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Thread: Help with winter crappie

  1. #1
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    Default Help with winter crappie


    Went yesterday looking for some crappie, water temps was 44-46 degrees, in Georgia when water temps get that low it’s very hard for me to find them crappies, so I started my search going into the feeder creeks staying in the old creek channels, looking for shad or fish, none to be found. Went to next creek and the same, so I went to main river channels and found all shad on the river channel bottoms between 50-53 ft deep, never saw any fish with them but they were so thick I probably couldn’t see them anyway, so I idled in the river channels and bends looking for something to fish so I went idling about 2 to 3 miles until it got shallower say 35 ft and shad disappeared. I know the spawn migration route usually tells me that the crappie should be starting to go into the spawning creeks, but this year is different it is colder than normal, anyone care to help here, I scanned about 5 hours yesterday with sidescan and downscan looking, thanks to anyone who helps.

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    It is still January and when the water gets that cold here the fish will sometimes get into a loose suspended school usually in a bay about 22 feet deep. The interesting thing is that the sunfish will be nearby, but shallower and not mixed in. Sometimes you can find the sunfish and use them to get you to the crappie. I also find schools of 5-10 fish suspended in deep water roaming around, look for grebes. These are difficult to catch because of all that water, but the forward facing sonar has changed that for those who are willing to buy and learn it.

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  3. #3
    Tradbow is offline Crappie.com 1K Star General * Crappie.com Supporter
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    There was a crappie tournament on Sinclair this weekend. KrappieKrang won it. If’n I was you I’d pm him
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    I’m far from a winter fishing expert but when I go this time of year with a buddy of mine we usually fish an area that’s 30-35 ft deep. We can’t see the crappie on his electronics but we see bait fish and fish the bottom, usually drifting and catch good numbers of big females. We always assume they are dead on bottom waiting on lethargic baitfish to move to them.


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    I strictly look for shad and fish right under them. Sometimes you find some that won’t be very deep and I think this is due to the sun warming the surface water a little.


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    NIMROD is offline Crappie.com Legend - Kids Corner Moderator
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    Shad bunch up in deeper creek channels alot in late winter . Funny from my experience look either suspended or on the bottom in areas close but not with the Shad . Some days they just hang out and next day could be tight to the wood here . Alot of our fish lately just sitting on the bottom with nothing around .
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    Interesting reads here.


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  8. #8
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    skeetbum is offline Crappie.com Legend - Moderator Jig Tying Forum * Crappie.com Supporter
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    I’ve fished a creek channel that was 50-55’ deep and consistantly found fish among standing timber at 30-35’. I’ve pulled up there to find clouds of Shad so thick and large that my screen was useless. I had to move off of my favorite spot to another tree outside of the school to be able to see on my screen and get a fish to bite. drdore (Sam) and I couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Now when it’s cold I look deep with a decent sized body and a heavy weedless jig among anything I can find. We used a Lake Fork Lures minnow looking body in pearl color with good results over most any other body or color. My suggestion is to keep looking in deep places that you think they would never be. You’ll come up empty a lot but when you find em it will be game on in a big way. Another friend named Mason and I got over three limits of solid keepers in three hours after a little looking. Down image always told me how deep whey were holding.
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    Quote Originally Posted by NIMROD View Post
    Shad bunch up in deeper creek channels alot in late winter . Funny from my experience look either suspended or on the bottom in areas close but not with the Shad . Some days they just hang out and next day could be tight to the wood here . Alot of our fish lately just sitting on the bottom with nothing around .
    I found this out the hard way today.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tradbow View Post
    There was a crappie tournament on Sinclair this weekend. KrappieKrang won it. If’n I was you I’d pm him
    Me and Greg’s pretty good friends and since I wrote this I have spoke to him.
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