Summer Tips

[kickingback]

Anyone have any good summer fishing tips or techniques? Hard to find them in 85 degree waters right now.

[shipahoy41]

You increase the chances for success if you fish the places where the crappie live. You have to fish your presentation slowly, and you must have confidence in what you are doing. That is the most important item to have in your tackle box. You must have confidence. Shipahoy 41 says “You don't need a boat to catch summer crappies , just deposit your lures at a local bank.” “I like to fish from piers on the banks of reservoirs and lakes. I use a slip float rig so I can get a good long cast into some type of structure. Crappie will follow the baitfish into shallow water with submerged vegetation and weeds in the summertime. I also look for piers near channels, or laydown in shallow water close to the bank.” Brush and laydowns provide the shade as the day heats. When the sun rises, Crappies move to the deep and shade areas of the lake. The Crappie will always follow the baitfish into shallow water with submerged vegetation and weeds in the summertime.

They are still in the lake and eating every day.

You need to fish between daylight and noon or from sunset until you have to go home. Crappies will always relate to something. Like the edge of the weeds or a tree in the summer.

[Creekside]

You'll find them deeper in 10-30+ feet of water. If it's a shallow lake find shaded banks, shady structure, docks, etc. Bank fishing will differ a little from boating, so which are you doing?

[Crestliner08]

A successful technique we employ here in the northeast, is to drift with jigs (1/16 - 1/8 oz.) and plastics over the deeper (20') water basins. For whatever reason, in this clear water situation, crappie suspend about 4 - 6 feet under the surface. With a light breeze, you can drift plastics right into them. Sometimes we get them right near the boat.

Here anyway, if we focus on the shorelines, the pickeral will literally "eat you alive"! You'll loose far too many jigs casting shallow. Targeting open water, suspended fish, seems to work best for us.

[texboxer]

Depends on what time we get out on the lake as to what and how we fish. From sun up to between 8 - 9 a.m., we fish timber in 5 - 25 FOW, fishing top to bottom. If we get on the water around 9 a.m., we fish bridge pylons til noon or 1 starting at a depth of 9 FOW, fishing from bottom up. If we get on the water at around noon, we fish brush piles at any depth, fishing bottom up.
Our reasoning for fishing top to bottom in the early morning is the fish are roaming still and not trying to hide from the sun, so they are easily caught from just below the surface all the way down to the bottom. By 9 in the morning the sun is starting to really shine so the crappie are starting to look for shade, which pylons offer plenty of and the bait fish are usually all over the pylons as well. By noon, the sun is almost unbearable to humans and crappie alike so the crappie are deep in their cover and hunkered down for the day til the sun starts setting. Brush piles are our favorite to fish and most fisherman are off the lake by this time so all the spoils are ours for the taking.
During this time of year you hear a lot of people saying they are going smaller with their jigs. Well I am the opposite, I go bigger. To begin with, I never drop anything smaller than a 1/8 oz jig but right now I am dropping 1/4 oz jigs at them. When fishing pylons or BP's, I want to get to the bottom as quickly as possible. I don't want a slow fall. It's been my experience that the smaller fish are more likely to be shallower and the bigger fish are right off the bottom. I want the big'uns so I want to get down to them and not mess with the dinks if possible. Also this time of year, they tend to mouth the bait and not thump or nail it so you become a line watcher this time of year or you miss more than half your hits. You watch your line for any slack especially on the fall. Know your depth and know if the slack is a fish that's stopped the jig from falling or the bottom of the lake. But give it a little tug even if you're sure it's the latter. Also the heavier jig makes it a easier to control it in high winds. I'm not saying this the best way to do things, but it sure works great for us.

[CrappiePappy]

Shooting docks during the early to midday hours. Docks contain the most prevalent shade & cooler water temps (+ cover & an ambush point for attacking roaming schools of baitfish).

Casting jigs to blowdowns & shoreline cover on shady banks ... from daylight until no shade present over the cover.

Fishing at night, either under lights on your boat or around docks with large lights on the sides & just above the surface of the water.

Fishing bridge pillars ... since they offer shade, draw baitfish, block current, and sometimes collect sunken wood debris at their base (cover/shelter).

In most all of these cases, I also employ a technique that I call "Vertical Casting" ... explained in this article : Crappie Pappy Article

... cp

[Pat O'Reilly]

I had read the vertical casting article before thanks for reposting it has lots of good info.

[CrappiePappy]

I had read the vertical casting article before thanks for reposting it has lots of good info.

Yeah ... it has been plagierized/reworded by several other websites, but that's OK with me. I didn't invent the technique ... just put a name to it !!

... cp

[Danny W]

I'd try trolling bandit 300 series crank baits about 150 feet behind the boat.