Today’s crappie bite….

WOW!

Cmon Jimmy give us some details.

I am intrigued to hear about the bite. I need a good day with the kid catching crappies

We stumbled into a crappie bite that was flat out nuts. Basically structureless water about 6-8 feet deep on a south facing shoreline. Crappies were suspended [stacked] at around three feet and at times it was a fish a cast for ten minutes or more at a time. All sizes, but mostly nice fish at around 11″ to just under 13″. Several sunfish in the 9-1/2′ to ten-inch range were in the mix too. One striper, one largemouth and two smallies joined in the fray.

The morning began at a backwater spot we thought might produce but ended up a flop. Tons of small sunfish had moved into the area and only five crappies. We moved to another area about 18 miles away and bingo.

I didn’t have my gate counter along today but wish I had brought it just to get an idea of how many fish we caught. The first cast on the second spot gave up a near-13. The crappies were still on fire when we left after about 2-1/2 hours of non-stop action. Had to be that warm sun on that flat water. It was nuts.

Nice job sir. Did you happen to catch a water temp?

We did a return trip this morning and found the bite still pretty aggressive, but it did wane as this cold front passed thru. The wind from the NW really ramped up, the temps dropping, and clouds all added to the end of a great time. By 9:30 the fish and hits were pretty much over. But that first hour today was as nuts as yesterday was.

What was the preferred presentation?

I didn’t even need to read his post. Soft bottom mostly sand four feet of water south facing shoreline. Not sure where hes at but this should be happening today up here if not already started.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Nice job sir. Did you happen to catch a water temp?

I was going to get a read but I could not find the darned thermometer. As it turns out it was in my other bucket. I’m thinking maybe low to mid 50 degrees, but that may be on the high side yet. A week ago we had 48 degrees at this location but we’ve had some unreal winds and cooler temps until yesterday.

BrianF wrote:

What was the preferred presentation?

1/16 jig with one of the junebug/chartreuse 2-1/4″ fry baits [from pics on an earlier thread]. Float set at 3.5′ and fished over the 6-8 foot water. Pretty simple. The waves supplied all the action the plastic needed.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

One striper

You caught a striped bass? I wasn’t even aware those were present here in MN. They can get enormous.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Jimmy Jones wrote:</div>
One striper

You caught a striped bass? I wasn’t even aware those were present here in MN. They can get enormous.

Some people insist on referring to white bass as “stripers”.
They’re no striped bass in Mn..

Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying. White bass makes a lot more sense than a striper.

I had a ‘Jimmy Jones’ type day on Saturday. Set a new personal best for numbers of crappies in the boat on a solo trip…375. All were released. There were no giants in the bunch, though a lot of fish in the 11″ to 13 1/2″ category.

The bite was literally nonstop from morning till evening. The most efficient presentation for me was swimming a 1/32 ounce jig and a baby shad in Orange/chartruese. More specifically, the jig was a UV pattern moon eye. I tend to think the large eye and the UV paint makes a difference.

What did I learn or re-learn on this day? A few things come to mind. Fall rate is so underappreciated as a factor to consider. Being windy, I tried a 1/16 ounce jig to aid in casting, but the fall rate and forward progress needed to keep the bait at the right depth were too fast – and the catch rate dropped significantly. Hovering that light little 1/32 oz jig in their face was the key and the difference between a 75 fish day and a 375 fish day.

Also, having missed the first few bites, I bent the hook up and out 15° which immediayely helped a ton – though only for a while. After a few catches, the missed fish became a problem again. Time to problem solve! Those baby shad are very soft baits. What became apparent is that omce that soft plastic got ripped up a little with usage the bait would very easily slide past the wire plastic keeper. Once in this condition, the fish would bite and basically release themselves instantly upon the hook set. With lips closed tight around the bait, the plastic would slide down the shank with rhe hookset and acted as a built-in hook extractor. A sliding plastic is no bueno! While I don’t particularly like doing this, gluing the plastic to the jighead solved the problem and improved the hook-up rate significantly. Back to catching instead of missing!

I also tried a bobber rig during this frenzy and got bit but that presentation was just too slow compared to casting when the fish were on such a tear. So, I set the bobber to the side and “rode the wave” of swimming that little jig.

I hope these tips help somebody exploit a strong bite in the future! It was fun.

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Way to go Brian!

I got into enough for a nice meal this weekend using the standard bobber with a flu flu 1-2ft down tipped with a minnow. Watched another guy doing well with a plastic under the bobber. I bet if I had tried a jig and plastic moving faster it might have worked better, the fish seemed a little slow biting for that to me, but who knows. I think with the weather those fish might push back out by next weekend, if it warms back up by the weekend after it should be money. We had 59 degrees in the shallows by afternoon.

John Rasmussen wrote:

I think with the weather those fish might push back out by next weekend

I think we’re definitely gonna go in reverse here for a week or more. 2 days of rain followed by much colder air temps. The low next Saturday morning is below freezing in many areas.

We had another morning like Brian had today. Three hours of fish every cast. Lots of 8″-9″ sunfish in the mix today. And a couple more nice stripers…. I call them stripers, you can call them whatever trips your trigger.

Junebug/chartreuse tailed, 2-1/4″ baits under floats. The crappies were down maybe 3-1/2 feet over 5-7 feet of water. The bite was just phenomenal. We had as many doubles as we had single fish. At about 10:45 the bite simply stopped dead.
Lots of really decent 11-12″ fish but of course there were tons of lesser fish too. Water temp was right at 56 degrees on the surface. At the depth the fish were hitting it measured 52 degrees. Bright sun on the water but the wind at 20+ mph sustained had a decent chop to it. That wave action really meant do nothing fishing. Toss it out, let the wind and waves give the jig action, reel in a fish. Every cast.

No idea whatever as to how many fish we caught, but it was definitely one of the best days I’ve had in recent years.

375 Crappies solo? NO way. What lake were you fishing and can you draw out where on this lake you were please. PM me is OK LOL

bigcrappie wrote:

375 Craappies solo? NO way. What lake were you fishing and can you draw out where on this lake you were please. PM me is OK LOL

You bet my brother and I were on an exceptional bite we timed it took 56 minutes to catch 100 Crappies, went on just about the whole day, granted most were 8-9 inches. Did the same with my nephew and sister don`t know how many Crappies we caught every cast for 2 hours, I would guess 400-500 Crappies and again that 8-9 inch size, it was just plain a– fun.

The crappie bite has really kicked in in this area lately. Had a good outing on Sat. A buddy of mine was out and did real well yesterday. Got several really nice fish including a 15.25″ fish and several others over 14″

We got right back at it this morning in spite of the cold front that’s been tearing thru the area, and it was a great move. At a chilly 30 degrees, our first casts had fish on. For an hour and a half we saw non-stop action, then at about 8 things slowed down a bit. The wind ramped up to about 35 mph sustained about then and casting got miserable. Seeing and feeling hits got next to impossible so we called it enough, but that first hour and a half was an absolute riot.

Today was the first time in well over 60 years of fishing this lake that I have seen white caps in this particular bay. When the wind is blowing the tops of the waves into spray, its windy.

Another 275 fish this weekend, but the bite was off due to a 7 degree drop in water temp, from 47 to 40 in five days. The crappies were definitely more sluggish and far less willing to chase than the prior weekend (same location).

A few observations that may be of interest to crappie-heads out there. I’ve written about fall rate being so important, particularly early in the spring. The crappies often seem to want that bait floating slowly over their head. So, I experimented swimming a jig with 6 pound fluorocarbon and 6 pound monofilament. As everyone knows, monofilament floats and fluorocarbon sinks due to greater density. The monofilament floated that 1/32 ounce jig much better than the fluorocarbon leader I was using. The fluorocarbon drove that jig to the bottom like it was attached to a ball and chain! Lol So, one lesson learned is that in trying to reduce the fall rate and increase the ‘float’ of a very light jig use monofilament.

Another observation was that the crappie bite started to tail off in the late afternoon, particularly for larger fish. I wondered what was happening, when I heard a boat parked across the bay start regularly hooting and hollering over fish they were catching. They were parked right on shore. That turned the lightbulb on for me and I went right to the bank where I found the motherload. The next morning and the next afternoon in those same locations with the wind blowing in there were zero fish. This was after a very cold night. So, the next time you lose track of your fish in the late afternoon or evening, move in close to the bank where the fish will likely be trying to warn themselves in the surface water that is accumulating on the windy shoreline. They obviously leave those super shallow areas as the night air cools the water beyond their tolerance level for change.

These fish never cease to amaze me with their daily movements. The distances they can travel in a short time in order to take advantage of warmer water or water temperature stability are pretty amazing. They certainly have a nose for warmer water!

I had some other thoughts that might be of interest but this reply is getting too lengthy already.

Lake is hot.

We fished for about 5 hours this morning and easily took over 100 fish off our jigs. 51 to 53 degree water temps. The fish were being caught about 3 and a half feet deep under a float, jig and plastic. They absolutely murdered it on the hit. Didn’t matter if we were in four feet of water or over 30+ feet of water…. 3-1/2 feet down was magic.

Relatively calm winds this morning until around 11:30. Plenty of sun too. The fun part of the morning was the sunfish bite. I’ve never seen so many 9 to 10″ sunfish in a morning. The higher the sun got, the better they hit.

Pretty much a catch and release day and it was fun.

That’s great information BrianF.
Thanks for that report and sharing observations.

Hadn’t targeted crappies for years. Went out yesterday and realized I was missing out. 48 degree water on the Whitefish chain. They were hitting in6-8 fow on small x raps and an under spin jig with small paddle tail. Couple were over 14. It was such a nice day finally so I let ‘em all go. Stopped at Subway on the way home instead. Livescope was handy to follow the school around. Good luck.

I finally did pretty decent today panfishing. Caught about 25 in 3 hours with my family, biggest being nearly 13 inches. Fish are finally moving shallow to prepare for spawning.

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Those are a couple dandies gim!

Jimmy Jones wrote:

Those are a couple dandies gim!

Thanks. Panfishing has been a bit of a struggle for this guy this spring. The fish finally seem to be in shallower water now.

Nice fish gimruis. Well done.

We had 55 degree water this morning and 57 this afternoon. The fish still had not spawned where we fished here in the Twin Cities metro, but must be close as the males are definitely getting darker and the females were all robust and full of eggs.

Yesterday, under rainy, cloudy, cool, windy conditions the fish wanted a jig swimming steadily. Today, under sunny, calm, and warm conditions they wouldn’t touch the same jig, preferring the bobber presentation instead. Weird how they flip like that, but we’ve learned not to fight City Hall and just embrace what is working.

Also, we finally got some bigger individual fish, with three yesterday and three today between 14″ and 14.5″. Prior to this weekend, there have been at least 1200 crappies in our boat over the past month and I don’t think a single one hit 14″ until now – and this is on water that historically produces them on a consistent basis. Maybe someone can explain that??