Used a minnow i did

[Ketchn]

The ole SS minnow came out of the garage for its first water run of 2017 this week . She was ready to go except for the cobwebs and she went down the road and down the lake just like she always has for the last 5 years .
We hit a spot close to the house and I got there ahead of my bud , and found some nice fish pretty fast by myself . When he got there about an hour later the fish did the ole change up and got rather tough to ketch . The larger fish I managed were all on the bottom and I used a little employed technique of crawling a crawdad type of plastic across the bottom . You see I don't conform to traditional crappie tactics and know without any doubt they will and can FEED DOWN !
Its pretty silly to say a catfish or carp wont feed up and we all know a bass and or sunfish will feed down , so why on earth would people continue to think crappie wont feed down ?
I have seen crappie do it myself on numerous occasions and they employ a tilt to the side preparation for the strike . I am pretty sure they are tilting themselves to get a better visual before the pounce and seem to be pretty good at this type of ambush .
The fish were scattered and in a deep mode , we only found partially spawned out white crappie females and spawned out small black crappie . We couldn't seem to find shallow fish but I am pretty sure somewhere the males were up .
hope you enjoy the read ...
water temperature was 74 on the surface btw ....
have a great day and never say never ....it could happen
p.s. the color is a custom my bud made me and we call it mud bug

[ad1974]

Those are some nice ones!

[ET Fish]

Good job! Inquiring mind, however. I have always wondered about the "only feed up" as a hard and fast rule. In your opinion, is feeding down or on the bottom a lower percentage play than keeping the lure above them?

[Ketchn]

Good job! Inquiring mind, however. I have always wondered about the "only feed up" as a hard and fast rule. In your opinion, is feeding down or on the bottom a lower percentage play than keeping the lure above them?

I think that there are lots of variables and in no way am saying go drag your jig on the bottom "all" the time . but to be sure I know what I have seen several times and I have even seen some fish suspended follow baits down as they drop past them . the key in most cases is to know the water that you are on well and the current conditions and patterns . I know it rained good a bit back and the larger fish in there like the bottom because the average depth of the lake is very shallow , deepest waters there are around 15 foot deep . I also hammered fish at a different lake bottom hopping last week . I was told back when I started to really follow these fish year round by the person that makes this bait that crappie in the spring get after crawdads on many water bodies . I think its probably a 2 prong type of thing ...1 they are a good and plentiful small sized food source when the hatch out in the spring ...and 2 I imagine they predate fish nests as well ....

[CrappiePappy]

Yeah, I think the "always feed up" idea is a little overstated. It should probably be "mostly feed up". I mean, how would a fish "feed UP" when their food is hugging bottom

I've had Crappie in an aquarium, and they will most definitely "feed down" when conditions dictate it. I've seen them turn sideways, & even nearly upside down, in order to grab a minnow beneath them before one of the others could get to it.

I've also heard that Crappie won't chase a bait for long distances ... then had one chase my Roadrunner all the way back to the boat from nearly 30ft away (clear surface water allowed me to see the fish follow). And I say "chase" the Roadrunner, because I was pretty much "burning" the bait back in order to cast to another spot.

[ET Fish]

I think that there are lots of variables and in no way am saying go drag your jig on the bottom "all" the time . but to be sure I know what I have seen several times and I have even seen some fish suspended follow baits down as they drop past them . the key in most cases is to know the water that you are on well and the current conditions and patterns . I know it rained good a bit back and the larger fish in there like the bottom because the average depth of the lake is very shallow , deepest waters there are around 15 foot deep . I also hammered fish at a different lake bottom hopping last week . I was told back when I started to really follow these fish year round by the person that makes this bait that crappie in the spring get after crawdads on many water bodies . I think its probably a 2 prong type of thing ...1 they are a good and plentiful small sized food source when the hatch out in the spring ...and 2 I imagine they predate fish nests as well ....

Good info! Thanks!

[Ketchn]

Yeah, I think the "always feed up" idea is a little overstated. It should probably be "mostly feed up". I mean, how would a fish "feed UP" when their food is hugging bottom

I've had Crappie in an aquarium, and they will most definitely "feed down" when conditions dictate it. I've seen them turn sideways, & even nearly upside down, in order to grab a minnow beneath them before one of the others could get to it.

I've also heard that Crappie won't chase a bait for long distances ... then had one chase my Roadrunner all the way back to the boat from nearly 30ft away (clear surface water allowed me to see the fish follow). And I say "chase" the Roadrunner, because I was pretty much "burning" the bait back in order to cast to another spot.

It's funny you mentioned the chase .....I was at a spot a couple of years ago and there was a lot of "popping" type of action on top , I told my bud man are the sandbass after the shad ....he said those are crappie . Told me the lake didn't have any sandbass aka white bass in it .....I thought hmmmm ....then the water about 15 foot to the left of me came alive with a large shad going bananas....it then ran right by the bow of the boat very fast with a large crappie on its tail with the after burners on full .....I was amazed to see a crappie going at that speed for a long distance for sure