CRAPPIES IN DEEP WATER
by Bob Jensen

Wherever people fish anywhere in North America, there are a good number of anglers that look forward to the fall months.  At this time of year, if a fish sees your bait, there’s a very good possibility that it will eat that bait.  Right now, fish are willing biters.  They can sense a change in water temps and length of day and they know that things are going to change.  From now until it’s too cold to be on the water, fishing can be really, really productive.

In different areas, some fish species get more attention than others.  Across the Midwest, walleyes are very popular.  In the south and mid-south, bass are boss.  But almost wherever you live, crappies appeal to lots of anglers, and they seem to be getting more popular.  Crappies, in most places, are abundant and they're great on the table.  Depending on the body of water, here's how you can catch crappies right now.

In some lakes crappies will gather in the basin of the lake and behave much like a walleye would.  In fact, on a sonar, it’s easy to mistake crappies for walleyes.  They'll hug the bottom in large schools.  They might be near a point or some other underwater structure, but they might also be far from any structure.  It’s not unusual to find them in twenty to thirty feet of water.  The thing they're looking for is food.  It might be minnows, but it could also be bugs that live in the mud on the bottom.  The fastest way to find these crappies is to cruise over the basin while watching your sonar.  Occasionally they’ll be suspended, but often they'll be on the bottom.  When you see them, hover directly overhead and drop a jig/plastic or jig/minnow on them.  You will almost always get bit.

Another place to find crappies is a short distance from the edge of the deep weedline.  They’ll suspend within casting distance of the deep weedline looking for something to eat.  The best way to find them is to watch for small dimples on the surface of the water.  You need calm wind conditions for this pattern because you can't see the dimples created as Mr. PaperMouth sucks a bug off the surface when it's windy.  Late afternoon and early evening are when this pattern is most productive.  Again, a jig with plastic or a minnow is good, either slowly retrieved just a couple of feet under the surface or fished under a slip-bobber.

One last technique:  Several times in the fall I’ve fished on reservoirs or lakes where anglers are permitted to “plant” brushpiles.  They somehow connect logs and limbs and such and sink these brushpiles near a dock.  The best docks are those close to deep water, twelve feet or deeper.  It takes some sonar work to find these brushpiles, but when you do find them, they can provide outstanding crappie action.  You can cast to them with a jig and retrieve it, but what really works well is to employ a jig below a slip-bobber.  Set the bobber so your jig is just above the brushpile.  By using a slip-bobber, you can let the jig sit in place, or you can slowly reel it back in.  It often works well to shake your rod tip to put a little action on the jig, then let it sit still for a few seconds.  If a crappie is down there, you’ll know about it pretty quickly.

A sixteenth ounce jig with a minnow is the traditional crappie presentation, but more and more, plastic is taking the place of minnows.  Plastic baits come in a variety of colors and shapes and doesn’t require care like minnows do.  When swimming the jig, go with a Mr. Crappie Grub or Slab Slanger.  Under a slip-bobber, a Mr. Crappie Crappie Thunder is hard to beat. 

There’s probably a lake, pond, or reservoir near where you live that is home to crappies.  Wherever you fish and however you fish, now is a good time to get after them.

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