How deep is too deep for crappies?

Last weekend I had a chance to fish with a fellow IDOer, Brent Yeakey. We decided to go try and find some crappies. Big crappies.

There is a lake close to us here in west central Wisconsin that I have caught some 14+ inch crappies on and hear of people getting 16+ inchers.

I was running behind that morning so I told him I would just meet him out there. He had never fished that lake before, so I was surprised to see he was so close to one of my go-to areas, just shallower. He had spent the last hour or so ripping perch but none with much size and was ready for some crappie action.

We soon headed to deeper water, I started cutting holes in 40 feet of water and worked toward a 50 foot hole. This is an area that I had found big schools of nice crappies around in the past. After an hour or so with no crappies to be found, we moved to a 40 foot saddle surrounded by 45 feet. Here we found a few small schools of crappies but not the kind we were looking for. It was time for a big move.

We loaded up and headed to a different lake. My usual go-to spot on this lake was already being fished so we went to spot number two.

We both started cutting holes in different directions to try and locate these schools. When we stopped cutting, Brent dropped his Marcum in and looked at me and asked, “Do you fish any thing under 3 dozen feet?” That made me wonder, what does everybody else do?

Am I fishing too deep? I have caught crappies suspended in almost 60 feet of water before but maybe I need to go shallower. Or maybe it’s just too early and a lot of these big schools just haven’t moved deep yet. Or maybe I’m in the wrong deep water, and need a differant bottom.

What is the deepest water you have found big schools of quality crappies in?

45′ is the deepest I’ve found them but the fish weren’t relating to the bottom at all. Everything was suspended 25′ – 30′ over the deeper water. It has been very common to find BIG crappie suspended out over 30′ – 35′ of water. To be honest, if I needed to find a BIG crappie bite tomorrow this is the exact type of pattern I’d be looking for…. suspended fish out over soft bottom areas in deep water

That deep of water was a real eye opener. Typically I look for weed beds and flats with fast acess to “your” deeper water.

I don’t thing you are wrong or missing the bite. I just think there is more than 1 way to get the job done.

It just happened that on that day the fish weren’t the size we were hoping for. That is why the site is called IDO Fishing and not IDO Catching right guys?

I do most of my hard water crappie fishing on the st croix. Hardly ever fish less than 30′, never less than 25

Fished a lake this last weekend in Aitkin where I have found them suspended over some very deep water. Bottom depths where 40′ down to 70 or 80′. This lake does have some step drop offs so even at those depths they are not far from the shallows. Most fish where suspended 40′ from the ice or less.

Now fishing them in that deep of water is a different story. To me it seem that pulling crappies even from the 25 to 30 down range you might want to consider keeping most of them. Get deeper than that and there are going to be a lot of them that float up under the ice and stick, killing them.

All my crappies I am catching now are in 35′ on the bottom, the deepest section in the fishery….11-12″ with a few pushing 14″

I have caught crappies in up to 40 foot with fish relating to shallow cover nearby. I usually look to the prominent depth of the feeding flat to find my fish suspended at that depth. I have a very nice local spot here where the fish love to suspend out in 26 foot of water about 12 foot of bottom if you look to the shallows there are nice weed flats out to 14 foot before it drops off. Something to think off as well. Q

I don’t normally fish deep lakes. When they are suspended, how do you find them aside from punching a bunch of holes? Are they still relating to shallower structure, but just suspending over deeper adjacent areas?

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I don’t normally fish deep lakes. When they are suspended, how do you find them aside from punching a bunch of holes? Are they still relating to shallower structure, but just suspending over deeper adjacent areas?

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Holes, often by the hundreds, and electronics. When you find them they’ll still be on the move as they won’t be relating to any specific piece of structure.

When we are deep water perch fishing you love to see high flying schools in the water column. Get a spoon down to them fast and fish a few feet above them. They usually are there for a couple minutes and then gone chasing schools of young of the year perch.

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Fished a lake this last weekend in Aitkin where I have found them suspended over some very deep water. Bottom depths where 40′ down to 70 or 80′. This lake does have some step drop offs so even at those depths they are not far from the shallows. Most fish where suspended 40′ from the ice or less.

Now fishing them in that deep of water is a different story. To me it seem that pulling crappies even from the 25 to 30 down range you might want to consider keeping most of them. Get deeper than that and there are going to be a lot of them that float up under the ice and stick, killing them.

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X2. There is an ethical issue fishing deep suspended crappies. I am not sure of the depth but I tend to not fish below 35ish feet of water. To be honest that is probably to deep to CPR fish.

53′ is the deepest I’ve seen them, suspended about 20-30 feet down. Small lake by Aitkin. It’s the only basin in the lake though, so I don’t think they had a choice.

Joel

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Fished a lake this last weekend in Aitkin where I have found them suspended over some very deep water. Bottom depths where 40′ down to 70 or 80′. This lake does have some step drop offs so even at those depths they are not far from the shallows. Most fish where suspended 40′ from the ice or less.

Now fishing them in that deep of water is a different story. To me it seem that pulling crappies even from the 25 to 30 down range you might want to consider keeping most of them. Get deeper than that and there are going to be a lot of them that float up under the ice and stick, killing them.

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X2. There is an ethical issue fishing deep suspended crappies. I am not sure of the depth but I tend to not fish below 35ish feet of water. To be honest that is probably to deep to CPR fish.

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x3 – Not many fish caught below 35 FOW are going to live after being caught. It helps if you reel them in real slow but not sure if these fish live or not. Just because the fish swims away after you release them does not mean they will live. I’d make sure when fishing fish below 35 FOW that you plan to keep all the fish caught – If they are to small or you already have a limit of fish either move to find larger fish in deep water or fish them in shallower water where they can be released to fight another day.

Not sure what is better for bringing in those deep fish. Bring them in and release them fast While they still have the energy to swim back down or bring them in slow so that they can adjust to the pressure change. I typically go with bring them in fast and a quick release.

Do agree with you on not sitting on those deep fish catch and release fishing them.

Most of the deeper lakes I fish like Green, Geneva, and Mendota will have the typical suspended crappies almost anywhere over the open basin – chasing minnow. Very seldom do I catch many below the 35-40 foot range over 60 to 100+ fow. I find when they go actively feeding, I find them normally in the top 25′ of the water column (on average). There is always the exception to that and thank GOD, we have power augers to help search for them!

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Most of the deeper lakes I fish like Green, Geneva, and Mendota will have the typical suspended crappies almost anywhere over the open basin – chasing minnow. Very seldom do I catch many below the 35-40 foot range over 60 to 100+ fow. I find when they go actively feeding, I find them normally in the top 25′ of the water column (on average). There is always the exception to that and thank GOD, we have power augers to help search for them!

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This is an excellent point. It isn’t the depth of the water fished that is important. It is how deep the fish are over that deep water that requires consideration. Fish suspended 20′ down over 100′ of water will likely release just fine. While fish on the bottom in 40′ are going to be an issue.

Most of the time the crappie I catch on a basin pattern are less than 25′ deep. On the really good days when the fish are really smacking the biggest fish will often be suspended the highest in the water column.

I fish a good crappie lake that has a 54′ basin. Lots of times we’ll be pulling 2 distinctly different looking crappie out of the basin area. The shallow ones cruise under the ice 12′ and up, we get them and they are dark black speckled with vibrant green and gold. The deep ones come out pale like a ghost, almost looking like a white crappie. We usually try not to catch them under 25′ unless we’re looking for dinner. The deeper crappie take 15-20 minutes to darken up if you keep them.

Good read here. I am having a problem with my want to release. My area is giving up just superb Crappie. Problem is it is around 35 ft. Fish are hitting at around 28-30. I want to release but will it work. Would a partial retrieve and a rest time help? Will a very slow retrieve work? Wish I or someone knew. Dang good fish BUT.

I have always heard or thought if fish are deep, you reel them up as fast as you can. But a few yrs. back I was talking with a DNR guy. Who put a whole new spin on that. According to him that is the worst thing can do.!?! When you bring them up to fast, fish do NOT have E-Nuff time to ajust to the pressure changes, and that is why the eyes bug out and airbladder comes out of there mouth. He said to reel them up slow that gives the fish time to ajust to the pressure changes. …Maybe Nick from the Lake City DNR office can jump in here let us know what they believe is the right thing to do.? Or anyone else that knows whats what with this SLOW or FAST … …rrr

These are not my pictures, I don’t know what’s going on.

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Don’t know what’s going on those are not my pictures.

At 30 ft the pressure is twice as the pressure the surface. At 60 ft it is 4 times and at 90 ft it is 8 times.

Put another way, volume at 33 ft expands to double at the surface. Volume at 60 ft expands by four times at the surface. This is the reason the eyes bulge and the airbladder protrudes from the mouth. The ONLY way to avoid this is a SLOW ascent to the surface.

According to my SCUBA training a safe accent rate is 30 feet per minute. So a fish hooked at 45 feet should be brought up in no less than 90 seconds. Thats a long time to reel up a crappie. I suspect most of us would have that fish to the surface in less than 15 seconds.

I’ve found them over about 50 feet of water, which is as deep as that lake gets. I’d say I don’t really fish lakes much for crappies that have basins much deeper than about 50 feet. Have deeper lakes around they just aren’t the strongest crappie lakes.

I rarely fish crappies in less than 30 feet of water, unless I’m on a lake that doesn’t offer much water in that depth. Pretty much all year long too, early ice to iceout, I can usually fish crappies suspended over 30-50 feet.

I usually hope to find fish that are less than 25 feet down, and really don’t like to release them much if they come from much more than 20-22 feet down. Even reeling painfully slowly, I’ve never had a fish come up from 40 feet that looked very healthy.

Tucker

Ok Thanks curleytail. Maybe Fast or Slow doesn’t make that much difference then. Maybe to Deep is just plain to Deep.? … I guess I am just lucky that 95% of my fishing is under 25 feet… …rrr

Did some fishing today (Mar 22) on a small Aitkin Co lake. The lake is only 20-25 ac but has a 60+’ hole. Found crappies suspended anywhere from 30′- 55′. More were in the 50′ range. Ended up keeping some dinks due to pulling out of deep water. I don’t like spending a lot of time fishing this kind of water unless I’m into decent keepers.

I know in some of our lakes there’s ton’s of red or blood worms that drives the perch down to 45′. I see no reason that any pan fish wouldn’t go for these worms . The fish are literally stuffed full of the things? Just a thought. Don’t know if you have these in the food chain in Mn.

Huntindave wrote:

So a fish hooked at 45 feet should be brought up in no less than 90 seconds.

Pretty simple, if you are pulling crappie from 25 feet down or more, you probably need to plan on keeping them, same with perch. There isn’t like a magic line at 30’…. pull a fish up super quick from 20′ down, and you can see the bladder and other damage as well.

Crappy Fisherman wrote:

These are not my pictures, I don’t know what’s going on.

Crappy Fisherman wrote:

These are not my pictures, I don’t know what’s going on.

These fish came from 33 feet and were brought up slowly, see how bloated they are.

Good read here.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/content.php?r=297

Caught crappie in an 82 ft hole yesterday and today, suspended 35-40ft down. Never had seen them over that much water