Crappie

In larger, deeper lakes and reservoirs, the passing of the Turnover Period opens the door to deeper, formerly unusable tracts of water that were below the thermocline in summer. Turnover sends oxygenated water deep, providing crappies the chance to forage for invertebrates that were out of reach for months. Minnows soon seek the same areas in search of environmental stability. And, slowly but surely, deeper spots become the most stable areas of the lake. After ice-up, the warmest water is on bottom, the coldest water on top. Water, unlike other liquids, almost reverses the laws of physics as it continues to cool down to about 38°F. At that point, it begins to expand. The coldest water—ice—becomes the lightest. Water is most dense at 39°F and sinks to bottom, so that’s about as cold as water ever gets in deeper portions of frozen lakes. It’s a strange twist of nature that provides for life in northern lakes. If water were most dense at 32°F, lakes would freeze solid from the bottom up.

Within a few days to a week after turnover, crappies begin showing up in deeper haunts. They may linger on the deep edge of healthy weedbeds for some time. Some suspend in the open water of deeper bays or between points over main-lake basins where they spend the winter. Deep rocky points, sunken islands, humps, and other main-lake structural elements experience increasing use by crappies. Transitions from hard to soft bottom at the base of main-lake shorelines crappies use in summer become important, often in depths of 30 to 45 feet in larger lakes. In shallow, bowl-shaped lakes with little structure, crappies may suspend right in the middle of the lake, over basins in the 20- to 30-foot range where they winter.

In reservoirs, crappies begin schooling in deep (15- to 35-foot) creek channels. They collect where the channel bends, usually along the steepest break. Some suspend between primary and secondary points, depending on the type of reservoir. On large rivers, crappies leave current areas for deeper 5- to 15-foot backwaters or connected natural lakes. Huge schools form by late fall. In small rivers without deep backwaters, they move into deeper pools as water levels drop.

In all environments, crappies rarely suspend near the surface after the water cools into the high 40°F range. They may suspend, but increasingly closer to bottom. Typically, the Coldwater Period of fall finds them within 5 or 10 feet of bottom. They begin to hold on bottom, a posture they may assume with increasing regularity as the water dips into the low 40°F range and as it becomes even colder. Inactive crappies are pinned to the bottom and difficult to see with sonar. Active fish rise 5 to 10 feet above bottom, becoming easier to mark.

The stable Coldwater Period is prime time for crappie fishing. Schooling behavior concentrates fish in distinct areas that they continue to use for months. Once they’re located in fall, consistent action lasts for weeks. Successful anglers drift slowly and employ a combination of bottom-oriented techniques, presentations that maintain baited rigs a specific distance from bottom, and vertical jigging. If too many people don’t harvest too many fish, the open-water bite lasts for six weeks to two months.