Fall Crappie patterns

Have not fished for specks in a while, what kind of patterns are people seeing? On a dark lake should I look at weededges, the bottom of basins or both? Guy showed me how to catch them on 3” plastics-seemed big but it worked. Would they still want big stuff? My friend likes minnows should we get some fatheads in the mix?
Thanks

Tom? Anyone?

After the initial cool down, for me drifting the main basin with mini mights. Water temps in the 50’s and I dont tip. As the water cools I tip with crappy minnows. I fish a flowage. Its nothing to catch 30 in a few hours on good evening.

Thanks BP

I see a lot of disparity between different waters in the fall so being flexible in your bait choices and presentations will pay off big time. The lake I fish most in the spring will offer crappie fishing in almost the same areas and presentations as in the spring except the bite goes from shallow to deep in the fall.

As bigpike mentions, swimming plastics just off bottom on basins will work well on some waters.

Fall crappies on pool 4 right now are relating to the deep edges of the rock rip-rap shorelines. The harbors and marinas will start up soon when the crappies begin to chase forage back into the quieter waters of the harbors, but in back waters areas with standing timber in water and bridge pilings will begin to put out numbers too. This will all be temperature related.

Thanks Tom!

We found the water at 58 degrees at a depth of 6 feet today while fishing on pool 4 near Lake City. We were early in the day and fishing was slow but we did locate a crappie and a bunch of sunnies along with some catfish, sheepies and a walleye. We used all plastics today and found most of the fish in about 19 feet of water and close to the bottom until about 9:00 am.

I fished on Sunday at half time of the Vikes game. 42 degree water up here with sheets of thin ice floating around. We caught a few crappies on jigging raps about 5 -15 ft off the bottom in 28 fow. Cold, bit nice to get a few. Vikes laid an egg anyway. Be ice fishing in a couple weeks.