Need help Crappie guru's!

[rodbuilder]

Ok, here's my story. On most of the lakes I fish for dump's, I find them right at sunset, until well after dark, suspended over deeper water (20-40 feet). Now, this lake I have been fishing, (lake X), the dump's have been biting in 10-12 FOW at sunset and after dark. Now, I haven't tried deeper water in this lake just because I was told they are biting in this lake in this particular shallow water area. I always thought it was safe to assume that in any crappie populated lake, hit the deeper water at night and look for suspenders. This lake X having a bite in 10 FOW has me puzzled. So, my question is, can a guy expect there to be both a deep and shallow bite in any crappie lake? Or is this shallow bite occurrence on lake X the exception rather than the rule? I have another little lake I hit, have caught craps during daylight hours in 12 FOW, but as soon as the sun hits the tree tops, you better head for 22-26 FOW or you'll miss out because they absolutely abandon the aforementioned 12 FOW location and feed heavily over the deep water.

I appreciate any input from you pros. This is only my second year after craps and am trying to make a little sense out of the chaos!

[Matt Johnson]

Yes, you can expect a lake to have both a shallow and deep water bite, however, you might have a situation where the crappies have moved shallow (which is more than likely the case). Most of my late ice crappie fishing happens in areas and depths like you mentioned, 7-15 feet. Lately I've found a good concentration of crappies to be sitting in about 10-14 feet of water right off the shallow weeds and breaklines. These fish will come through suspended and are highly aggressive when they come through. The gills are holding up shallow and relating to the bottom while the speckles are out in slightly deeper water relating to the entire water column.

My advice, if you're catching fish in 10-12 feet, I would stay in 10-12 feet

Are you getting a mixed bag of fish (size wise)? Or are they running all about the same size? Males or females?

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[rodbuilder]

Hey matt, thanks for the reply.

As far as size, mixed bag. Roughly 70% are 8-9 inch fish, 30% are larger 12-14 inchers. Is that telling you they are already grouping up for the spawn? Not sure how to "sex" a fish. I would guess the larger ones are females but what the heck do I know, I'm just an engineer!

[Matt Johnson]

LOL, I'm not sure how to "sex" a fish either Sorry, I couldn't resist

I would bet you have a mixed bag of gender as well. Good to hear you have some nice fish moving in. I wouldn't go as far as saying they are staging for the spawn just yet, but they are making shallow water movements in search of food and a change in surrounding. The depths you are targeting are good depths for where I find my larger crappies during the spawn though. I find them out on the that first break and where the transition areas are.

Both small and large fish will congregate during late ice to feed, and they might even stick together for the spawn. But I generally see the larger crappies branching off from the smaller ones when the spawn approaches. It also sounds to me like you're on a typical, healthy crappie lake. 70% 8-9 inchers and 30% are larger. Those big ones need to stay in the system to maintain the populations, and right now is an important time.

Late ice brings some of the best and most vulnerable panfishing, and this is when a person can pound the big fish, we just need to remember to use our best judgment and let the slabs go back (I'm not saying that you're keeping them, just a general rule ).

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[augernaut]

I dunno, I'm not much of a ladie's man, but I would just suggest sliding up next to them, maybe compliment them on their fins, buy them a beer and a maggot.....

Sorry....

:-)

[CrappieJohn]

You may be looking at a water temp thing. During the daytime the shallower water may be able to warm up a bit and hold the crappies, but as night time comes along, the deeper water , which obviously has more volumn, holds the heat longer and later. This latenet heat may be attracting the crappies or it could be that it is causing a bug hatch....probably to first idea though. Crappies will deviate from one place to another over a single degree of temperature difference.

[rodbuilder]

Guess I should have expected a smart a$$ answer from some of you guys!

Tom, Interesting point. This shallow location is on the north side of the lake, which has been seeing significant melting and run-off recently, therefore, the water temp. may be a little warmer. Also, this lake is gin clear, has been all winter. I noticed in the past 3 weeks that there is a significant stain to the water. In fact, its tough to see a snot rocket come in at 12 ft., when you can typically see bottom in 20 Ft. I am guessing the stain is due to the run-off. Interesting, maybe I'll start looking at other places along this north shore. On a typical evening, I only catch 5-8 craps and the bite dies. It'd be nice to find a little more productive location so I could limit out at least once! Thanks for all the input!

Nate

[chasinredeyes]

Move around and you will noticeably improve your odds against these crappies (usually). Especially in the warmer weather that is typical of late ice, its a very enjoyable time to be fishing.

Like Matt said, make sure those big slab females are being released. Take a picture and slide them back down the hole.

Before we know it we will be casting slip bobbers for the paper mouths.

[The Grebe]

I like this, makes sense to me....that would explain why you get late season day bites...I'm going to have to test this tommarrow, maybe we got the tail end of the bite tonight?

Late yesterday afternoon, we nailed some nice sunnies, but as evening came on, instead of the bite picking up, it died down? Maybe the sunnies are affected in the same way?

[CrappieJohn]

Grebe....Sunfish will react to these daily changes just as the crappies do. Your bite falling off as the day gets darker is a normal thing for this time of year as sunfish are terribly notorious for being a daytime fish. They may turn on during the depths of night, but I think they need to acclimate to the darkness in order for their eyes to pick up foods at that time, thus the down time after dark.

[The Grebe]

CT...no, I did'nt mean Sunnies were night time fish, heck, I know that...I must have wrote that wrong?

What I was saying, or trying to say, was that for the most part, the sunnie bite on the lakes that I fish, is really slow during the days of winter, but will progressively increase as the day wears on toward evening. There is an hour or so span just before dark where often as not, the best bite occurs. After dark sunnies don't bite...thats a given, except in rare incidents.

But all of a sudden at this time of year, late ice, the sunnies start biting during the day and slack off during the time they would normally bite, during midwinter.

What I was trying to say is that the warming water might affect them in the same way as the crappies...not that they would bite during the dark, but that they would bite during the warm time of the day...that would be right in line with how I interpetted your post on warming waters.