Where did they go?

[eriksat1]

Up until about a week ago I was hammering the crappie at the mouth of this bay, now they are gone, haven't caught or seen a crappie in a week fishing or on the aqua vu camera, nothing but loads of bluegill. Do you think they moved back out deeper, or in shallower into the bay? I have been fishing in the mouth of the bay in 10 fow, inside the bay it is about 5 ft average and very weedy, outside the bay it tapers down to 30 foot. I'm not sure which way to try. We still have 2 feet of ice. It just seems like they have vanished, I have even been trying at night after dark no luck, I'm convinced that they have moved. It is a big bay so if they scattered inside the shallow bay it would be a needle in a hay stack. I might have to try a different lake.

[fishingsurveyor]

Sounds like to me you caught the m all LOL
Try a bit deeper try to find the weed line break

[eriksat1]

I found the deep weed line break, but it is loaded with northern pike, LM bass, and some muskie, coming in to spawn. I know that could be the main reason they left, but which way did they go?

[bart]

My guess would be shallower into the bay? They are probably moving towards their spawning areas, especially the bays on the north shore with a feeder stream/run off.

[sparky]

I'll go another way, try deeper.  We had the same thing here the fish were in 12-18 fow and all of a sudden they were no where to be found.  I tried shallower and all I could catch were gills.  On a lark I tried were the water dropped from 17-26 fow.  Not actually fishing the drop off but out from the drop off about 10 yards.  I fished deep (bottom 2 feet) and all I was catching were gills but I was marking fish coming through at 17 feet the same depth I was catching crappie before but on structure.  I dropped a jig and minnow real slow when ever I marked a fish and as soon as I saw the mark start to come up I knew it was a crappie.  So far this week I've caught close to a hundred crappie with this method.

If you have those kind of predator fish in the shallows no self respecting fish will stay around unless they want to become dinner.  I've really had a blast last week and this week catching the fish almost like playing a video game, mark fish and do the jiggle wiggle to get them to bite.

[eriksat1]

I was thinking maybe they went deep also, they don't typically spawn around here until mid to late May about the time the Lilacs bloom, and thats a long ways away from now.

[bart]

I was thinking maybe they went deep also, they don't typically spawn around here until mid to late May about the time the Lilacs bloom, and thats a long ways away from now.

Either way keep me posted on what you find out, always willing to learn.  
With my guess, "They are probably moving towards their spawning areas", not to spawn, but they tend to migrate to these areas at late ice. And how big of a bay are we talking about? Also maybe the increase of oxygen with a feeder stream, run off, new weed growth(maybe too early???) may cause them to move further into that bay???
Hope you find them to let us know...

[Van_Cleaver]

The crappie in the nearest lake started moving into the shallows by mid Feb. It is one of the two main spawning areas, and they will remain there at least til the spawn. (Some time in April) I only point this out to suggest that they stage in these areas a lot sooner than most people expect it. The ice just off that lake, and I took four nice ones (along with some big gills) today in about 4-5fow. I would also suggest trying shallow bays especially in and around the weeds.