IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Iowa => Ice Fishing Iowa => Topic started by: Randy Cox on Dec 15, 2003, 11:45 AM
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Last year I had a lot of trouble locating crappies. I was able to find all the gills that I wanted. I know that there are a lot of factors that may affect where a certain species of fish will gather. But in general where are some key areas that would be good to targer crappies. Would these places be good in early ice/Late ice? I was able to find some crappies suspended last year but what makes these fish do this? Any information would be appreciated.
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Yea thats a good one.Unlike other pan fish(from what ive heard )and depths ive caught other pan fish at (6 inches off the bottom). Crappie are higher in the the water table and will rise up to to the bait . Everyone I know that fishes crappie ,fish higher in the water . The best way to locate your crappie in the lake you fish is to find them during fall fishing thats where theyll be in the winter. So Ive heard. I myself have the best luck in shallower water fishing above weed beds and around fallen trees. I caught 2 nice crappie just the other day ( sun went down and fishing shut off) anyway 1st one I caught was 4 foot down in 16 ft of water and the the other i caught was in 6 feet of water 4 ft below surface also... Last year we caught all our crappie pretty much the same places shallower water and higher in the water table..Hope this helps.I would sure like to hear more on this myself....
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Last fall I was able to catch crappies in 15' of water over a bed of old christmas trees. I was able to catch one almost every cast, none were of very large size. If they are still there I will be able to tell right away. Thanks for the help.
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tcox
if you are convinced you are on a location with crappies in the area, seeing them on the vexilar, previous outings, etc., and can't tease them into biting or are only landing a few, try changing times. If you usually fish in the heart of the day, try sunrise or dusk, or after dark. These fish you are sitting on might feed at very specific times and if you are on them when they feed you can make it worthwhile before they shut off again. The crappies, for whatever reason seem to get to "choose" when they feed but the bluegills seem to be more opportunistic feeders, eating at all times.
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Crappies were a little tougher to come by through the ice for many I fish with and talked to last year. I ended up catching quite a few and some nice ones, but they just seemed to not pattern like they have in past years. Crappie come through so high in the water column sometimes and I think electronics are the only way to really get them when they are like that....how can you know what depth to fish if you dont know what depth they are coming through? This past weekend I noticed a fish come in 5 ft down in 10ft of water....it was a crappie. Started to hit the depth a little more with my rod and got on a few more. In Big Creek last year I was fishing eyes off the bottom in 30ft of water and had to pull up to ice the occasional crappie coming through 9ft down. You just never know. SOme good articles out there now about how they suspend, specifically off of structure.....if you are fishing a brush pile on a dropoff in 10ft of water and they disappear, try fishing out over the dropoff and basin adjacent to the structure, but at that 10ft level.
goody
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Thanks for the help goody. The structure that I fished this weekend was first located on a 12 foot deep flat. But then it continued out over a drop off. I started on the structure while my friend fished the drop he had much better luck with crappies than I did until I moved to the drop. Although he was in 18 feet of water the crappies still came through at the same depths.
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Yeah, I've noticed that you can hit gills, walleyes, and everything on the bottom, but craps tend to do their own thing. If you're seeing blips up high, get your bait up their with it. You can pretty much bet its going to be a crappie.