Thread: For those who are still catching...

For those that are still catching our beloved Crappie, has the pattern stay pretty consistent all summer long? I am going this Friday one last time before the deer season plaque sets in and I start living in a tree.

Game plan is to be setup and fishing by daylight. I plan to fish in a deep channel cut where a creek meets the river. Along this channel cut there are some blow downs and a little bit of brush. The deepest part of the channel is probably about 23 foot and I plan on fishing right off the bottom as the sun heats the water up and probably 8-10ft down first thing. Basically, if I can mark bait then that's the depth I'll fish.

My big question for yall is how long to fish a spot before deciding to change it up? Does the bite generally dwindle as the water heats up? Just looking for a little advice as I try to figure out these Dog Day Crappie! Thanks

Well, this morning they didn't turn on till 10:00 am. The pattern has been the same for me the last month. You can see my report on NC board, They are on deep brush, 15 to 22 feet . Been fishing about 14 feet deep over the brush. The heat does not seem to be affecting them. I Will move after 15 minutes if I dont get a bite. This morning, I kept moving till they started biting. Should have went back to some of the early piles I hit but I ran out of minnows. I hit 9 or 10 piles before they started hitting, but I would pick up one or two at each spot. If you keep looking you will find them.

CB, I havent been crappie fishing in the past 3 or 4 weeks but when we were catching 'em we were spider rigging minnows near the bottom. I constantly slow trolled and even went over places more than once, just constantly moving around. There were a few brush piles around and even caught some off them, but the fish seemed to be more just in the area cruising around looking for food. Bait balls were abundant and I think the crappie and the bait was just hanging out in this area. Earlier in the summer I caught fish shallow (near the top) in water closer to the banks in 10' or so of water but that changed as the water heated on up. Then, even at daylight the fish was already deep...16' or so. I do not know why the bait hung there as long as they did, but they were there and so was the fish. I havent been in awhile so maybe theyre still there...just cannot say. Hope you find 'em and get a good mess of fish. The SC board certainly needs another good fishing report with plenty of pics to get us all fired up again! Good luck to ya!

I have been catching them in 18'-20' on brush or right on the bottom. Went this past Sunday and could not get a bite in that depth. I moved in to water that was 14' deep or less and started catching. The biggest crappie came out of 8' of water. Ended the morning with 21 keepers. They sure did taste good Sunday night!!