crappie tendencies?

[arrowdog]

I was wondering if some of you guys could help me out when it comes to crappies. They are my favorite fish to eat, but i have a hard time catching them. I don't seem to have too much problem getting gills. Do crappies and gills tend to inhabit the same spots, or am i fishing better gill spots than crappie spots. From other posts, it seems like crappies like to suspend, is there a decent rule of thumb to go by when starting out. It seems that there are no shortage of decent crappie lakes in the area, i even fish some of them, Kent, Chemung, Crooked, Wolverine, but haven't been able to hook up. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Norm

[Gone Fishing]

I know you are correct in that they tend to suspend higher than other fish in the water column. If you're catching Gills, raise your bait or start at the top and slowly work your way down. Other than that, all I can say is they tend to avoid any presentation that I throw at them. Sorry I'm not any help but I'm sure others can give you some good info. Good luck. John

[Can't Touch This]

Use small, tiny jigs, tear drops, usually tipped with minnows. Don't set your hook hard at all, set in light, they bite light, so ude a light rod.

[Steely-Head]

This might help. All the crappies I have caught throught the ice were suspended, some even as high as right below the ice. Teardrops and spikes do the trick.

[jnpcook]

I am by far no expert but I was taught to watch your line instead of your rod tip when ice fishing for crappie. (We were not using bobbers at all when I was taught this.) Most of the time you will not even feel a bite but you will see the line suddenly shoot off to the side of your ice hole. Set the hook, but as others have stated, not too hard as the lining of the lip of the crappie is pretty thin. I believe we were not using bobbers because sometimes even the resistance of a small bobber may be too much when the fish are biting lightly. Hope this helps.

John

[Steve J]

I don't claim to be an expert by any means but I do tend to catch my share of Specks each Winter. I have done best for Specks just as it's getting dark or just at first light. The bite can last as little as 30 minutes or it could go for hours. Get a Vexilar because it's so easy to find where they are suspended. They could be at 5ft or they could be down as far as 21ft or more depending on the lake and current weather and barometric conditions. I always use a glow teardrop(with a good sharpened size 8,10 or 12 hook) tipped with a minnow. I usually hook my minnow through the dorsal fin so they can still swim in a natural position, but that's just my preference. Specks will pretty much stay suspended wherever they happen to be that day, so if you not right on top of them you could be missing the bite. Once I get my minnow down to their suspended depth I raise my rod slowly up about a foot or two and then let it slowly drop back down. Specks love to hit the bait as it's falling. Watch for your line to stop falling or move sideways and that's when you hesitate a little and moderately set the hook. If they are taking the bait real gently and your missing them when setting the hook, I then go to a very small slip bobber (if weather conditions permit or I am in my shanty so the slip bobber doesn't freeze up) and have it weighted so that it almost sinks with just the weight of the teardrop and minnow. I let the Speck take the minnow (and bobber)and run with it a while before setting the hook when they are hitting light. Hope this helps you out. It sure works for me.

[DaveW731]

Arrowdog:
I support everything that has been posted so far....these guys sound pretty "expert to me...."
Only thing I would add is that in addition to suspending more than gills, crappies seem to be less consistant in their orientation to structure. Sometimes they seem almost entangled in structure, other times they seem to cruise in relatively featureless water. What I do is look for any structure, particularly sunken wood or brushpiles (a.ka., "crappiemagnets") that extend up from bottom and start fishing there. If nothing, I then start roaming.
Last time I was out, I started fishing on the deep side of a drop off from 11' to 20', next to a Christmas tree that someone had conveniently sunk, slowly moving the minnow from 2' off bottom to about 10' down from top and didn't get a hit. I moved on top of the 11' ledge, fished about 9' down and got bit till I ran out of minnows. Go figure.....

[Ed Michrina]

All good stuff . I was going nuts missing sepck after speck .. minnow hooked in lip. I changed through the back on the minnow and hooked up almost every time. I like to drop my lead (RED) depth finder and wait til it go's out of sight. I then fish 6" below and 6" above.... If you have any covered boat wells they love them also, esp just after ice out... good luck fish-n