trying to get a jump on Crappies this

[dtg]

Spring. About 5 years ago, my brother, some freinds and I were fishing a local lake with minnows. None of us can remember the month, we just remember the results. Anyhow, we were fishing with minnows and brought in 18, 9-11" crappies in 1/2 hour, from the same spot.

Every year, I get caught up in doing other thigs and totally miss the Crappie Hot time. Is it Late March, early April that is the best time to catch these tasty critters or is it Mid April-May? Or is the rule of thumb to hit them as soon as the ice goes out?

EDJUMACATE ME!!!!!

[scottyhoover]

Last year I hit them great from the last week in March until the end of April. The fish will bite now, its just a matter of getting out there. Sunny days get the party going faster. For the first couple weeks they'll be just off the spawning spots and they will move up as the water warms.

[CubanFisherman]

Spring. About 5 years ago, my brother, some freinds and I were fishing a local lake with minnows. None of us can remember the month, we just remember the results. Anyhow, we were fishing with minnows and brought in 18, 9-11" crappies in 1/2 hour, from the same spot.

Every year, I get caught up in doing other thigs and totally miss the Crappie Hot time. Is it Late March, early April that is the best time to catch these tasty critters or is it Mid April-May? Or is the rule of thumb to hit them as soon as the ice goes out?

EDJUMACATE ME!!!!!

I have the same problem! One year, only one, the crappies were spawning and they would hit any small crankbait I threw out there. I have never been able to find the fishing like that again. I guess I'll have to try sometime in April.

[dtg]

Looks like I'll have to do some drive by's and keep an eye on the ice. As soon as I can launch my boat, I'm hitten 'em!!!



Has anybody caught anything worth while in Lincoln Lake? I bring my 3yr old fishing with me there, because no matter where I drop anchor, she can catch a buttload of 3-4" panfish. I know she won't get bored there. I even stopped bringing my own pole, because everytime I rebait her hook and toss it in, it's time to reel it in again.

So far, she's stayed out there for 2.5 hours with me, before she says, can we go home now Daddy? I'm curious how she'll do this year, now that she's a year older.

[MrBluegill]

i like to spank the specks right befor april!;)

[Frozenfish]

Here was a thread from last year. I can't believe that it was this late in the year. I thought it was much earlier....

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99083

We must have caught them at the right time, cause it was nuts. I have never exp. fishing like that ever for crappie!!!!

[tdduckman]

I caught crappies that are staging before their pre-spawn mode this weekend

In Indiana I caught White and Black crappies from 9-12inches on a North eastern reservior. They were 9-12 feet down in 20-10 foot of water. they were not very aggressive but took minnows, 1/16 once jigs and minnows, and jigs with tube bodies.


That was saturday.


Sunday I fished on my home lake (Somerset) and was the first boat on the lake for the year. There still was some Ice on one of the bays



The crappies were 9 foot down in 10 foot of water next to a sunken island/reef that went up to 6 foot. They hit on tube jigs tipped with crappie nibbles.


They will take the next 3 weeks to move shallow depending on the water temp. at 55 degrees they will move in to prespawn areas, at 60 degrees they will move into spawn mode.


March, April, May Crappies are very predictable, Remember put the big spawning females Back! (I don't keep them over 12 inches).

Here is a 15 incher that my son caught and released last april

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/529/medium/matt_crappie_3.jpg


That day we keep 20 between 10-12inches and threw back 10 12 + inchers and 50 below 10!

Jig and bobber great way to show kids how to do it.


Here is a picture from May last year:


http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/529/emmacrappie1.jpg

Same lake, couldn't fish myself because I was too busy taking fish off for 2, 7 year old girls







Good luck!!

[scottyhoover]

The time to jump is now.

http://homepage.umflint.edu/~schoover/images/panfish/P4090004.jpg

[wyle_e_coyote]

We've been tearing them up for a week now. Hope be out tomorrow evening again. Might start looking for gills also tomorrow.
Get'em while there fresh..;)

Good luck everyone.

[TopGunner22]

last week was the week for crappies... my brothers and i killed em and this week we couldn't catch a thing...

[scottyhoover]

Every lake is different and the spawn can go in short bursts. some days they're up and some days they're not.

[jcurtis]

we do pretty well on lincoln lake, and the other connected lakes as well. There is a lot of good cover on lincoln and we always manage to catch fish.

Matter of fact ill be out there tonight on my parents pontoon and hopefully saturday and sunday too :)

i dont know if you have been there since the fixed up the boat launch but its a lot nicer now. they actually have a dock and everything!

[bigbob]

we are going tomarow will post when we get back

[dtg]

Of course last week was the week, that's when I couldn't get out!!!!!:lol: :lol: I'm taking a buddy and his two soms out tomorrow morning, then taking my daughter out in the afternoon.

So nobody is mentioning minnows, looks like wax worms is the preferred bait?

[LilyDuck]

I remeber last year that we tore them up in the middle of May. Before the opening of bass. This year we have only managed to catch one we were fishing a deep lake though and were only out there for an hour or so

[MrBluegill]

now! now! now! the spown in over and they are feeding like a starving lion!! minnow on slip bobber or minnow on 1/32oz jig works great

[walleyechaser]

Sorry Mr Bluegill but the spawn/bedding won't even start for another few weeks.
Crappies are leaving the canals and true shallows after the ice out bite and are staging now on weed beds in most lakes prior to prespawn.
Thursday night the crappies were in heavy over weed beds in 8 to 11 FOW and the water temp was 51 degrees at the surface. This was on a clear lake.
In lakes with murky water they will be slightly shallower, 4 to 8 fow, near the areas they spawn in.
When they do bed, you'll rarely find the beds by sight as the crappies tend to spawn in water that is about 2 to 3 feet deeper than you can see bottom in.
Find them staging now and when the water warms to between 58-60 degrees fish the inside edges of the heavy weed beds to find the spawning beds.

[dtg]

Ended up in Lincoln Lake and finally caught a fish....1 6" fat perch which was returned. We did find a phantom bobber near the shoreline that kept moving and disappearing below the surface. My buddy was on a quest to catch the moving bobber, we'd motor ahead of it and as we'd drift near it, it would dive down and a away. At around noon, it decided to head for deeper water, because it went down the last time to never be seen again.

I did get A LOT of sun on the face though, I' look like I stood too close to the grill before throwing the match in a gallon of starter fluid!!!!

[Fecus]

I always had luck with a minnow just 6"-1' from the surface. Best time to head out is about 7PM. If you have accsess to a marina it will be you best bet as the thousands of pylons offer great cover.

My Marina has bee rebuilt 3 times so there is a lot of poles in the ground. I can walk down the dock in a couple of weeks and see tons of crappies.