Black crappie woes
Posted: Sun May 01, 2016 1:12 pm
Hi all,
The spring crappie hunt is something that I had not pursued in earlier springs, but this year I was convinced to try it out.
I was out on the Miss R at Appleton this past Saturday looking for some of these guys, and while the weather was fantastic for the first trip out, not a single crappie was willing to bite. We fished from 10am - 4pm, tried from the very shallows ( < 2') with the stumps and fallen wood, fished across shallow flats where you could see the lilly pads were starting to poke up, and then the deeper edge areas (8-12') - found some OOS critters out here, but no crappie. For baits we were mostly using 1/16 jigheads with assorted small (1.5 - 2.5" plastics) either under a float (2-3' down) or without the float for some of the deeper sections. Worms were tried as well (got some small perch on those) We were primarily trying to stay out of the current areas and find warmer water but no dice. Surface temps were in the 55 - 59 F range according to my sonar unit .
A few questions for the group :
- Was this too late for the crappie bite : Did I miss the window ? Wait again until next year ?
- I have caught crappie on this area of the river in the summer as incidentals while bass fishing, but perhaps there is not a good population on this region of the river ?
- Is the bite generally better in the afternoon/evening or morning for these little guys.
Any other tips / suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks
Fox
PS: Its been quite a while since my last post, but glad to see that the site is kicking along. Congrats to RJ & Luke for keeping it running.
The spring crappie hunt is something that I had not pursued in earlier springs, but this year I was convinced to try it out.
I was out on the Miss R at Appleton this past Saturday looking for some of these guys, and while the weather was fantastic for the first trip out, not a single crappie was willing to bite. We fished from 10am - 4pm, tried from the very shallows ( < 2') with the stumps and fallen wood, fished across shallow flats where you could see the lilly pads were starting to poke up, and then the deeper edge areas (8-12') - found some OOS critters out here, but no crappie. For baits we were mostly using 1/16 jigheads with assorted small (1.5 - 2.5" plastics) either under a float (2-3' down) or without the float for some of the deeper sections. Worms were tried as well (got some small perch on those) We were primarily trying to stay out of the current areas and find warmer water but no dice. Surface temps were in the 55 - 59 F range according to my sonar unit .
A few questions for the group :
- Was this too late for the crappie bite : Did I miss the window ? Wait again until next year ?
- I have caught crappie on this area of the river in the summer as incidentals while bass fishing, but perhaps there is not a good population on this region of the river ?
- Is the bite generally better in the afternoon/evening or morning for these little guys.
Any other tips / suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks
Fox
PS: Its been quite a while since my last post, but glad to see that the site is kicking along. Congrats to RJ & Luke for keeping it running.