Deep Water Crappie

[Oregon slabman]

Some of you may find this interesting. This last weekend on Brownlee 2 guys made a big catch of 99 crappie, all 12" or better. They caught them 53' deep. They had a hard time locating the fish but once they did the bite was on. I have never even considered fishing that deep although I have caught them at 40'. Gives me an itch I might have to scratch soon.

[Moose1am]

At this time of the year when the water is cold and holding lots of oxygen in the deeper water the fish can go pretty deep. Is this lake a pretty clear water lake?

Cold water holds much greater oxygen than hot water. In clear water the light can penetrate deeper.

Fish will suspend over the thermocline in the summer months since the water below the thermocline is almost devoid of oxygen. But during the winter time there are not thermoclines to speak of and the oxygenated water at the surface can mix with the water on the bottom.

Some of you may find this interesting. This last weekend on Brownlee 2 guys made a big catch of 99 crappie, all 12" or better. They caught them 53' deep. They had a hard time locating the fish but once they did the bite was on. I have never even considered fishing that deep although I have caught them at 40'. Gives me an itch I might have to scratch soon.

[Darryl Morris]

Yeah, I'd agree that 53' is deep water for catching crappie. Caught a few near 30' in Norfork in Arkansas, but never that deep. Don't even think I could feel the bite.

[rango]

last winter we was catching em at 51/53 ft deep. the most two of us caught in one day was 96. almost all of em was average size with no slabs in the mix.. they was coiming out of that deep hole by dropshottin minnows with 3/4 oz wts. their mouths would be locked open and their air bladder would be poking out their throats when wed bring em up.. after a few minutes in the cooler tho, everything would be back to normal. I dont know how deep you could find em, but thats the deepest ive ever got into em. and these fish was hugging the bottom. they wasnt showing up on the depth finder but they was there.. the bite was no problem to detect with the minnows.

[kunes]

In northern climates the warmest water in the lake is sometimes found on the bottom. Like most substances water becomes denser as it becomes colder. However this only occurs until the water reaches 39 degrees, at which point it starts to become less dense for some reason. That's why ice floats on top of warmer water.

[Oregon slabman]

I'm not surprised the fish were holding that deep but I am surprised they bit. I have always considered those really deep fish to be inactive. They must have had perfect dead-calm conditions to stay over those fish. We can't use live bait so I'm guessing they fished a jig slow. Our water is more stained than clear. A jig dissapears at 5'-8'. Those fish may have been in 55' deep water or suspended over 200' of water. I wish I could have talked to those guys to get some details.
Last winter our water level was stable. I fished until Christmas and caught suspended fish 10'-30' deep. The key was to find a big cloud of zoo-plankton and the fish were in it and all around it. This winter the reservoir was filled to full pool in December for some reason and that pattern never developed.

[Moose1am]

Could you see the Zooplankton cloud on your depth sounder screen? That's cool! It's surprising to find out what the crappie feed on in that deep water in this time of the year. Roberta posted about this and I am very interested in where these clouds occur. I think my depth finder doesn't have the resolution to see that and other things. One of my next major updates on the boat is the get a more detailed graph recorder.

If the big Whales in the Ocean can grow to over 60ft by just eating planton that they strain out of the water then surely a crappie can be sustained on these zooplankton too.

I'm not surprised the fish were holding that deep but I am surprised they bit. I have always considered those really deep fish to be inactive. They must have had perfect dead-calm conditions to stay over those fish. We can't use live bait so I'm guessing they fished a jig slow. Our water is more stained than clear. A jig dissapears at 5'-8'. Those fish may have been in 55' deep water or suspended over 200' of water. I wish I could have talked to those guys to get some details.
Last winter our water level was stable. I fished until Christmas and caught suspended fish 10'-30' deep. The key was to find a big cloud of zoo-plankton and the fish were in it and all around it. This winter the reservoir was filled to full pool in December for some reason and that pattern never developed.

[CrappiePappy]

if that "plankton cloud" wasn't really a school of baitfish. Then again, maybe a real "high end" depth sounder on high resolution could pick up the difference in "density" !!??!!
Or could it be that the Crappie "know" that a cloud of plankton will eventually draw a school of baitfish ... and they were just waiting around to feed ? (and mistook the jigs for baitfish) ...LOL!!
Very interesting !! ........cp

[PanMan_VA]

In northern climates the warmest water in the lake is sometimes found on the bottom. Like most substances water becomes denser as it becomes colder. However this only occurs until the water reaches 39 degrees, at which point it starts to become less dense for some reason. That's why ice floats on top of warmer water.

Just in case someone is itching for a simple explanation as to why ice floats, here goes....

I recall from my chemistry classes that the crystal structure for water changes as it gets very cold. The crystal structure for ice takes slightly more space (is less dense) than the crystal structure for warmer water. The two crystal structures are face-centered-cubic (FCC) and body-centered cubic (BCC). I can't recall which one ice is. I think it is BCC. The energy level of the water molecules determine the crystal structure.

[Oregon slabman]

Moose, my unit is an old Interphase 20/20 dual. Good but not great. To see the cloud I turn the gain up to where I am picking up a lot of clutter and slowly cruise along. If I have it on the gain I normally use they will not show up. On my display the background is black and everything else shows up yellow.Sometimes they show up as kind of a hazy horizontal bunch. Eventually they group up tighter in a huge mass and resemble a cloud. Seems like this happens later in the day. It may be that sunlight conditions trigger the vertical movement. It took me several trips to put this together but I am sure of what I have discovered. When we catch these fish they are full of these.I don't know exactly what they are called. I call them scuds. Not once has a crappie caught on this pattern had minnows in it. I fillet a couple thousand fish a year and I'm aware of what a fish is feeding on. These are messy but nothing like the mess of partially digested minnows. On the other hand, some of the perch we catch on these same trips will have minnows(baby crappie) in them.
Sometimes during the day they will be on top.When they are massed tightly the water looks brown. They also will float up to a lantern at night with the crappie right behind them.