lb mono and alot stronger and it sinks.Its all we use Steelhead fishing in clear water.We have landed 20lb Kings on 6lb GrandMax. Not cheap! I do only use about 2 1/2 feet below a small #10 or 12 black ant swivel.

[rangerforme]

Seaguar GrandMax fluorcarbon if it is light out at night not really needed. But it is the clearest of Fluoro lines that we have tested., I use 4lb its thinner than 4lb mono and alot stronger and it sinks.Its all we use Steelhead fishing in clear water.We have landed 20lb Kings on 6lb GrandMax. Not cheap! I do only use about 2 1/2 feet below a small #10 or 12 black ant swivel.

That might be another thing, I rarely use over 2lb test flouro, if you tie a good not you can land a 10lb pike on it if you have patience. Sometimes anything heavier with small jigs will have just enough coil to make it tough to see bites as well.

[fish_eat_sleep]

Those are probably very small inactive fish. depends on the lake and time of year though obviously. I ran into that last week. 5"-7" crappies 18-20' down over 25' of water and caught 3 micro sized fish in 6 hours.