Summer Peak Period

Water Temperature: Mid- to upper 70°F range

General Fish Mood: Positive

During the Summer Peak, weeds have arrived at their zenith, the food chain is humming along at peak production levels, and the metabolism of crappies reaches its apex for the year. The transformation from a cool to a warm environment is complete. Hatching insects leave millions of husks scattered on the surface film. Rooted aquatic plants reach the surface and begin to bend there, along the roof of their world.

In natural lakes, deep weeds develop a distinct edge, and crappies roam that edge like caribou skirting a pipeline. In reservoirs, crappies follow the year’s biggest schools of shad, gorging on and around the edges of creek and river channels. Crappies again group tightly, and fishing can be fast and furious.

The Summer Peak is one of the year’s prime times to be on the water. Crappies are more likely to be in a positive feeding mood than at any other time until fall arrives. Hungry, aggressive, and fully recovered from the postspawn blues, they school tightly, which promotes competitive feeding. To top it all off, the water is alive and brimming with food. Crappies now tend to throw caution to the wind.

One key to recognizing this period is establishing that the last crappies to spawn finished a week or two previously. Typically, deep cabbage tops appear for the first time through the surface film. The water first reached 70°F two or three weeks prior. The Summer Peak generally coincides with the point at which the water broaches the mid-70°F mark, and crappies reveal a propensity to consistently chase lures like jig-twistertail combos and small suspending minnowbaits.

By human standards, some years seem to have no fall season, jumping right from an extended summer to an early winter. By the same token, those years when weather is unseasonably cold and cloudy for several weeks after panfish spawn seem to have no Summer Peak Period on the crappie calendar, either. But even in such adverse situations, this time frame offers the best post cold-front fishing for crappies of the entire year.

Summer Period

Water Temperature: Annual maximum

General Fish Mood: Variable

As summer progresses, crappies become far less “suicidal” than during the Summer Peak Period. The sun is converting energy into life all around, and forage is plentiful in the form of plankton, insects, minnows, fry, and fingerlings. No longer driven by energy deficits, crappies can afford to be more selective and judicious in their feeding.