Thread: 4 feet of water???

I went to Guthrie lake today with a buddy of mine looking for saugeye and an older gentleman suggested we try the back of a cove because crappie were biting there last week. We caught about 40 crappie in three hours with 5 that would clean. Why were these fish caught in 4' of water on jig and corks like they were spawning?

Were they black crappie?? What was the water temp? Did you try fishing by the overflow tower by the dam? Thanks alot for the report

creek fish generally stay shallower than the lake fish. Not uncommon to catch them in 3 to 4 ft of water in the middle of the summer either.

Gman

Last time I was out was about two weeks ago at Shawnee Twin. I fished along the dam and caught sandbass, but not the crappie I was looking for. As I was pulling out, a bass fisherman was pulling in, and we chatted for a bit. He said the crappie were being caught in 6 fow already! Ordinarily I would not have believed him, but after fishing 10-35 fow all day and not catching one, I sure can't prove him wrong!

HR- We have been fishing there off and on all winter without a bite. We were going to set up for saugeye there with live minnows and throw slip corks at the tower but the gentleman that was catfishing told us about the crappie being in the back of the cove. All five that I cleaned were white crappie, two female with eggs but didn't look like they were ready to spawn. I don't know what the water temp was.

DC- we almost didn't believe the guy either but decided to give it about a half of an hour just for kicks. It was nice to catch some since I haven't had a crappie on the line since last year.

Here in east central Illinois on Lake Shelbyville right after ice out, from the end of February until mid March,the crappie move into shallow water. This usually follows a period of several days of sun. This shallow water fishing usually lasts about two weeks. The fish are not attempting to spawn which comes from mid April to mid May or even later here on the lake. I think what happens right after ice out is that the sun warms the darker bottoms in the shallow water and begins to stir up the acquatic life that has been buried in the mud all winter and the bait fish move in, followed by the crappie which feed on the baitfish.

Originally Posted by crappieken

Here in east central Illinois on Lake Shelbyville right after ice out, from the end of February until mid March,the crappie move into shallow water. This usually follows a period of several days of sun. This shallow water fishing usually lasts about two weeks. The fish are not attempting to spawn which comes from mid April to mid May or even later here on the lake. I think what happens right after ice out is that the sun warms the darker bottoms in the shallow water and begins to stir up the acquatic life that has been buried in the mud all winter and the bait fish move in, followed by the crappie which feed on the baitfish.

Thanks that is a good explaination. We generally don't get an ice over here but it has been cold and just had two days of sun.