Anyone pulling specks outta this 80 degree water? Might actually fish for them a bit tomorrow-Given that I caught one on a Fat Rap and one on a spinner thinkin they want big and fast-one I caught 8′ down over 24′ the other 2′ down over 3′. Good time of year to use plastics thats for sure.
Crappies are active. Look for them is open water near shallow habitat. Troll UL raps or number 4 flicker shads to find active schools dropping down to jigs when a school is found. Use ur electronics,…you’ll see em. Good luck!
found a few schools last weekend in the heat and flat calm. They were in 10′-12′ off the edge of deep cabbage. we tossed little spinners tipped with plastics and your standard jig and small plastic. We tried slip bobbers as well, but those would get bit by the bluegills before they could get down to the crappies.
Just got schooled by a schoolboy! Thanks for the tips guys
Slip sinker and gulp minnow or live minnow and it’s game over.
I’d go with the gulp minnow. You won’t keep a real minnow alive longer than a few seconds after you dunk it into this hot tub.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
Slip sinker and gulp minnow or live minnow and it’s game over.I’d go with the gulp minnow. You won’t keep a real minnow alive longer than a few seconds after you dunk it into this hot tub.
Yep. I’ll use a gulp minnow over live bait 90% of the time.
14-Details! How long is the leader? What size weight and Gulp!? Thanks
14-Details! How long is the leader? What size weight and Gulp!? Thanks
Leader? I’m just using a panfish rod with 3lb mono to a slip bobber rig and a crappie jig. Couldn’t even tell you the weight of the jig. They’re panfish. Don’t make it too complicated. 
EDIT: Realized I said slip sinker in my previous post. I meant slip bobber. You won’t find any panfish secrets from this bass fisherman. I’m still learning the crappie game.
Yup 14, one floats one sinks.
They’re panfish. Don’t make it too complicated.
Great advice here.
Better?
Not sure if you’re mad or playing around here Tim. Not trying to offend anyone. Just saying don’t over complicate things. And I mispoke when I said slip sinker instead of bobber. I was trying to say that I don’t have a secret rig in my edit. 95% of the time I’m fishing panfish I’m using a jig and a bobber. Regular clip on or slip bobber. That’s all I meant by it.
No offense taken 14, always enjoy and benefit from your posts. I am going to do a trip with a guy in his mid-70s and he kind of expects me to put him on fish, we usually go up north in mid-june and it is a ‘slam dunk’. This year because of the virus we put our trip on hold, but now we are on. Can’t seem to get him on the lake at first light and dusk can be a little late too, so I will be out there at 4pm 80s for temp 80 degree water hoping to get him on some crappies. So just looking at some new approaches, and trying to keep my sense of humor! 
I really enjoy reading the crappie-talk. There is one fish that is without question my kryptonite and that is the crappie!!! I can’t even find them in the spring when they’re “supposed” to be easy.
The only time I ever seem to catch A crappie is always by accident while fishing for walleye. When i do catch a crappie i get totally geeked out! More than catching a 26″ walleye even!
Caught 28 between 2 and 3:30pm in 80 degree water/ air temperature 86 and sunny. Key area was in 7-8′ and key lures were soft plastics rigged on 1/24 and 1/16 oz ball head jigs. Crappie slammed them! as well as a few nice sunfish.
Caught 28 between 2 and 3:30pm in 80 degree water/ air temperature 86 and sunny. Key area was in 7-8′ and key lures were soft plastics rigged on 1/24 and 1/16 oz ball head jigs. Crappie slammed them! as well as a few nice sunfish.
Interesting. I have been looking deeper for them. I had been finding them on deep weed edges in 15-20 ft but have recently only getting gills. Every time I think I have them pinned down, the next time I go out they are no where to be found.
Still learning.
“Still learning.”
Same as me. Funny though, the fish I caught weren’t near any weed beds, drop offs and nowhere near shore. Just hanging out over flat a boring bottom that varied in depth by a foot. The increase in metabolism in the hot water must have gotten them very irritable and easy to catch.
Plus the south part of the lake has been producing more since the spawn ended – but only in deep water.
Update:
Yesterday many of the fish caught were on a large flat/hump (6’near shore/ drops off to 7.5′ open water):one nice perch, decent crappie and sunfish, 1-1 3/4 lb bass and 6 small bass concentrated in 5′ off a point
Other fish caught sporadically in other areas. Total – 34 in 4 hours before the feel-like temperature of 90 drove me off the lake at 1 pm
Certain lure designs worked great! Here are a few among others I can always count on, ie.:
(before surface temperature rose to 89)
You use a lot of neutral and natural colors for that pea soup water you are in, those colors of course are working, but brighter stuff might work better, were you using the same colors in the spring before that big algea bloom?
The brightest colors – opaque florescent chartreuse, pearl, white, bright pink, etc. did work and probably would still work – depending on the day. My color choice is usually based on a whim as is lure design. Only the fish can determine what they’ll bite on any given day mostly having to do with lure shape/size/action.
When it comes to natural vs unnatural, I’m of two minds. Fish sense both but as with color don’t always strike lures that are extreme in action such as that of spoons, wide flapping curl tails or spinning flashy blades. Subtle motion is natural which the senses are tuned to at all times and lures that demonstrate that usually do better a majority of time in my experience especially when their environment tell fish to cool it. Even using black in that color water isn’t a guarantee fish will strike because of the color contrast. The sense of feel is a first priority for moving object detection (MOD for short 
)as well as the type of action. Vision is next – the icing on the cake – which confirms what is felt and heard.
The shad body with thin tail (pictured) is the most natural, subtle in action and shape; the others vary in the degree of unnatural/ unsubtle action. But they ALL caught fish because of a superior design/size combination as compared to many others and can always be depended on even when fish are less provocable.
When it comes to location, fish will be where they will be IMO. Some days the pattern is deep, parallel to ONE shoreline in deeper water; on other days they might be up on a flat long hump with sparse weeds – like on the day I did well. It would be great if a location pattern held for most seasons, but nature seems to like frustrating anglers or rewarding them – on a whim so it seems. In any case, know the bottom and depth of any water and by all means use sonar to at least find baitfish. Ignorance of both is like that of a blind man walking without a cane in an unknown area.
Absolutley put a hurting on the crappies yesterday between 10 am and 2. Was looking for other species when I cruised through and marked 6 different schools of them. Went back and through the smallest lipless cranks I had and just caught tons of crappies. It was fun and was a nice change of pace. This was forest lake area
Awesome!
Absolutley put a hurting on the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappies yesterday between 10 am and 2. Was looking for other species when I cruised through and marked 6 different schools of them. Went back and through the smallest lipless cranks I had and just caught tons of crappies. It was fun and was a nice change of pace. This was forest lake area
I’m so jealous. I’ve been keeping my eye out for them while bass fishing off shore structure and weed edges and find schools but they always seem to be sunfish. Can’t buy a crappie the last few times out.
Consistently caught crappie, sunfish, yellow perch, small bass and recently, a 1.5 lb catfish on soft plastics. We fished Sat. and caught 58 fish before it got too hot to fish. You might want to consider trying a few things:
1. start fishing just before sunrise. You might see some surface activity like we saw, giving you an idea where fish are though scattered. The most bites were from 7am to 8am and tapered off when the clouds and mist over the water started to clear.
2. cast around the boat to locate fish and hopefully small groups of fish.
3. work lures slowing mid depth. i.e. We were in 5′ and let the lures go down to 2.5′ on a slow retrieve with pauses and rod tip twitches (soft plastics on light ball head jigs). Beating the shore is a waste of time.
4. the Crappie Magnet catches everything ! My partner only casts red body/ chartreuse tail CMs and keeps up with me fish for fish while I use everything else and catch 4 fish species.
5. at least bait fish should be seen on sonar as to where crappie are suspended.
6. lure designs I’ve used that catch fish fall into these shapes: straight tail, curl tail, no tail, claw tail, tapered tail. On any one day, one or more may catch more fish than hard baits.
7. fish will bite in hot water ie 84 degrees surface temp with a bright sun overhead. Some of my best recent bites were from 2-3:30 pn.
Thought I would ressurect this thread now that we are back in the bathwater. Great info presented here, saw a water temp of 79, highest I’ve seen in June. Think we are a bit down from that now. Any new info?
Deep weeds. Water temps still high 70s where I’ve been fishing.
Think we are a bit down from that now.
I saw 76 in the east metro on Saturday. 2 weeks ago it was 80.5 but that was right after that intense heat wave.
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