crappie from the bottom up!

[RonZych]

So I'm sittin in 25-30 feet of water. I'm marking crappie from the bottom up to 10 feet under the ice. In anyones experience with this where do the bigger fish in the group seem to hang out? Near the bottom?the top? middle? Or maybe they don't seem to have a pattern. I know it varies from lake to lake and day to they but in general is there a area amongst the masses? maybe on the edge of the group of fish? I know the bigger ones like to hang out together. All input will be stored in my brains long term memory.

Ron

[Matt Johnson]

Sometimes I find the larger fish to be holding right under the ice, other times they're right on the bottom. Usually they are less aggressive then your typical 9-inch Metro crappie, so coaxing them to bite can be difficult when you're trying to dodge those kamikazee little fish.

For me, I'll just work the fish on top and the work my way down. But if I know that spot holds bigger fish, I might by pass some of the fish actively roaming the higher water and I'll go more towards the bottom. This can also land you some nice gills too...

[CrappieJohn]

Find a food source and that will answer your question. Crappies will straitfy according to age/size....especially when the feed bag is on. If they are not feeding, crappies will co-mingle and mixed sizes are not uncommon....they are very social fish. The two times they are less than friendly is when the spawn is on and then of course the males will have issues with anything that gets too close to his bedroom and again when they feed. Keep in mind that the largest fish will have the primo dinner setting at his nose and the larger fish will aggressively push the lesser fish away from where the food is being found. When the pigs are pigged out, the next age/size group fill in the holes and it just keeps going downhill until the available food runs out or it is too large for the smallest fish to eat.

If the fish appear to be milling around, chances are they are neutral. They will bite, but they are not on a binge. Try dropping into the mix until you get a dandy. Mark your depth at the hit and go back to that mark again. If you come up with another nice one, you may be on a streak. If your catch has random nice fish mixed with smaller ones, you will not llikely be able to be too precise in taking better fish only.

[Corey Bechtold]

To simplify, just try fishing some larger baits. Jigging spoons, larger minnows or plastics. Sometimes smaller fish will look but the larger ones will slide in and take the bait. I have tried this many times when I wanted to up-size my catch and it works great.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold