Crappie
Spring (Start of Season)
Crappie are a rite of spring for many anglers, and for good reason - they are scrappy on
light line, are relatively easy to catch and they taste delicious in the pan. Look for
shallow cover for pre and post-spawn fish. Things to keep an eye out for are old wooden
docks, cane beds, stumps and trees and thick weed beds. Suspending a small micro tube jig
under a float is your best bet to entice these fish, and tipping your jig with a small
piece of worm or minnow can bring better results if the fish are extremely finicky. A tip
to keep in mind - a crappies' eyes are on the top of its head so a short length of line
between float and bait will keep the lure in the fishes strike zone.
Summer
After the spawn, the crappie will seek out deeper water and the schools of fish that
occurred during the spring will disperse throughout the lake. Summer fish will now relate
to structure in water from six to 20 feet deep. The one variable to keep an eye out for is
healthy green weed beds and feeding shelves on the lake bottom. Schools of baitfish will
also congregate hungry crappie, so keeping an eye on your fishfinder will often be the
trick to locating fish. There are a number of lures that work well during the summer,
namely small, deep-diving crankbaits, micro jigs on slip float setups, and small spoons
that can be vertically jigged. Once you catch a fish, throwing out a marker buoy will help
you stay in the area that is holding fish.
Fall
Crappies movements in the fall are much like in the summer. Fish will continue to hold
deep, yet they will begin to suspend off of prime structure areas in the general vicinity
of baitfish schools. Summer presentations are your best lure options, but the general rule
in the fall is to fish slower. Tossing a crankbait while barely turning the reel handle or
jigging a spoon with 10 to 20 second pauses in between will entice these semi-active fish
to hit. Cloudy, windy days seem to bring fish higher up in the water column, while sunny,
bright days will push the finicky crappie deeper.
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