Crappie fishing flooded lakes

[anvil]

I'm really at a lost here with all the lakes flooded and I don't know were or how to even start to fish them for crappie I mean are they going to hold on the same tree's and such that they would before the flood? Those places I know of are 15 foot under water now. I have a friend that is convinced that all the fish be it bass crappie blue gills catfish what ever are all in the flooded tree's. I'm just kind of looking for some direction and thanks for the info..

[slabbandit]

If you can find flooded bushes that are 6 to 8 feet down fish right in the top of them. As long as you keep the bushes on your depthfinder you will be in the crappie. Same pattern here 3 years in a row.

[anvil]

Thanks slabbandit.

[Crappie Reaper]

If you can find flooded bushes that are 6 to 8 feet down fish right in the top of them. As long as you keep the bushes on your depthfinder you will be in the crappie. Same pattern here 3 years in a row.

I concur.

[CrappiePappy]

I fished a flooded Barkley Lake, many decades ago ... and did catch some Crappie out of the flooded bushes. BUT --- I caught many more, by simply fishing around the flooded live trees along the bank. I had to put a slipfloat/minnow rig right against the tree ... fishing about 18" deep, in the 2-3ft depths up these live trees. A foot away from the tree & no bites .... putting the minnow up next to the tree trunk, on all four "sides", and eventually the float would go down !! The bigger trees, and especially the big dead ones, seemed to hold more promise than the smaller trunked trees. We keyed on trees that were in 3-4ft of water, and had trunks that were 2ft wide or more.
It's my belief that the Crappie were keying on these trees, for orientation as much as anything else, in the dirty/dingy waters. They seemed to be nosed up to the trees, and wouldn't venture off from them ... even to hit a minnow a foot away.

... cp

[Eager Beaver]

I agree with Pappy. As long as the water has been up for a couple of days. EB

[rocket rich]

me too I fished flooded lakes for years . Make a mental note of what it was like before the flood , Rock Roads, fallen tree's stuff that fish like I llike to fish behind the bushes and tree lines all ways very good for me.

[anvil]

Hay thank for the info.
Now if it will just stop raining.

[sparkie51]

If you can find flooded bushes that are 6 to 8 feet down fish right in the top of them. As long as you keep the bushes on your depthfinder you will be in the crappie. Same pattern here 3 years in a row.

I agree. I personal don't like to fish shallow unless it's absolutely necesssary. I would start at the 5 foot depth and work out to really deep water. I find that the fish are more concentrated in deep water brush piles and less effected by the changing weather patterns right now. Right now our fish are in the prespawn mode. There is some movement towards the shallows but to target the shallow bite when the lake is 8.5 feet high would be pretty fruitless. Instead I target the cribs and slow down my retreive. Saturday I caught fish anywhere from 15-23 feet down and did really well.

[Bronson]

Will jigs still work or during extremely high water, do you guys find, you are better off sticking to minnows?