wierd acting crappie

Ok so I’ve officially boggled my mind trying to figure this out with crappies.The last two evenings I’ve been out on this lake in Ks.I am very familiar with it.We have been trolling cranks for wipers and Saugeye and have been hammering big female crappie.This is like a mid summer bite.11-14″ female crappie holding well offshore.the lake is about2500-3000 acre reservoir with a lot of shallow flats.The flats break from 10 ft-27 feet in spots and from 17 or 18 feet to over 30 ft in others this break has old submerged trees on it.That should give you a little idea about the lake.Now the odd part .water temps are running 58-59 degrees .weather and air temps suck.Highs around 60 and upper 50s.storm fronts with drizzle and some lightning storms the last couple days.
The crappie are no where near the ledge.I am sure there are crappie shallow but I am finding huge schools of these crappies 100 yards or more off the drop out cruising .The schools mark like a huge blobon the screen 13-17 feet deep over 25-35 ft of water.They are hitting anything that we troll through.Flicker shads,rapalas,model a bombers.We are catching them four at a time sometimes.I know some of you think catch them and enjoy it .I just want to know why are they there.Makes no since to me.Last night two of us caught close to 50 of them mixed in with small saugeye wipers and some good largemouth bass.

Sounds like you may be on to something here. I’d check the pattern all around the lake and maybe post an article about it, may be applicable to other reservoirs in the area or midwest for that matter. Good info!

You’ve painted a picture of a typical prespawn staging location yet with spawning like activity levels.
The spring session in the upper midwest this year has been one for the ages. April weather patterns mirrored typical May conditions and now that we’re in the middle of May we’re expierencing an April pattern. The recent cooler wet weather has caused water temps to take nose dive. Heck the fish are probable just as confused as you & I!

Are you seeing large pods of bait fish, the reason I ask from what you described it sounds like the shad are staged off of the shallow areas in a pre-spawn stage. I don’t claim to know much about the shad spawn but I do know that they spawn in the mid to upper 60s. And crappie love them.

Without being there this is my best guess.

I tell ya Chris, it’s a weird one. I’ve been thinkin about it ever since you called. But Bosman does make some good points-those fish gotta be confused with this weather, too. I remember May of 08 was wild- I only fished 2 days the whole month in Neb because of the crappy weather. It’s very similar to that right now. I think it’s gotta be at the top of the list for good explanations right now.
You know I do have Saturday completely free…..

Shark bait,
I had this exact same thing happen to me last saturday here in Minnesota! The only exception is they weren’t hitting anything they wanted small jigs with small minnows. If you I could keep it in the zone or stay on top of them cause they were moving so much we would pound them!!! I think this is a final hoo-rah before they move up shallow onto the beds