Thinking of Spring...

[eyepatrol]

Since my ice fishing is done for this year, I've been thinking of spring crappie fishing. Being basically new to crappie fishing, I've got a couple questions on spring crappies and was hoping to draw on everyone's knowledge and experience.

First, how long after ice out will the crappie start to move shallow? Is it right when the ice is gone, a couple weeks later...water temp specific?

Also, do they move shallow into bays, nearby culvert inlets and outlets, or off main lake points? How shallow will they go?

Finally, what is the recommended bait & presentation to use? Plain hook and minnow w/ slip bobber, some sort of crappie jig, etc? Is it best to cast a bobber and sit and wait or throw say a little beetlespin and do a cast and retrieve until you locate them?

I've never really been a crappie fisherman per say, I've always fished for walleye, sunnies, and pike. But now that I've caught crappie this ice season, I've got crappie in my veins and want to learn as much as I can and apply that to my outings.

Thanks for the responses!

[Matt Breuer]

All of your questions have great answers in them!! I believe you do have crappies in your veins!

Right after the ice goes, you can start catching them. They move up really really shallow when the water temps. reach the mid 50's.

Slip bobber and a 1/32 oz. jig with a plastic and a crappie minnow will more than do the trick. Or you can cast bettlespins for fun fast action. Don't forget the new Salmo Hornet in size 3 for those crappies as well!

Good luck!

[CrappieJohn]

You will find the keys to most of your answers buried in water temperature. All you need to remember though is that crappies are a warm water fish...they prefer warm water and that preference makes them one of the most senitive fish to water temp changes.

As soon as open water appears, even if it is found between two big sheets of ice and with current, you will find perhaps the largest crappies of the season there. One degree warmer in water temp can draw crappies from quite a distance, but you will not find a major exodus.

To make a point: Rick (owner of this site) and I fish a stretch of open water that will develope in the ice sheet on a particular lake each spring. There will be solid ice on both sides of this open water. The water temp found in the open water will be about 44 degrees on nice days (40 or so), yet the temp found directly adjecent to the ice is still 36 degrees. (So you know, the water will pick up these extra degrees from solar energy even if there are thin clouds. Heavy clouds are not the best times for this early fishing.)We find crappies in this area in numbers.

While this open water is toying with being eight to 9 feet deep, the bulk of the fish will come off the baits fished less than four feet from the surface. There is no such thing as a deep fish. The reason? It's the top four feet or so that have the heat, any lower and you are right back in the refridgerator again.

The one quirk Rick and I have pretty much come to accept with these early fish is their aggressiveness toward plastics and not much interest in the traditional live baits like minnows and waxies. The Culprit Paddletail has been outstanding as a bait for these yet frigid crappies. The crappie stingers are another good cold water plastic.

The bottom line here is that water temps are the most detrimental of all natural influences on crappies....and sunfish for that matter. It is some of that extremely early open water that can pay big dividends to those who pay close attention to the temperature of that water and vacate some of the old, traditional thinking about the need for live bait until the water is bathtub warm. This kind of fishing is generous fishing. Two or three degrees in temp can take you from a so-so bite, catching so-so fish using live bait to a bite where some of the largest fish of the season are prowling just under the surface and will tear into a slowly worked plastic like there is no tomorrow.

My advice is to buy three things and be sure to have them with you on every outting. A good thermometer (Gander carries a dandy in the trout fishing dept), a pen and a notebook. Tie six to eight foot line to the thermometer. Test water temps at the deepest it will go on the line and again at the surface. Very early on you will be wanting to concentrate on the surface temps, as that is where the fishing will be found. When the deep/shallow redings are the same, concentrate on deeper fish. Log these according to date and time of day along with sun/clouds/ rain etc,etc. You will be able to see a pattern devlope that can act as a guide for future trips. I've done this for over twenty years and have used nothing but plastics for over 15 years once the water is open to any degree. And it is degrees that you need to pay attention to!