Finicky Winter Crappie!

[Ketchn]

I dont know what lake you are on for sure , its just a pattern I see repeated often when they water gets cold here in Texas.
They will likely be more active the first 3 hours of daylight on the deep water pattern unless it overcast .
make sure your baits are ONLY about 6 inches to a foot off the bottom and hold it REALLY still .
it might take a minute or 3 for them to hit it ,but to be sure they will lay down on it like a hammer most of the time .
try a larger heavy blue and white feather jig in 1/8 tied straight to light braid if they are deeper than 15 to 18 .
hope you whack and stack my friend ...KABOOM is the word

[ezgoing]

I went crappie fishing today at my local lake and struggled to catch any crappie. I‘M relatively new to “serious” crappie fishing, but I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I have a hummingbird locator and Ultera trolling motor. I locate the fish on down imaging and then spot-lock to fish them. I have been “straight-lining” with a tandem set-up - a 1/8 oz jig on the bottom and a live minnow 18 inches above that. I had absolutely no problems locating and catching fish in the spring and summer.

Today, I located the fish suspended between 20 and 30 feet of water next to deep water ledges. maximum water depth I fished was 35 feet. Today I used a brown head/black body/chartreuse green marabou tail. I also used an all white jig with maroubou tail. Finally, I used a Bobby garland straight tail clear with black fleck jig. All jig heads were 1/8th oz. I would put a crappie “egg” - the green one - on the jig and leave the minnow alone.

The water temperature was 56.6 degrees and the outside temperature started at 32 degrees in the morning and ended up at about 60 degrees in th late afternoon. I didn’t move the set-up much considering it is winter and I feel the fish ar lethargic.

I only caught two small crappie all day - despite being on top of the fish.

Any suggestions for catching winter crappie that is different than what I did above. I don’t necessarily want to spider rig, but I can run as many as four 10-12 foot rods at onc.

Suggestions greatly appreciated!

You beat me! Fished for five hours yesterday, 3 on the lake, 2 on my slip and did not catch a single fish! Only had two bites the entire period and missed both of them. I could see the fish on top of, beside and in the brush. Just could not get them interested. I tried different color combinations and jig sizes but nothing I did made a difference. I've had days this year when I have caught 200, days when I only caught a few but I was handed a skunking yesterday. Some would come up and look at the jig, then swim away. Made me wish I had some minnows with me to try.

[Grainraiser]

Sometimes they want a very small bait in the winter time. It's hard too present a small bait to them when they 20-30ft deep. Try a 1/4oz on the bottom and a 1/32 or 1/64 jig on top and see if they will hit either one. Like stated they do not want alot of movement when the water is cold.

[Ketchn]

Some of the professionals use big sinkers above their jigs