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Thread: Water temp

  1. #1
    rayman Guest

    Default Water temp


    About what water temp do crappie become active in the fall?
    rayman

  2. #2
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    Apr 2004
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    Hey Rayman:

    Here in southwest central Arkansas as soon as the water temps start to cool off in September the crappie start to move up from their deep summer locations and start biting better.

    When the surface temps get down into the mid 60s and fall through the the 50s they get more aggresive and make a lot harder and longer runs - we've had several white crappie jump right out of the water here in the last couple weeks.
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

  3. #3
    PGottshall Guest

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    Good question - I've read that once in the 50's, Crappies go shallow. I've also read that once in the 50's, they go deep. What's the truth? Someone tell me, please!!!

  4. #4
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    From my experience they continue to move shallower as the temps drop in the Fall but when the temps start falling below 50 they'll move deeper until spring when they start moving shallower again when the temps rise back up through the 50s.

    There are a lot of other factors though - rising or falling water levels, water clarity, depth of available food source, oxygen levels and probably a lot more.

    I don’t think all the crappie move at the same time, especially if you have both blacks and whites. I think at times the crappie are holding at a wide depth range. We’ve been catching them from 8-feet deep to 19-feet deep the last few weeks. Our surface temps are in the mid 60s – warm for this time of year.

    The trick is to try different depths until you locate some crappie in the mood to bite. “If it aint working try something else”. If the bite slows and you’re still marking fish try moving a bit deeper or shallower – 6-inches to a foot at a time.

    A lot of people fish from the bottom up but I start as shallow as I think they may bite from what I see on my graphs and what they have been doing the previous day or two, taking into consideration any weather or lake level changes.

    We usually start with our slip-floats set at varying depths until we get a few bites and then change the ones that aren’t producing. Generally we move deeper as the sun gets higher in the sky on a clear day and then shallower as the sun gets lower in the afternoon.
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

  5. #5
    PGottshall Guest

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    Good advice- Thanks Jerry.

    A bit of data - my son & I got out this morning in central IL. Water was 53, & all of the 30 Crappies we caught were between 20-25 ft, & were actively biting. Weather today was nice; cold front coming tomorrow. Water was high, but pretty clear - we hoped to fish the vertical wall of the spillway, but water was flowing over.

    We tried my favorite method, throwing bobbers around shallow (3-5ft) wood, & caught several non-Crappies.

    We also unsuccessfully tried fishing into schools of bait-fish we saw on the Humminbird, but all our fish were near bottom.

    Take care,
    Paul

  6. #6
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    Default Pg

    Hey Paul, what part of central Illinois do you call home?
    I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin' and hook up with them later.

  7. #7
    PGottshall Guest

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    Pg,

    I live in Washington, & fished Lake Evergreen, N of Bloomington today. Are you local?

    Paul

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