Winter Crappie Fishin

[Bassman]

Im sort of new to crappie fishing, and would like to know how to catch them in the winter in 38 to 40 degree stained water with no current. the maximum depth is about 14 feet.

[Darryl Morris]

Hey there bassman. Winter crappie are really no different than catching summertime crappie (in my opinion). Neither season is optimal for the species but you can still catch'em. Some say they school in winter, others say they scatter. Whichever it is, you've got to locate the fish. Once that's done, you've got to find what they want to eat. I do agree with some that I've read that winter time is a time to go smaller with your bait presentations. Lastly, when it gets really cold the bite might be so subtle that if you're not paying attention extra, extra close, you'll never know you got one. That's usually the problem I have most when I winter fish (if I go - man it's been cold).

[slabtroller]

Maybe not directly related to your area but out west here the crappie start to transition to their winter pattern in mid December. They go from being in scattered, small (10 - 50 fish), tight schools to 20 to 35 foot deep areas of the lakes that are flat bottomed with a lot of bottom cover. These spots of fish can be over a mile wide and you can see over 50 fish at any one time on your graph for the entire mile. They bite best with reaction baits, not minnows and upon cleaning you will find most have eggs already. We troll them up with a 1 mph troll speed, two 1/8 oz jigs with grubs on each line and 35 to 50 feet of fireline out. The bite depth is generaly at 16 feet and if you don't mark a lot of fish at that depth, good luck getting any to bite. Thats just where they preffer to feed here.
Hope some of this can help back east, after all thats where I learned!

[Jerry Blake]

Hey Bassman:

The lakes I fish are a LOT deeper so I don't know if I can help you much. But with the surface temps that cold I would be looking in the warmest water I could find. That may be the deepest holes you can find or it may be shallows on the north banks in protected areas where the sun can warm the water, even if it's just a few degrees. Shallow, stained water can warm up a lot on a bright sunny day.

If there are any old road beds or ditches running through the lake or any changes in depth - even a foot or less - those would be good places to look.

It's been mentioned here before that crappie can be found holding so tight to the bottom in the winter that they won't show up on a graph. I suspect that may be because that is the warmest place they can find.

Just have to get out there and poke around. Like Darryl mentioned if they are slow then downsize and fish slow - maybe even still. Try small live minnows, attractants, contrasting colors and different presentations until you figure out a pattern. We wear them out at times here in the winter, especially just before a font comes through.

[blufloyd]

It plain don't work that way around here. Under the ice many times crappie are a foot or so under it. In real cold non ice conditions many tiimes I catch them in the shallowest water in the lake.

[Moose1am]

I have read that panfish can be found right below the ice at times. It depends on the type of ice too. Clear ice lets sunlight though while ice that is snow covered will block more energy or sunlight. Areas below the ice that have darkwater can heat up if it's shallow and the sun is shinning brightly. Like Jerry Said the North Shores may be warmer at times.

The stripper pits that I fish have some big schools at times. I have seen huge schools on my depth finder and confirmed that they were crappie by catching some. I found them suspended out over deeper water about 100 yards from the dropoffs. I suspect that there may be an underwater hump nearby where I found them last year in Dec. It had been cold for a while last year in Dec and then one day it got up to nearly 50 deg so I bundled up and went out fishing in Dec for the first time. I caugth a few crappie that day. I was tightlining with a small 1/16oz tube jig with some crappie nibbles (chartruse) on the hook. I caugth these fish about 15 to 20ft deep over 40 or 50 ft of water depth. I need to work this area over and criss cross the spot to figure out the lay of the land. The spot that I caught the fish was in the middle of this pit and away from the shoreline. Now these pits are fairly narrow and long. The sides are rather steep where the drag line removed the coal. But there is a spot where they must have piled up some rocks or dirt out in the middle of this area. I can tell this because as I leave the shoreline the water gets progressively deeper and goes down to 45ft to 50ft and then it becomes shallower again coming back up to about 30ft before dropping off back into 50ft of water again. I found this by going in a North South Direction since the pit generally runs in the North South direction. I need to criss cross this area east and west to really get a mental picture and to see if this is indeed a true hump out in the middle of the lake. I really suspect that it is a hump since I have read that crappie like to suspend over the top of these humps in the winter times and during the hot summer months as well. But the number of crappie was huge. I suspect they went for about 30 yards and were stacked on top of each other about 5 ft thick. I dropped a marker bouy at this spot and they stayed in the same spot. That was my first experience fishing for crappie in the winter time. I was satisfied with my first winter trip as I think I learned something. I like fishing these small 90 acre lakes as I can learn them well and see what the crappie do. It's big enough to be a challenge but not so big that over time I can't fish the entire pit. So far I have covered the entire pit except for the area to the Extreem NE. That is so far away from the ramp that I very seldom go fish it. But this spring I may go there to check that area out. It's also fishable from the bank. These stripper pits are different from most stripper pits in Coal Country since they are hydrologically connected to the Ohio River via Pigeon Creek and Blue Grass Creek at times of high water. Ohio River flood waters and the river fish can swim up these creek and swim into these stripper pits at the Blue Grass Pit area. Then Blue grass pit is connected to Loon pit with a big 36 to 50" covert that runs under Boonville New Harmony Road. The there is another covert that runs under Kansas Road and that one connects Loon pit to Otter Pit. Loon is 200 acres in size and Blue Grass pit is about 175 acres. Otter is only 90 acres. I have not fished Loon that much but have heard of good catches coming out of it. It's the largest of the three largest pits in the F&W area and had more stickups than the other's combined. But it's very shallow and I need to figure out where the deep water is and the lay of the land. It's so shallow in spots that it's easy to become stuck out in the middle of the lake. I ran into one shallow area that has rocks on the bottom and didn't like running my boat up on that shallow reef. I know that it has some deep areas as well but like I said I need to explore it some more.

At this time of the year when the water is icing up the warmest water should be at the deeper holes at the bottom of the lake. Water at 4 deg C is the actually warmer and DENSER than water from 3 deg C to zero deg C or freezing. Ice floats because it's lighter than water at 1 deg C and water at 4 deg c. Water at 4 deg sinks because it's denser than water at 3 deg C. Therefore the warmer water can at times be on the very bottom of the lake.

Also there are certain bugs and worms that live in the muck on the bottom of the lakes and crappie have been known to feed on these worms. I think that they are midge larval worms.

It plain don't work that way around here. Under the ice many times crappie are a foot or so under it. In real cold non ice conditions many tiimes I catch them in the shallowest water in the lake.

[Bassman]

Thanks for all the information.

[Bassman]

I will have to try some of the above suggested techniques.

[Roberta]

The fish will go where there is higher oxygen content and food. Water reaches its highest density at 39 degrees, causing it to sink to the bottom, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's where the fish will be. - Roberta

[crappieseeker]

Jerry Blake, that is true about crappie holding so close to the bottom that the fishfinder wont pick them up. The 27 crappie I caught yesterday showed up like a stack of bricks and once I caught them, they didnt show up anymore. I thought it was crappie by the way they were stacked, and it was, but I never found anymore after that.