Winter Crappies: How Deep?

Throughout my countless hours of researching lake maps over the last few years a few things have become clear to me. Number 1, I have not spent as much time as needed ice fishing “deep water” for crappies. Number 2, there are too many lakes that have “deep water” available in northern WI to choose which ones are the best to target crappies under the ice. Number 3, the WI DNR does a really awful job (I know budgets are shrinking, I get it) of publishing creel survey data from numerous lakes, which makes the search for valuable intel on fish size very difficult to acquire unless I am literally going to the lakes to ascertain for yourself. Number 3 aside, numbers 1 and 2 had me thinking. How deep is too deep to find crappies under the mid winter ice? I personally have not ever seen or caught a crappie ice fishing deeper than 33 feet, those fish were suspended 6-7 feet off of the bottom. Having said that, I do spend most of my time on “shallower lakes” that tend to have water that tops out in the high 30’s. I have found the lions share of my success in my limited basin crappie experience (5-7 years) in the 35 to 20 foot range depending upon the lake. I am well aware of the ethical concerns with fishing deep crappies and the barotrauma issues beyond say 25 feet, so I am more interested in the behavior and gaining understanding with the basin pattern rather than exploiting fish relentlessly.

Canvassing the incredible amount of bathymetric maps is daunting and seeing countless lakes with huge swaths of water of 30+ feet of water, it can get a bit exhausting so to speak trying to “break down” and sift through lakes to make the most of my ice fishing opportunities each winter. I appreciate James and the gang doing the spot on the spot I.D. in the tv shows but in actual practice being faced with a multitude of lakes on a map screen appears next to impossible. One tool that hopefully will aid in the process is the new garmin livescope, but even then, fishing large water bodies (1500 + acres) which tend to have larger populations of prodigious sized crappies can take days to break down the available deep water especially if travel on the lake is difficult in winter.

So I’m asking for your guidance and wisdom as many of you have been doing this much longer than I. Any pointers, rules of thumb that have helped you when approaching a new waterbody? How deep have you seen crappies in the fall/winter? 20, 30, 40, 50 feet? With so much water and so little time what is your best advice, or the best advice ever given to you when considering the basin crappie phenomenon?

Edit: Also I’ve long thought that it would be a fun and great learning experience if we could get a group of fishermen together or create a forum on here devoted to showing lake maps and getting feedback on how different people would approach fishing the waterbody for a species during a given time of year.

In-fisherman had a good article on deep crappies, friend of mine got one over 35′
was sure he had a Tullie but it was a 14” speck. Maps are really just a starting point the big thing is what they are feeding on; where I am its bugs further north it might be smelt or stuff that might be out deeper. I think as crappies get bigger depending on the system they act more like walleyes, you hear of walleye guys getting them on cranks all the time-I got some nice ones this summer on a #7 Fat Rap-big lure. Bigger ones can be shallower too, many patters going on , they keep you guessing!
Good Luck

Crappies will suspended over deep water. I’ve seen them suspended over 50-60ft of water on certain lakes.
Just remember, if you are catching them from anything deeper than 20-25ft down you should be keeping them. Due to barotrauma they most likely wont survive being released any deeper than that.
I do 90% of my crappie and sunfish fishing in less than 20ft, even on lakes that have deeper water available.

icefanatic11 wrote:

I’ve long thought that it would be a fun and great learning experience if we could get a group of fishermen together or create a forum on here devoted to showing lake maps and getting feedback on how different people would approach fishing the waterbody for a species during a given time of year.

People have been doing this for years here already.

I refuse to fish deeper than 30′, smaller crappies I won’t go deeper than 25′. I’ve found lots of nice crappies on the weedlines, and watch em suspend out as sunset comes. Each lake is different.

icefanatic11 wrote:

Any pointers, rules of thumb that have helped you when approaching a new waterbody?

The best way to succeed on a new body of water is to call the veteran of that body of water.
Short of that,
Keep a strategy and play to it. The strategy should involve nothing about fishing but should be strictly about finding fish.

Take a big basin of water. It is too daunting to attack the basin from the ice (From a boat, this can be done quite efficiently).
Fish often relate to edges. Identifying the basin, and then identifying the edges, and then what is outside the edges (Shallow water). Grade these areas best to least (With whatever knowledge possessed). Then start drilling holes from the edge into the basin. Repeat on spot one, two, maybe 3. If you aren’t finding. Then i focus on the outside edges structure.

Each lake, time of year, i might approach differently. Usually based on past knowledge. But employ a strategy none the less, and go at it. You can succeed one day, and fail the next. It takes a lot of present knowledge over several years to understand the annual conditions that create movement and locations.
I usually suggest to not skip lake to lake as you’ll learn very little overall. But sometimes that feels like the right thing to do after one lake kicks your rear end.

Good luck, enjoy the crappies.

Sometimes when all else fails, just start hitting the random button on locations and see what you find.

Something i often did, was pay close attention to the shanty towns year to year, and then annually beat the shanty towns to those spots. Anticipate fish locations prior to the ‘time’ for shanty towns. I know year to year they congregate here…So, it is a little earlier – where will they be staging?

A few good thoughts I’m going to try. I have several lakes here in the Duluth area I fish, but feel I don’t have a great grasp on any of them as I tend to change lakes every couple weeks (mainly after I skunked). I know a couple of spots on a handful of lakes. I think I’m going to go the route of trying 1-2 lakes this winter and try to really figure them out.

Also will keep in mind the shanty towns – the fish will be in that area at certain times but like FBRM said, the fish congregate somewhere else before they move there, so I should focus on intercepting them.

This past weekend we fished a few small lakes with deeper basins. 40 to 60.
We started on the edges and drilled towards the deepest. Most fish were caught on the downward slope, none were caught in the deepest spots. The crappies that were suspended 10 to 15 off the bottom were the hungry guys. Single marks were finicky. When there were multiple marks there seemed to be a little more competition for our baits. Change presentations if they seemed to be non-takers.

fyi – I do keep all crappies I catch in deep water. We make tacos or crappie cakes out of them if they are smaller.

Usually I shoot for 20′ then they will suspend off of 5′

Now this weekend I was catching a few crappies in 8′ of water lol.

Something I’ve noticed (and proved on the ice already) is that crappies will suspend over basins even at the end of fall before ice up. I was struggling with fall crappies because I had always targeting them in weedlines near deeper water late fall. Then I’d start in the same spots ice fishing and struggle. This year I got a tip about the “early basin bite” and it proved to be valid this fall and already on ice after I went out yesterday and found them out over a basin.

I don’t think this is anything new but it changed the way I think when I’m targeting crappies.

Fall after turnover is a great time to scout them, they are sitting ducks for electronics at that time. Eel made a good point about the downward slope frequently a great spot and overlooked, so what you will see is the shack town, yes its there for a reason but they tend to set up right over the basin not always the best spot that day or for quality fish.

I appreciate all of the advice and words of wisdom. Again, I am a very conscious angler when it comes to targeting deep crappies, if I catch them over 23-25 feet down, they are kept then I move on. My interest in this thread was to add tools to the toolbox to find them more frequently on a wider variety of lakes. Right now I have the formation of 7-8 lakes that I have a pretty good feel for on basin bites. The problem becomes, those locations are not always available and open and I for one will absolutely not fish in areas in close proximity to anglers and “show” them the bite. All to often I have seen those lurkers of flies, as I like to call them, flood an area with fishing pressure and abuse the fish that inhabit the area irresponsibly. I hate being an a-hole about protecting spots and areas but I have worked damn hard to piece these puzzles together and pattern the bites on lakes. Only a select few trusted individuals will get that knowledge passed along. I will work my butt off and go find my fish on another lake.

I particularly like the idea on the downward slopes, I think it makes a lot of sense due to the fact that it is closer to an “edge” of sorts and forms a smaller structure rather than the bottom of the flat “field” that forms the basin. The seismic shift in my fishing styles the last few years, devoting more and more time to discovering more basin areas because they tend to be better bets for crappies in winter has left my “feel” for the weed bite lakes a little lacking so while I’m passionate about understanding this basin bite, I also know I need to spend more time scouting weed areas as well under the ice.

Again thanks for the responses everyone!

Ya know its crazy out there some times!!! Unless I would access to spending time scouting and I certainly haven’t had that lately, I would try working smaller lakes in the area. Talk to bait shops and I know you get in a few and understand the “talk”… I get where your coming from fishing in the early spring where boats would come in to check my area out and I would “flat out leave”‘!!! And those same spots I will NOT ice fish, because I can’t cover my tracks and its too close to shore!!!

So how to in the winter… I still feel the smaller lakes first, determine are there crappies in there, actually panfish, because sometimes there are gems for gills or perch in the same spots!!! The other thing I’d like to try is those lakes that have several very small basin type spots… There are lots of them and on some of the more good and popular panfish lakes.

And how’s the network??? I probably have heard about more good spots that I’ve never fished out of respect for the person telling about their story, and that’s especially true since I’ve started bartending in the Northwoods.

But I’m rambling and should go to bed cause its time, but I love ice crappies!!!

Mark

Asked a guy at a bar once he knew nothing, asked the bartender (nice looking woman) she did not know of a lake, she went across the bar and asked the guy I talked to 15 minutes prior, and talking to her he came up with a little lake with good specs. Her pretty face helped him remember!

tim hurley wrote:

Asked a guy at a bar once he knew nothing, asked the bartender (nice looking woman) she did not know of a lake, she went across the bar and asked the guy I talked to 15 minutes prior, and talking to her he came up with a little lake with good specs. Her pretty face helped him remember!

Ha!
He told her …Tell him “X” lake…Tell him i said it “is great”…He’ll tip you well Now, where’s my free shot sugar?

He did not see me when he told her, then he backpeddled on the lake-good yucks!