Yesterday I was killing time at the boat slip where I have a crappie condo placed in 10' of water. I lowered my SeaMaster 600 System camera into the water and was amazed at what I discovered.
The condo had only three small Crappie in the structure of the condo. As I slowly moved the camera around I found about 50 crappie (nice sized) on the fringes of the condo. I considered that I had spooked the fish from the structure by lowering the camera into the condo, so I let the camera set for 30 minutes buy no fish came into the condo. At one point I saw a Bass about 15" long swim through the crappie school and actually bump into one. The school never spooked at the Bass. Then I lowered a tube jig into the condo. Three Crappie turned and looked at the Jig but would not hit. I then lowered the jig about 6' from the condo and eventually caught a 10" crappie.
The Crappie I caught was full of eggs that were gust getting blood streaks in them. Water temp was 61 degrees and clear. The fish were at 8' and NOT MOVEING. A cold front was about 4 hours from arriving in the area.
Anyone know why the fish is near but not in the condo.
Note I went back this morning and saw the same pattern but I did see one crappie take a small crayfish off the condo. Did not try to catch any today.
Last edited by bobberdown; 03-31-2007 at 11:37 AM.
I always thought that the crappie liked to suspend on the outer edges of your cover or just over it, not always right deep inside it. It prob varies though. That is why I always fish the edges first then fish down into the brush