Any idea how far crappie will travel to the shallows from deep water?
I'm trying to better understand crappie and their travel patterns in the spring. I fish a lake that has a long winding leg that gets shallower the further you go, probably 4 miles from the main lake. There are numerous choices of shallow water for the crappie much closer to the main lake, what would make the crappie choose to travel 4 miles instead? (water warming up quicker?) Would they travel the 4 miles? The main lake is 30'-35' in the channel. Here's a pic.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-1/604697/prince.gif
The main lake is east of 604, the leg I'm talking about is the middle large one that crosses 611. I guess a second question would be "what is the shallowest deep water the crappie would hold in during the winter on a lake that has 30'-35' deep water"? 15' of water can be found around half way down this leg. As always, thanks for any input.
Just want to add to what I said.
Hi again. Just wanted to add to what I said. There are several other oxbows or old river runs. A few of them are only 4 or 5 feet deep the whole length of them. I catch fish around the mouth of them but not up in them very far. Therefore, I would think that once you reach an area where there is no longer more than 5 feet of water, you probably won't find any crappie.
Just want to add to what I said.
Hi again. Just wanted to add to what I said. There are several other oxbows or old river runs. A few of them are only 4 or 5 feet deep the whole length of them. I catch fish around the mouth of them but not up in them very far. Therefore, I would think that once you reach an area where there is no longer more than 5 feet of water, you probably won't find any crappie. As for the one that I was talking about in the other message, there are some crappie in it year round, but seems to be more in the spring and fall. Now, it is about a mile long so I would asume that they will "migrate" that far any way. I also read an article that said they will travel several miles to their prefered spawning area.