Novice Crappie Hunter Seeking help

[hnd]

Hello all. I just found this website and hope to spend alot of time on it.

I do most of my crappie fishing for only 3-4 weeks in teh spring and 3-4 weeks in teh fall.

i have access to a boat but i currently do not own my own so i do a lot of shore fishing for prespan and postspawn crappie.

the following picture is basically the spot i've fished for 10 years. Its a canal that runs off the mississippi river in northwest illinois. one side is pretty clear the other has lots of fallen trees up and down it. its deepest is 25 ft in the middle to 20 ft in other spots in the middle. it ranges from 150ft wide to where i am (50-60 ft).

on the clear side there is an unseen shelf that has a bout a 40 yd stretch of small tree stumps submerged in usually 2-3 ft of water. it goes about 15-20 ft out from shore. it seems to be hard sandy perhaps slatey in some spots.



i'm fairly certain that i've always seemed to catch 25 keepers a night out fo this spot...every year from mid april to the first week of may....without fail ever year....sometimes a week early sometimes a week late....

i'm not versed in their habits only that they tend to spawn in 58 degree water. i'm fairly certain the fish i'm catching are post spawn as i usually catch nothing but dark males....

now this year its already the end of the 1st week of may and while i'm still catching some males and bucketing about 10-12 each trip out, i'm also catching alot of really really small crappie and females still full of eggs....both of which i let go....

weather has been kind of goofy here in the midwest as we had a week and a half in mid april of sub 50 degree weather.

i'm assuming this goofed something up.

am i right in my assumptions that i'm catching pre spawn/ spawning crappie and that the weather has caused a delay in spawning....

did i miss my few weeks of bliss or are they still to come?.....

anyway, i started journalling my fishing 3 years ago....everything is wierd with weather trends this year and i have not been able to pinpoint when to go....

also, i usually catch fish on the outside edge of the stumps with a bobber and jig method (sometimes tipped with minnow or powerball)

i've been catching so far this year some decent sized crappie casting accross the canal and letting the jig rest 6-7 ft under a slip bobber on the outskirts of the tree limbs...that seems to be working pretty decently....

in the summer do i need a boat and just fish deeper near the sunken trees to catch summer crappie?

this is probably alot of information but let me know if you need any more....right now water temps are probably in the 56-60 degree range...

[hnd]

also i should let you know that the water is down as well which is weird too...almost a foot in the canal...i'm assumign this has something to do with it as well...

[hnd]

well it seems apparently reading an article on the main page that i have plenty of time as they stick around until water temps reach 70-75 deg....

[slabbandit]

Hello hnd, It sounds like you have a pretty nice bank fishing area. The crappie here in Arkansas are definately in a post-spawn pattern as they will begin moving back out onto shallow brushpiles and can be caught 6 to 8 feet deep. One way that I know that the spawn is over is when the bream start bedding up.
We had that cold snap too right in the middle of the spawn. I think that the spawn actually happened in two parts this year,before and after the freeze.
From your drawing I would say that your spot has the potential to produce crappie for quite a while. Sounds like the same places we try to find or construct here on our crappie lakes.
Get you a digital camera and start posting pics. And you can get any question about crappie fishing answered by someone on this board. My expertise ,( if you want to call it that), is vertical jigging manmade brushpiles and attractors. But there are guys on here that nightfish, troll crankbaits, multi-pole spiderrig, and other methods.

[Glowgood Jigster]

That looks like a good place to float tube fish, if it doesn't get too much fast boat traffic. I'd get out there among the stumps and fallen trees and cast a jig around or jig straight down.

[shipahoy41]

Welcome from Alabama the beautiful. You'll find a lot of help and information here. I have. Good luck.

old ship

[joejv4]

That looks and sounds like made-to-order crappie habitat. All that wood, steep drops to deeper water... I'd fish that spring summer and fall. Spring and Fall - shallow, summer, along that ledge or the deeper branches of the downed trees.

[FishnLine]

Welcome from SC.

[Bruce Carp]

you have a fairly good assessment from this novice corner. this has been a weird spring spawning season. looks like a good area that you should catch fish year round, just fishing different depths and techniques! Good luck and welcome! bruce

[joejv4]

P.S. Don't know where my manners got off to this morning... A hearty crappie.com welcome from Upstate NY.

Lots of great information is to be found on this site. If it has to do with crappie fishing, someone will talk about it here and you'll learn a ton. Have a question - post it and someone will have an answer (or more likely, several) for you in no time.

Again, welcome aboard!!!!!

Joe