crappies

[Guest]

hello everybody,
I've got some questions for you. I have fished a small lake near my area this weekend both days and caught aroung 50 crappies. They were about 7 inches in length.I was fishing in 20 feet of water with the lake max at 40 feet. Where are all the bigger crappies at??? There has to be big crappies down there. Any help would be appreciated. Thanx

[Steve Foss]

Are you sure there are bigger fish there? "Small lake" sounds like it could get slammed pretty hard. But if you're sure there are bigger ones, I guess I'd just hit the deepest water and the shallower water if the 7-inchers are in the mid-depths. Small lake should mean you could cover it by punching a lot of holes and experimenting.

But in all the schools I've been on of crappies, I haven't noticed that the big ones school separately from the small ones. It's different at URL, where one or two year classses dominate the fishery. Most places you've got lots of different sizes, and I've usually caught three or four different year classes from the same school.

Anybody else have 2c to put in?

And have fun doing it.

[This message has been edited by stfcatfish (edited 12-15-2002).]

[Fish On]

the only thing i could recommend is stay away from the groups i fish metro mn lakes and i used to be a hard head and follow the other fisherman not to say i did not catch fish we would catch lots of crappies just 7-8 inches one day i got brave and decided to do some exploring i found a school of crappies rangeing from 11 to 13 inches wich is rare to see one fish that size come out of this lake every night i would be the lone wolf out there one lanteren burning then eventualy people did what i feared and followed the fisherman the next year there were 80 permenents out there and no more large fish all i can say is they are out there that time i found them 5 feet shallower than i was fishing before but if you do find them keep it quiet because a small lake can be plucked clean quickly!!!

[Guest]

I would take a close look at where you caught your crappie at to see why they were there,structure and depth. I would have a tendancy to look a little deeper on structure.

[Guest]

try the night bite,the big boys come out @night,i y r getting nothing but small crappies move and keep moveing til u find the slabs

[Guest]

It is still early, look shallow. Think about weeds. With no snow there is still lots of oxygen and good weeds in the shallow water. Scott Steil

[JP Z]

I know all the crappie fishing I do is in the 40'+ And we still have numerous year classes. Sunday when I was out we had one that was on 7 inches but then the rest were 11 to 13. This was from 7am to 8:15am. But we've also done well from 3:45Pm to 4:30pm. But then the fish are higher off the bottom, somewhere around 9feet off. Just my 2cents.