When do they Bite?

[kiefer06]

What time do the crappies biting? And about what depth are they now-a-days?

[Corey Bechtold]

Evenings have been best for me lately. A lot of lakes get this kind of programing because of boat traffic (skiers, jetski's, wakeboarders,etc). Weedlines are holding fish, especially if there is deep water nearby. Try looking in the 6'-10' depths first. Plastics and live bait are working but mostly plastics for me.

Hope this helps,

Corey Bechtold

[CrappieJohn]

Corey has mentioned one of the two summer biggies: water traffic. The severe heat we have seen lately is the other.

When the elements throw the pannies curve balls, it is amazing at how fast they will change habits. Fishing the evening low-light period is one way to track these critters down, but I have always found the very early morning bite to be even more consistant. The traffic on the water has been reduced greatly for a longer period of time so the fish are more at ease and the evening/night temps help to pull a bit of the heat from the water which helps to get fish higher up in the water column and even into some shoreline structure.

Stormy weather offers yet another option if you can time things to get ahead of any fronts coming through safely. And any day with heavy overcast will do you right.