Shallow Summer Crappie According to Ditch Basser

[Ditch Basser]

Let me start by explaining how I got where I am. I grew up fishing in Texas with my father. We always fished for Largemouth Bass. I caught my very first “big” Bass on a plastic worm when I was 12 years old. Crappie were a springtime pursuit when the catching was easy. The rest of the year I spend chasing bass.

I went in the Army at 19 years old and served for the next 23 years before I retired. I never bought a boat since it would have set for months, even years while I was deployed or living overseas. I would fish from the bank or wade fish to increase the areas I could get too. The areas I fished were typically 6 feet deep or less (how far I could cast off the bank). I returned from Germany in 2000 and started living at Ft Stewart, GA. The coastal areas are unfavorable for wade fishing (Alligators!!) and the thick, shallow swamps are difficult to fish from the bank. I discover I could rent a kayak on Ft Stewart for $20 a day. This was my first experience with a kayak. Within a few months I bought my own. This started my love of fishing from a kayak.


In 2008 when I return from Afghanistan I started fishing for Crappie. It was spring so the fishing was easy. As the temperatures warmed up the Crappie vanished. I decided to leave my bass fishing rods at home and to keep searching for the Crappie. At this time I fished a single pole jigging visible cover. My fishing areas were river sloughs and swamps. The same trees and brush piles that held Crappie in the spring seldom gave up a fish. When I did catch one it was a single, not a cooler full. There wasn’t anyone to ask for help or advice. I carried my kayak through the woods to these old river sloughs on my shoulder. There was no one else fishing them. No one told me that you can’t catch Crappie during the summer either, LOL!


One day while dragging jigs (three poles was all I could keep up with at that time) in four feet of water over cypress knees, I turned and started slowly paddling for the other side of the slough. Near the middle of the slough I had Crappie hit two of my poles at the same time. It was the first double in months. I dropped a marker thinking I had gone over some brush or an old stump. I ended up with a limit from that area in a couple hours. I returned the next day and couldn’t buy a bite. Since I was the only person fishing the slough I had even left the marked on the spot. I returned home that afternoon and bought a portable depth finder.


The next weekend I zig zagged this area for an hour. No fish, no brush just a smooth flat bottom. I started slowly moving down the slough looking for submerged brush. I came upon something on the fishfinder that looked like a cloud (baitfish) and started catching Crappie.


The Baitfish move around in schools. They rise to the surface during the night and are readily visible at daylight on the surface of the water. As the sun comes up they move deeper down in the water. If the water had been 20 feet deep the Crappie would be suspended, probably at 10 to 12 feet deep and near the baitfish schools. Since the water is four feet deep the Crappie and bait fish are doing the same thing, there just suspended 24 inches down in four feet of water. In a large boat running a trolling motor you spook these Crappie during the summer. When the fish are 10 foot deep it’s not a problem, when the fish are three feet deep there gone. I’ve proven this again and again when I large boat with a trolling motor moves in close where I’m catching Crappie shallow the fish will shut down. After the larger boat moves on the Crappie will start back biting.


Again, just my 2 cents. Everyone ask how I manage to catch Crappie shallow consistently during the summer. The baitfish is the key, but I’m also not fishing shallow when there is deep water within a couple hundred yards. The Crappie I’m catching shallow are a ¼ mile or better from deep water. They’re stuck where they are. Hope this helps a few that are trying to figure it out. I still get skunked by Crappie, just not often.


I’d love to hear how other board member start their search for Crappie when they get to the lake.

[Fisherman_Wantabe]

Come to Upper Bear Creek. No fish under 12ft any time of the year. Well you will get the small ones and small bass.

[Buckbrush82]

Great post. Thanks for the info.

[Gindog]

Thanks for your serves

[RetiredRR]

Thanks Ditch Basser, ............. if you knew how many years I've been keepin' that info a top secret. Good info and good write up.
Didn't know you were a lifer. Thank you for your service too. I know it didn't happen overnight, but glad you got into the kayak in the
early part of your crappie fishin'. It does take dedication and determination to get what your after. I always enjoy your posts.

[BensGoneFishing]

Been following Ditch's posts since last year about summer time crappie. Have even run into him on one adventure at Big Eye Pond last year. Dad and I tried the jig dragging yesterday morning after the rain. Only had 5 that would measure, and we only brought home one of the 5. Should feed my wife and 5 year old daughter... Nice 15" white crappie! Scales said 1 lb 11oz. Biggest crappie I've caught in years.

[jimp]

good info, and thanks for serving.

[Ditch Basser]

Nice one, you need to drag that old flat bottom down off the road and tray Barron Fork!

[Stymie]

Ditch, you ought to fish SACA tournament on Wheeler in October.

SHOALS AREA CRAPPIE ASSOCIATION

[BensGoneFishing]

Ditch, I'm making plans to hit the fork, since it is right outside gate 7, but it would be in the afternoon. Have to get my dad to come over and meet me since why wife doesn't enjoy drifting. She likes minnow fishing laydowns, so not sure when the fork will meet that criteria, but my guess is right before draw down starts... DO you fish the west side since it looks like the east side opens up real wide?