Shallow water summertime crappie.....

[genec]

All lakes are different but usually to find many in shallow you need current and most of the time where river spread out to start the lake is where they will be shallow moving on flats that's near river channel,find some structure,a stump,log ,ect. If in a code or creek if no current ,go to another place

[Bricks]

For me any time the water is rising the fish move in shallow to feed, with the water rising it opens up many new areas for the fish to find bugs worms etc,. During high water these areas where fish are present can be tough to find with all the new shoreline created. I will normally fish fast I use plastics and cover water once spots are found they generally will be there any time the water rises ( time of year ). Once the water starts to subside I will look for the closest drop to these areas to relocate fish.

[BamaBill]

I catch fish like this all summer. I used to think the fish left the shallow lakes for deeper river channels. Boy was I wrong. They will gravitate to any structure at night and when the sun is low. As soon as the sun gets some height, They tend to gravitate to the deeper spots in the lake. Troll around with your finder. If the lake is 5' on average and there is a spot holding 6' they typically will be in that area. Maybe only 4' deep. I do good trolling VERY slowly with jigs or minnows on corks in the deeper pockets. Also, if there is no structure, add some. You don't have to add anything big. Sometimes something as simple as just cedar limbs laying flat on the bottom will be enough to make them congregate in an area.

[Gansett]

Agreeing with a lot of what has already been said. I LOVE summertime crappie fishing, in a river and small creeks off the main river. I fish shallow water (3 or 4 feet), old wooden lay downs. No point in fishing from about 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m (give or take). Once you find them, keep going back. I wish I knew what draws them to the same hot-spots, but I don't lose any sleep over it. I have about six spots that produce regularly in summer. Other spots look identical and I almost never get any in those, with the rare exception of a fish or two here and there. My problem time is Winter, it's hardly worth going for me; but, that's just me, others do quite well at that time of year.

[CRIA1576]

Archer,

Me and my wife were able to catch a nice basket of black crappies yesterday in SW IA. We pulled all of them off the face of a reservoir dam faced with rock featuring a very steep drop off. The water goes from 2'-20' within 20' off the face of the dam. The ample rocks provide cover, shade, and good food sources, and we caught every fish drifting a small piece of crawler under a slip float set to around 4'.

Several really nice bluegills (7-9"), a few largemouths, and one big cat (~5#) rounded off the mixed catch, and we had a ball.

Good luck!

Joe

[missbeckyfishing]

I live in Knotts Island NC..its about 95 degrees during the day..last month Crappie fishing was great..Back Bay runs up to the back of my house..I thought all the Crappie had left but caught one last week and one yesterday..all the ones I caught last month were females..the one last week and yesterday were males..what are best times of the year for Crappie..

[Cmj]

I live in Knotts Island NC..its about 95 degrees during the day..last month Crappie fishing was great..Back Bay runs up to the back of my house..I thought all the Crappie had left but caught one last week and one yesterday..all the ones I caught last month were females..the one last week and yesterday were males..what are best times of the year for Crappie..

How do you tell if they are male or female in the middle of August? Just curious.

[CrappiePappy]

How do you tell if they are male or female in the middle of August? Just curious.

If she cleaned them, the females would have a egg sac starting to develop, while the males would not (obviously) but would likely have a visible milt sac.

... cp