Crappie go to the bottom to feed?

[crappster]

I read this in an article recently. The guy said that crappie will go to the bottom to feed. It made no sense to me at the time, considering what I know about crappie. Well....now I am wondering. Two separate occassions in twenty feet of water around bridge pilings I have marked all the fish at 10 feet. But could only catch them at a couple feet of the bottom...sometimes only a foot of the bottom. Could not catch anything any higher in the water column. Anybody got any input?

[Moose1am]

It all depends on the time of the year and the environmental conditions. During the winter months the insect activity of the lake is at a minimum. Most of the small fish have grown to big to be eaten and or died. Food is much less in the winter time than in the hot summer months when life is abundant and there for the taking. There are some mud flats that hold worms that burrow in the mud. Crappie are said to feed on these small worms when they can find them. But if a minnow were to swim by while the crappie was hunting those worms on the bottom the crappie would eat that minow.

Catching suspended fish is difficult. First they must be in the mood to bite. Second you have to present the bait right in front of their nose at times. Lots of time the suspended crappie are resting or in a neutral or negative mood. Crappie along the bottom are harder to see on the depth finder but they may be more active and feeding. They may hit a jig faster than those that are suspended.

It took me a long time to finally catch some suspended crappie. Most of the time I fished for crappie that I though were schooling crappie I didn't catch anything. I never knew what type of fish I was fishing for as all I knew was that my depth sounder showed some fish suspended below me. But after I learned to better set my jig depth and to find the true depth of the fish shown on my depth sounder I started to catch some suspended crappie. Then I knew what fish were being shown on my depth sounder. You have to present that bait right at the same depth as the crappie and let them have some time to see it and decide to hit the jig. Boat speed is critical not only for keeping the bait at the right depth but also to encourage the crappie to hit the jig. Now a minnow works better at times than a jig but still you must be a the right depth (that is the depth that the crappie are below the surface)

Also make sure that you compensate for how far your transducer is below the water's surface. You may have to add a foot more to the depth shown to get the right depth of the fish readings. Remmber that the transducer is showing how far the object is away from the transduer not from the boat or from the surface of the water.

This quarters Crappie World has a good article by Sam Heaton on swimming a jig at the right depth to catch suspended crappie.

I read this in an article recently. The guy said that crappie will go to the bottom to feed. It made no sense to me at the time, considering what I know about crappie. Well....now I am wondering. Two separate occassions in twenty feet of water around bridge pilings I have marked all the fish at 10 feet. But could only catch them at a couple feet of the bottom...sometimes only a foot of the bottom. Could not catch anything any higher in the water column. Anybody got any input?

[mikeg]

It all depends on the time of the year and the environmental conditions. During the winter months the insect activity of the lake is at a minimum. Most of the small fish have grown to big to be eaten and or died. Food is much less in the winter time than in the hot summer months when life is abundant and there for the taking. There are some mud flats that hold worms that burrow in the mud. Crappie are said to feed on these small worms when they can find them. But if a minnow were to swim by while the crappie was hunting those worms on the bottom the crappie would eat that minow.

Catching suspended fish is difficult. First they must be in the mood to bite. Second you have to present the bait right in front of their nose at times. Lots of time the suspended crappie are resting or in a neutral or negative mood. Crappie along the bottom are harder to see on the depth finder but they may be more active and feeding. They may hit a jig faster than those that are suspended.

It took me a long time to finally catch some suspended crappie. Most of the time I fished for crappie that I though were schooling crappie I didn't catch anything. I never knew what type of fish I was fishing for as all I knew was that my depth sounder showed some fish suspended below me. But after I learned to better set my jig depth and to find the true depth of the fish shown on my depth sounder I started to catch some suspended crappie. Then I knew what fish were being shown on my depth sounder. You have to present that bait right at the same depth as the crappie and let them have some time to see it and decide to hit the jig. Boat speed is critical not only for keeping the bait at the right depth but also to encourage the crappie to hit the jig. Now a minnow works better at times than a jig but still you must be a the right depth (that is the depth that the crappie are below the surface)

Also make sure that you compensate for how far your transducer is below the water's surface. You may have to add a foot more to the depth shown to get the right depth of the fish readings. Remmber that the transducer is showing how far the object is away from the transduer not from the boat or from the surface of the water.

This quarters Crappie World has a good article by Sam Heaton on swimming a jig at the right depth to catch suspended crappie.

[mikeg]

I am a firm believer if Crappie are in20ft. of water and suspended at 10ft. they don't like to go down after a jig or shiner verry much. Look at their eye's and see which way they are looking (looking up.) I am no expert but this is what my thoughts are. Do you think what you may have been looking at on your depth finder were shad or shiners suspended and Crappie were under them.

Good fishing mikeg.

[crappster]

Maybe...but the finder showed them as distinct fish.....maybe 10 ot 15 per school. I don't know. I thought of that though. Bait on top, crappie on the bottom. Thanks for the replies.....

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

Crappie can and will feed on or near the bottom at times. Often, the most active and catchable fish are found on the bottom. But to say that "this" is where they go to feed is a little misleading. A better statement is that they go to an "edge" to feed. Whether that edge happens to be the bottom, the surface, or some other type of structure, it will directly correspond to the present location of the Crappie's prey, and usually their comfort zones. This is where Crappie will go to feed. Crappie use edges to either trap their prey against, or to ambush what they are feeding on.

Hope that helps some. <,"}/>{ Rippa

[Moose1am]

This post is for everyone and not directed at anyone in particular. I say this because I posted this under tims post. But it's not really directed at what tim was saying.


Man this internet is super slow this morning. Someones server or computer is bogged down today. Took me 30 to 60 seconds just to open this thread. And this is not the first thread this morning that was hard to get to open.

We should not GENERALIZE about Anything especially when it comes to discussing where the crappie will be located in a lake.

Crappie can be anywhere on a lake depending on the conditions. Sometimes they will be on the bottom, sometimes they will be suspended above the bottom, sometime in deep water and somethings in 12" of water. It all depends on the lake, the time of the year and the weather and lake water temps and conditions of the water. Water clairty and wind speed and direction changes can move the crappie.

So when I say that crappie feed on microorganisms on the bottom that is true during parts of the year and at certain times of the day. The same crappie that are located at the bottom on the lake at 3am on Dec 31 when the winds are blowing at 30 mph and it's below zero air temp with water temps in the lower 30's will be found suspended above a creek channel during July4th at 2 pm when it's 99 deg outside and the winds are calm.

You get my drift? Timing is everything in politics and in crappie fishing as well. Things change and we must adapt to those changes to stay with the fish.

And Tim is right on when he says that crappie use an edge or a break to chase prey up against. The bottom is an edge. The thermocline is another edge that he forgot to mention. The shoreline and the walls of a old "U" shaped creek channel or river channel is another edge. The end of a weedline where the water depths drop down to where sunlight can't reach the weeds in suffecient quantities to sustain the weed growth in the deeper water is another edge.

Crappie are going to follow their food source. Just like when I go by McDonalds and smell freshly cooked Big Macks in the air and pull though the drive though at noon on Thursdays. But on Friday night I will be at the Pizza place.

Crappie will prey on what is availalbe and the time of the year can determine what is avalable. After the spring spawn there are many small fish of a lot of different species in the lake. By Fall a lot of those newly hatched fish fry are grown and some speicies may not be avalable to the smaller crappie any longer. They outgrew the crappies mouth. Some of the prey fish may have not survived the summer and have been eaten by bass or stipers etc. Catfish fry are too spiney to eat and are not available to the crappie.

Mayflies that hatch in June are utilized by the crappie and bluegills and bass but those are not hatching out in Dec. So the crappie will key in on Mayflies in June and July maybe but not in Dec unless they are the mayflie nymphs that hide along the bottom of a lake. The nymphs will migate from the bottom to the surface in June to hatch into adults. The adult mayflies will mate after they change form and then lay thier eggs over the water and die to become fish food. They eggs will fall into the water, hatch and develop into the nymphs that we find hiding under the rocks in the lakes and streams.

Worms are found in the lake bottom year round from what I know. Snails hiding in the submergent vegation can become a prey item for fish.

Season's change and so does the location of the prey species and the crappie.

Nope it's hard to be accurate when we generalize.

Crappie can and will feed on or near the bottom at times. Often, the most active and catchable fish are found on the bottom. But to say that "this" is where they go to feed is a little misleading. A better statement is that they go to an "edge" to feed. Whether that edge happens to be the bottom, the surface, or some other type of structure, it will directly correspond to the present location of the Crappie's prey, and usually their comfort zones. This is where Crappie will go to feed. Crappie use edges to either trap their prey against, or to ambush what they are feeding on.

Hope that helps some. <,"}/>{ Rippa

[Kokanee King]

I remember this one lake that I fished, I fished under a bridge and the only way to get the crappie to hit was to dragg the jig on the bottom. IT was in Late august.

[shipahoy41]

This is an interesting read, originally posted about 16 years ago.

Mike

[DRFISHDUCK]

A few years back had 2 crappie in my fish tank, sometimes they would eat off the bottom like catfish. They were a well behaved aquarium fish.

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