Suspended crappie

[Galarno]

Where would you find the larger fish when they are suspended 7 to 12 ft in 15 fow. Kind of new to pan fish, normally chase the eyes. Kind of figured this would be the place to find out.

Thanks guys

[EBass]

Bigger crappies act differently so they may not be in that school/area. But the more active fish should be towards the top.

[jumboperch]

What Ebass said.

[slipperybob]

The big fish can be at the extreme edge of the school. I usually catch mine either high above or below. I do both aggressive and deadstick presentation up high but usually finesse and deadstick presentation down low when I'm looking for the bigger fish.

[jwhjr]

I've found that lately for me anyway the larger ones tend to be the ones that come into the flasher either above or below where the rest of the school is. When I see the mark come in fast I'll move the lure up or down to it and see if I can pull it in.

[tjoutdoors]

How about this situation. I was fishing panfish in about 12 feet of water this weekend when I looked into my hole to see how far down I could see. The crappies were right under the ice looking like they were going to come up my hole and say hello. I couldn't get them to even look at my ice ant and wax worm. No minnows to try. I was catching sunfish about 8 to 10 feet down and the occassional crappie as well. Just couldn't get those high flyers to bite.

[slipperybob]

You just never know that sometimes they're soo tight lipped that it takes a flashy spoon to tease them into a reaction strike, much like large mouth bass do. Sometimes it's that falling wobble, sometimes it's the quick rise, sometimes it's that shake and rattle. You just never know. Sometimes it's only that subsurface bobber that can get the fish.

I think that when water is very clear, that sometimes they just don't bite becuase they've been pressured and conditioned to seeing lines or overhead activity. It's weird that sometimes when with the onset of night, the crappies turn on their feed activity without warning. In some instances, it appears to be a night feed pattern when they don't feed during daylight hours.

[bassbozo]

I know what you are saying slippery I was walleye fishing in a small lake with a buckshot rattlespoon and was catching crappies on it. I tried crappie minnows, small jigs, and smaller rattlespoons but they didn't wat it. They seemed to want that 3/8 ounce rattle spoon. Also mangaged to ice two walleyes along with the four crappies. That multispecies fishing like that is fun.

[Matt Johnson]

I wouldn't be afraid to slide up even shallower if you're looking for a few big hooks. If those fish are coming through that high, then I bet you could draw a line towards shallow water and catch fish relating closer to the bottom in 5-7 feet (2 feet off bottom or so)...