Minners vs plastics revisted.
Around here and elsewhere as I read the posts the crappie bite has fallen off from that in the original real warm spell many of us experienced as spring began. For us it has, too, but the crappies are still there and in many of the same places. Around here they have slacked off the minnow bite; however, we continue to take them, if in lesser numbers on plastics, including some real little plastic tails, suggesting to me that the crappies are concentrating more on invertebrates and insect hatches around here and more resting than on an active move.
Where I was last evening for a while after work is an example. I was able to jig up a full half dozen in the same spots we found them in warmer weather using a 48th oz head on a size 8 hook and an inch and a quarter plastic right beside several (up to 4 at one time) minnow fishermen who didn't even get a bite the whole time I was there.
They weren't big, running only to a max of about 10", but they were crappies. I was also getting some pretty regular sunnie bite on the little offerings. Everytime I took another crappie, those bystanders would get all excited that "the bite" was going to start. For them it never did, and for me it was pretty regular over the whole period, although I couldn't call it fast. For about the an hour and a half, my plastics were the only thing getting any bite and I was the only one who caught any fish at all, while I was there.
I wasn't there very long nor very deep into the evening, since I had just come off a 12 hour, rather exhausting shift, but I couldn't resist wetting a line. I wasn't even there into the true witching hour, but there were crappies present the whole time, and willing occasionally to be fooled into biting, but not on minnows. I also got quite a lot of short takes including the classic crappie one timers, even on the tiny offerings; so they weren't in any kind of active mood at all. I had to work for every fish I took and missed a lot of bite, but that is what it takes with the plastics.
I don't think a lot of crappies moved all that much from earlier but they have their heads down and with the decreased water temps are more grazing on much smaller forage than hunting minnows and have been for a while.