Spotting Structures

[Sailor Jerry]

Alright, I read and I read and I read, and what I get out of it is that the crappie will be near structures. Whether that be on the edge of some weeds, by some downed trees, or by man made structure out in the lake. However, after numerous nights of not hitting a crappie at any lake but the private once I fished back home, I look to you, Crappie.com readers, to point me in the right direction yet again.

How do I spot these structures and where is the best place to look?


Gettin' sick of me yet?

[Bosman]

Have you ever thougth about hiring a local guide? Can take light years off learning curves.

Also, if you are fishing in IA, then your crappie "season" will follow close suit to mine here in southwest WI. June & July are historically the most difficult stretches to catch crappie. Post spawn feeding windows are gone. The fish have scattered, suspended, and if you ask me, are a little irritated the "fun" spawning season has come to an abrupt hault. This isn't to say they are impossible to catch but feeding windows are short and occur most often during low light conditions (dawn & dusk), which is not to be confused with low visibility conditions. Once the calendar flips August and day light hours begin to shorten considerable leaps the crappie start to school up again for the fall feeding frenzy and become a much easier target in our region.

[Sailor Jerry]

And that is why I love this website. Someone near me with the knowledge of when the Crappie will be biting and won't be. Essentially, what me and my friends are trying to do is catch enough for a nice fish fry. We are far from it now as we didn't have a lot of open time during early season, which I guess is shooting us in the feet, so to speak.

I guess we'll have to fish and see, maybe the easiest way is going out with a minnow and bobber and see what comes a hitting! Also, some Walleye would be nice to be hittin on to as they are some goooood eating!

[crappie cowboy]

Alright, I read and I read and I read, and what I get out of it is that the crappie will be near structures. Whether that be on the edge of some weeds, by some downed trees, or by man made structure out in the lake. However, after numerous nights of not hitting a crappie at any lake but the private once I fished back home, I look to you, Crappie.com readers, to point me in the right direction yet again.

How do I spot these structures and where is the best place to look?


Gettin' sick of me yet?

Jerry... I would suggest you pick one lake and get a good lake map and study that lake, and learn everything you can about that lake.
Learn where all the creeks feed into the lake, all the dephts, how the ledges run.
Look for shallow flats that are close to deep water or river ledge, these are good area's.
Also put your on brush out on those ledges close to the shallow flats and use a gps to mark it.
Know where the thermocline is in that lake, fish above it. Keep notes when, how,where, weather, how deep, moon phases.
Some pointers I've learned over the years....Fish on the darkest nights, fish the outside edge's of the light just below the bait, use jig's and minnows to see which one they want, be patient, be set up before dark.
Hope some of this will help you, don't give up.

crappie cowboy

[Arkie John]

Find somebody to go with you that knows more about it than you do. That is a good rule of thumb, no matter what you're trying to learn.

Put the time on the water. Nothing like just gettin' out there and gettin' with it.

Visit some of the state forums of CC. There's a bunch o' ole' boys that nightstalk and I'm certain they'll share their expertise.

aj

[DRPEPPER]

I have had my best luck during summer baiting holes. Ole Roy dry dog food stuffed into panty hose works well. Be sure to take enough rocks or bricks to sink it. There was another thread recently discussiong baiting holes.
DP