Brim fishing trip turns into Crappie fishing trip

[TORTIS]

The Brim have not moved to their beds yet, but did catch a couple of good ones on crickets.

I soon switched to my ultra light with a small spinner bait with a yellow curly tailed worm. I caught a couple of brim, a bass, and then started nailing the small Crappie. I didn't catch any much bigger than my hand, but it was non stop action.

We finally had to leave.

Question. Why do you think we only caught small crappie? We caught about 35-40 total-all released so they could bring their parents to the next party. We were catching slabs out of this hole a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks,

Tortis

[shipahoy41]

Way to go!

[crappieseeker]

probably caught fish from the same year class, they might have still been schooled together.

[DrJohn]

Nice catching, but crappie seem to congregate with others their own size...if you are catching small ones, try moving out to deeper water in the same area and sometimes the bigger ones are out there.

[TORTIS]

The water was about 6ft deep where we catching them, but they were about 18'' deep.

The bottom slopes to about 12ft deep, like a creek channel, just a few yards away.

So tomorrow I will fish the deeper water, and take some shiners.

Thanks for the help.

Tortis

[CrappiePappy]

Tortis ... I would think that your big Crappie have already come in & spawned, and you were catching the smaller ones that were "taking their turn". Generally speaking, the larger fish rule the roost, therefore they "go first" ... picking the prime time & places. Then, each succeeding year classes (size range) get to take their turn at the prime places. If the smaller fish "just can't wait", they can/will try & spawn in less prime places.

If you were catching Slabs, in this spot, two weeks ago ... and now it's full of dinks ... I suspect the bigger fish have had time to come in, spawn, and hatch the fry, and they've moved back out to their post spawn quarters. Two weeks is long enough for them to have done all their parental duties, and recovered from the rigors of the spawn. They should be ready to start feeding, if not already feeding, as normal ( as weather/water conditions dictate).

.... cp

[TORTIS]

So they should be in deeper cooler water? Water surface temp is 71 degrees.

[CrappiePappy]

So they should be in deeper cooler water? Water surface temp is 71 degrees.

With those temps .... yeah, I'd say they would be. Especially so, if the Crappie are Black Crappie. Even if they're White Crappie, they should also be in the cooler/deeper water (the big ones, anyway, as I have known the dinks to be shallow ... even in higher water temps).

... cp

[mb4850]

I've noticed this weekend fishing in Mississippi that we caught the larger crappie early in the morning and more smaller one the later in the day.

[TORTIS]

Hmmm. It was later in the day when I was catching them..

How far will a Crappie travel after they spawn? They are right next to the deepest water in the lake, from where they are spawning.