Is 65 degrees a turning point for fall crappies?

tim hurley wrote:

Anyone want to disagree with me on the spelling of my name?

Tame it down Tom harley

I was thinking Trip Burley!

John Rasmussen wrote:

I was thinking Trip Burley!

Jim squirley

Tim Hurley be drinking…

Well king swirly, are you going to let us know the answer ?

“There’s no substitute for experience”. The best thing one can do is do it. All the data and all the advice(good or bad) won’t do you any good unless you just get out there and build your own personal database.”

Couldn’t have said it better!

Even then there is the unpredictability factor locating fish month by month or even week by week. Most times if I find fish, the probability is high for catching them even as the water temperature drops. Last week it was in the mid 60’s and the bite was incredible. Of course the three waters I fish are no deeper than 15’and fish caught are usually in less than 9′ usually near something – though rarely docks.

But I look at this way: fish are cold-blooded and even when the temperature is near freezing, fish may bite aggressively. Years of ice fishing proved that. This one lake I hadn’t fished for years I fished last week. The change – mostly a huge increase in weeds and fish located near them in water less than 6′. Water temp 64 degrees; 64 fish caught. A few days before in another lake, the fish migrated to the opposite end of the lake – same temperature and more varied in depth but zero weeds in the areas fish were caught. One nice thing for both lakes – more schools were found.

Lakes fish different because fish location changes are at times predictable (spring) and less so in the middle to the end of the year- who knows why for certain. Even keeping logs doesn’t make fishing more predictable – (except which lures do best) – but illustrates how unpredictable and challenging fishing can be.

Will we ever know ?

Caught a bunch of specks including some around 11&12″ They are definetly schooling up well now, pretty good temp. drop from last weekend.

Caught 65 fish yesterday – crappie, y. perch, sunfish and a few bass – all in the middle of the lake before a cold front moved through in the afternoon. Nothing near shore or in shallow water. Tipoff was an osprey that dove into the water targeting fish near the surface early on and also other fish doing the same coming from below in many areas. Fish quality was the best I’ve seen in this lake and I hope the location depth pattern will hold this week.
BTW, the water was 64 degrees yesterday and should drop lower from the temperature at night dropping into the upper 40’s.

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Nice catch Spoon, great mix, yup crappies mostly are pulling off of shoreline structure and schooling in open water. Lots of exceptions of course.

Got into a school of crappie that was on a shallow flat yesterday. Few fish were in deep water like last post. Later on, a loose school of yellow perch + one nice size crappie were in 3′ in another part of the lake. Only 35 fish but decent quality in 64 degree water.

Point made: fall is unpredictable as far as fish location and weather fronts make it so. A major cold front is moving in on Friday so who knows where fish will be? (Would be really cool to catch another 65!)

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Still have 64 degrees wow. NEWSFlash: fishing is unpredictable! So will they be spawning next week?

Ya never know.

Went out today at 9 am on a much larger lake and got into white perch in open water/ depth around 5-6′; water temp 59. Those fish were slam’n my lures, sometimes striking 5 times on the same retrieve! Few fish were near the dying pads. Of course on average white perch are THE most aggressive panfish ever!

Once the wind got over 12 mph and dragging the 10lb anchor, time to leave.

Need a 15# navy anchor or spotlock

Got one but hate struggling to get it back on board while sitting in the rowboat.

Got in to a ton of crappies fishing from shore the other evening with my son. I dont think they are pulling off to deep yet. We could cast out to about 8 ft of water with rocket bobber and hanging a jig under it. Working that jig all the way back keeping it at the 1 ft below surface

Today a big change from yesterday.64 fish caught which included some nice crappie, yellow and white perch mostly in the pads and in 6′- the difference being the wetland location all along the west shore. Water 59 degrees.

Think some crappies all year in many systems will slide shallow toward evening, even in the winter. More than one solid pattern exist on many lakes, often if you find crappies shallow they can be bigger fish, part of that is the basin fish will have a ice town over them where bigger stuff gets cropped off. Going out tomorrow wish it were today.

Good fish’n! (Ain’t luck when you know what you’re doing.)
I hate to go back to the same lake too soon because I will fish the same pattern areas. There are two other waters nearby and though the air temp is in the 50’s, may as well make the most of it before it gets unpleasant.

At least today was productive:
new shear pin in the 2.5 gas motor after the original one broke on a rock
different extension handle for the net.
buoy marker for the anchor (learned my lesson when I lost one untied)

Got into some nice specks, very shallow 55 degrees

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Nice Tim! That one looks like it has some shoulders.

That is one nice craper. Nice catch

Got this weird looking smallmouth on a Keitech this morning……

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Nice 14.

tim hurley wrote:

Nice 14.

Oh come on. 13 and 3/8

Guess water temperature in the 40s doesn’t deter strikes.
Week before last the wind was over 15 mph and I went to the wind-protected area of the lake. Water temp 49 degrees. Hate the wind but know it signals an approaching front that makes fish irritable. This is a map of that lake with the dam a black line, the rock ridge perpendicular to it surrounded by 7.5′ of water. and the X where I anchored, casting in the direction of the dotted lines.

At first I figured the day was going to be a bust finding fish. But then I cast my light jig parallel to the rock wall in 7.5′. A faint strike led me to cast again and sure enough a yellow perch was caught. Casting with the wind I had some good distance and worked the 7-8′ of water to the north. Dang if I didn’t catch over 35 fish!: mostly decent crappie 10-12″ (decent for this lake) and yellow perch in the same school.

I went out a few days ago and the wind averaged 20 mph and the water temp dropped to 45 degrees. The school was gone in that area so I drifted/ anchored when fish were caught/ and drifted some more working deeper water areas. 20 fish caught – 15 or so lost because of fluorocarbon stretch and insensitivity to long-distance light strikes. Hook sets came out. No problem with braid on my other rods.

Small lures did fine including this one that caught most fish:

I would have stayed longer but I left my 15 lb anchor and larger battery at home. No point trying to fish spots when the wind is blowing you off them. But at least I know that cold water strikes are possible even when fish are scattered.

Keep the anchor in the boat!(my 2 cents)

No point having two anchors cluttering my 10′ boat, nor two batteries. Better safe than sorry when the forecast calls for wind gusts of 20 mph or more. Could be that even the 15 lb anchor might not have held, but at least the drift would have been much slower. Good thing the lake isn’t long or it would have taken much longer fighting the wind to get back. I had to alternate between #5 and #4 speed because rowing would have been a challenge if the battery lost charge. Wouldn’t be the first time.