Originally Posted by
crappieguru
Summer crappie fishing can be extremely fun when you find them. The pattern can fall on two planes: one being deep brush piles, and the other being shallow timber. When you talk about deep brush it depends on the lake you fish. We normally fish brush no deeper than 15ft. on Oologah. In the timber I simply bounce around until we find a pattern. You would be amazed how shallow some of them slabs will be. I waste very little time when timber fishing, it's more of a dip and rip. If they are there you'll know it, plus I'm trying to fish as many trees as possible, and I'm looking for Big Momma or Daddy. I have found that the warmer the water temp the better the timber fishing. That means in the dead dog heat of the day you can be out there killing them, but you have to be safe. Don't be afraid to try different techniques for summer crappie. Trolling cranks on Oologah can be deadly. We have loaded up a ice chest on numerous trips trolling bandits (200 & 300 series). When trolling cranks remember you are fishing for crappie not sandbass, so slow down. We watch many sandbass fishermen trolling around us catching sandies while we are moving slower catching crappie. Summer crappie will let you know how fast or slow you should go. Slow trolling is also a method i use during the summer once we locate the fish. Don't put up the rods, but if you do that means I have a better chance a catching that Big one.