Cooled off today

[Moose1am]

It finally cooled off today when the cold front came though. It rained this afternoon but stopped around 4 pm. I got to fish for a few hours and nabbed 5 crappie. They seemed to have lock jaw today and were not very agressive.

We fished in deep water and found these crappie suspended off the bottom and hovering at the tops of submerged brush. They were about ten feet down from the surface and hanging in the very top of the brush piles.

It was cloudy this afternoon and the water temps were cooler at the surface by about 8 deg F from yesterdays surface water temps.

Air temps went from 100 deg F down to the low 70's today in Southern IN. Man was it pleasant this evening.

[Mike Sutton]

Thanks Moose for the report. I'm going to try to get out today and I'll give a report from the NW side of the state. I'll fish deep!!!

[Moose1am]

Mike:

You know I fished deep 20 to 25 ft last year and I caugth some crappie in the deepere water. But this summer I have been finding the crappie in only 6 ft of water. Not only that but I have been talking to other fishermen who tell me and show me big crappie that they are catching on crank baits in the shallow water of the strip pits that I fish. That go me to thinking harder. Why are these big crappie hanging in the shallow waters during the heat of the day in the middle of these hot summer months? My lake has no shade from any trees as this area was mined and the trees were all torn down and the new trees are still to small to proved any good shade yet.

So then I though about the numerous aquatic submergent weed that grow in these pit's shallow waters.

Last fall I saw a guy fishing a shallow flat in the main part of the lake I fish. BlueGrass Pit in Blue Grass F&W area. It was windy that day and he was using the wind to drift though the shallow 6 to 8 ft deep weed bed flats and then using his trolling motor to troll though the area again into the wind and then drifting back with the wind. He did this again and again for several hours. When he came back to the boat dock that night I talked to him and he told me that he was catching some nice 10" long crappie. Now I know that this pit has some bigger crappie somewhere as I have seen them. One guy caught a nice 13" White crappie and gave it to me as he didn't want it. I took a picture of that crappie and have posted it on this forum somewhere. Can't remmber which thead though. Sorry. But anyway he told me he caught it on a crank bait in shallow water. Another guy caught and gave me a 14" long white crappie that he caught near a beavers lodge using a minus one crank bait. I think that is a mann's minus one. But it's only running one foot deep. This guy gave this fish to me around 2 pm and he has finished fishing for the day. He only had this one crappie and he didn't want to take it home. It was a skinny fish though. It was 14" long but it was not very heavy. Looked like it was starving somewhat We have gizzard shad in these waters but I guess that the shad grow to big for the crappie to eat by the middle of the summer. I am guessing at this. I do know that the strip pit waters are not that fertile and that the growth rates of the fish in these pits is below the state average for crappie. See Dan Carnahans fish survey reports on the Indiana DNR web site.

I just finished writing another post on this subject of shallow water slabs. I also just read the Crappie World Magazine article by Keith Sutton about Todd Huckabee who targets shallow water slabs in Oklahoma. Interesting article to read. This is in the May/June 2005 Issue of Crappie World Magazine.

Bottom line is that some big fish can be caugth in the shallow weed infested water on flats. Weed provide these slabs with food, shade or cover and dissolved oxygen.

Remember that the weeds produce oxgyen when the sun shines brightest. They consume oxygen when the sun goes down.

Try some weedless baits along the edge of the weed and see if you can't find some big crappie hiding in those weeds. By weed I am talking about the submberged plants that grow beneath the water's surface or that grow up from the bottom to the surface. Deeper weed can be found in cleaner water. Dirty dingy water will only have shallow growing weeds.

My last trip out to LOON pit I caught a nice 12" White Crappie in only 4 to 6 ft of water and that was during the middle of the day. Water temps were in the upper 80's that day. My cheap Minn-Kota water temp gauges are starting not work right. Not sure if the sunlight has ruined the display or if they got water inside them but the display is hard to read these days. I have two of these temp gauges. One is on the front of the boat deck with the thermocouple attached to the shaft of my Minn-Kota trolling motor. It read the water temp at the front of the boat and the display it right at my feet where I can see it better. The other unit's display is mounted near the steering console and it's temp probe is glued to the transducer which is mounted on the back of the boats transom. I need to get a better temp gauges that had a better display and that is more accurate. I really don't trust these cheap 20 buck units that run on a single aa battery. But they do give me some readings which is better than nothing. They worked ok when I first got them. But being out in the hot sun and high humididy can cause the circuit board to absorb water and expand which can put cracks in the circuits. Electrical circuit board and water don't mix well. We use to coat the boads we used in the field with a waterproofing material to make them last longer. That prevented the circuit boards from swelling and absorbing water.

Maybe your lake has some weeds that you can check out.

http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/wc/wq/prrtext.html

http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/patl/


Check out the temp and DO profile at Patoka Lake this time of the year. Note the drop in do below 15 ft. I think that the DO drops below 5 ppm and that is too little DO for the fish. The shallow waters have higher levels of DO in them even when the water is 30 deg C. Now that is hot water but it has the most dissovled oxygen because it's closer to the surface where the air mixes with the wate and puts DO into the water.

Thanks Moose for the report. I'm going to try to get out today and I'll give a report from the NW side of the state. I'll fish deep!!!

[fastfisher]

we dicussed this same thing last year. the do levels in alot of lakes i fish are higher in top of the water column so the smart fish should be shallower

[Mike Sutton]

Thanks Moose and Fastfisher, for the replies. I have to fish shallow in Lake George because it's deepest part is 8ft. I've been fishing the edges and also I have been drifting or trolling in the 8ft area. I can only pick up fish once in a while. I tried marking the place where I caught a fish with a bouy and then going back and fishing around that area but with no luck. It seems to be hit and miss. I can't really tell if there are weeds growing in the lake below the surface.

Thanks for the input and ideas!!!

Mike

[Moose1am]

If the water is muddy or very stained the sunlight may not penetrate deeply into the water and the weed won't grow in the deeper water. There may not be any weed in that lake if you can't see them.

When you come down to patoka this Sept you will see what weeds look like. They should still be there for you to see.

When you go though shallow water at Patoka the weeds will get caught up in your trolling motor and hang on the prop. If there are weed you will see them

Without submergent vegetation there won't be as much oxygen in the shallower water. Still the oxygen levels may be higher in the surface waters as compared to the very deep water. Air get's into the water though diffusion of the Oxygen in the Atmosphere into the surface waters. Wind blown shorelines may have more oxygen than the leaward shorelines due to the increase agitation caused by the waves.

Without weeds the little organisms won't be there and the crappie will have to feed on something else.

I have caught crappie in 25 ft of water last summer and also in the 5ft depth later in the afternoon. I normally don't fish the mornings as I am too busy sleeping LOL I have to make special plans to get up before the sun and that does not happen much these days. I use to get up at 4 am when I fished with my dad but these days I like to sleep in and fish in the later afternoon until dark

Thanks Moose and Fastfisher, for the replies. I have to fish shallow in Lake George because it's deepest part is 8ft. I've been fishing the edges and also I have been drifting or trolling in the 8ft area. I can only pick up fish once in a while. I tried marking the place where I caught a fish with a bouy and then going back and fishing around that area but with no luck. It seems to be hit and miss. I can't really tell if there are weeds growing in the lake below the surface.

Thanks for the input and ideas!!!

Mike

[Mike Sutton]

Moose, thanks. I've never thought about the oxygen level of a lake. The link you posted for Patoka and the different amounts at different depths was enlightening to me. Lake George is a lake that is muddy and stained. I think their are rivers that feed it. So I'm sure that does effect the vegatation under the water. I also fish another lake that is crystal clear and do see the be vegitation there. Sounds like 15ft is a max level at this time of the year. Do you think crappie still school up at this time of year? If I catch one should there be more in that area?

Thanks!
Mike

[frank lawhead]

Mike My Sonars Shows Submerged Weeds Real Well
All Winter In Fl. Thats What I Look For ---scattered Grass In 3-6 Ft.of Water

[Mike Sutton]

Thanks Frank. Are you catching any in Central Illinois these days?

[Moose1am]

Crappie tend to school in year classes just like bass. At least that is what I think. I could be wrong. It's just that I have read that somewhere over and over. I just read the fisheries biologist report for Patoka lake 2004 Crappie sampling and according to that report a 7 year old crappie will be about 14" long. It takes about 5 to 6 years for the Patoka crappie to reach 12" long. They are growing close to the state average. I bet that the KY lake crappie and AL and Missississippi Crappie grow much faster when they have
longer growing seasons and better forage. (threadfin shad vs Gizzard shad).

I think that the smaller year classes school together and stay in thicker cover for protection from larger fish like Bass and Walleyes etc. But the larger a crappie gets the less there are in that age class. So you might find the bigger 3lb crappie holed up on some isolated piece of cover or roaming around in deeper water preying on the roving schools of shad. That is what Todd Hucklebie said in this last issue of Crappie World.

I wish I knew exactly where those big slabs were so I could catch a few of them. I know there were several slabs that was hanging around Cane Poles Dock in 8ft of water in the spring. Late April last spring on KY lake. You may find them around a lay down or under a boat in a boat dock.

Moose, thanks. I've never thought about the oxygen level of a lake. The link you posted for Patoka and the different amounts at different depths was enlightening to me. Lake George is a lake that is muddy and stained. I think their are rivers that feed it. So I'm sure that does effect the vegatation under the water. I also fish another lake that is crystal clear and do see the be vegitation there. Sounds like 15ft is a max level at this time of the year. Do you think crappie still school up at this time of year? If I catch one should there be more in that area?

Thanks!
Mike