Quote Originally Posted by constructskeeter View Post
I'd much rather fish cold Winter for crappie than that scattered Fall pattern that I've never been able to find fish on either. I find fishing for crappie to start getting good around Dec.-early to mid Summer then it's like you said they become hard to find. Summer and Winter it's a brush event, then in the Spring we all chase em on the banks. So for me it's not a toss up between deer hunting or Crappie fishing when I know the action on the lake won't produce as many for me. Now the bass fishing is different, Fall is really good, Winter SUCKS though! When Spring turkey season rolls around it's hard to cover it all, bass are hungry cause they've not fed all Winter in prep for Spawn and all fish are moving up to the banks, weather is nice and other than the wind and people it's all good in the Spring. I will say this though not all lakes seem to be good crappie fishing in the Winter, those SW AR lakes are really dead that time of the year but other places it's hot action???? Not sure why but it is what it is.
I think this may be the only reason why some lakes survive from year to year. The bite is so intense during a particular season that people drive for hours to get in on the action. Then like a light switch, the weather changes and the hot bite is over, and only the most dedicated locals stick around to scratch out a mess every now and then. That lets these lakes recover IMO. The rest move on to other lakes that are now hot with the new weather pattern. Certain times of the year I have over a dozen bodies of water I can get to in less than an hour and just load the boat with good fish, and I am very lucky for that. But other times I have to drive for two hours or more to get on action like that. Knowing where to go and when to go there is why some of these guys catch fish on a regular basis.