Favorite Crappie Spawning Grounds

When you are on the lake and looking for crappie during the spawn, look for shallow, timber or other cover loaded coves. Try to find areas where the water is 1 to 2 feet, has a sandy bottom, but has plenty of cover like bulrushes, submerged timber or branches, lilly pads, and the like. Also, if possible, you should look for an area where the bottom has a slow sloping decent, not places where there are sharp drop offs and cuts.

These type of coves offer great protection for the crappie spawn, as well as warm, slow moving water. So the crappie are able to clear out a spawning area, and don’t have to combat currents pulling away their nests or dispersing their eggs.

How to Time the Crappie Spawn

Crappie tend to be one of the first specie of fish to spawn in the spring. They generally precede the bass spawn, and could spawn as early as late December, depending on the water temperature. The ideal water temperature for the crappie to spawn is the low 60 degrees, and finding water temperature in the 62 to 65 degree range will most certainly get the crappie in the spawning mode. Because bass like the water temperature to be a little warmer, around 63 to 68 degrees, the crappie will often have already spawned before the bass spawn.

So, like I have said about largemouth bass spawning, it isn’t the month or date, it is the water temperature that you need to focus on. And water temperatures in the upper 50s and low 60s are what you want to go for when looking for the crappie spawn. This may happen as early as late December, and all the way through to March or April, depending on what part of the country you live in.

Using Crappie-Licious Bait

If you are going to use live bait for crappie, you’ll want to stick with small shad or minnows. Get them in the 1 to 2 inch size, and hook them with a small hook through the eyes or tail, and use a split shot or two to keep them down in the water. Larger crappie will tend to hit at deeper levels than smaller crappie.

But I like to use artificials. And probably the best crappie lure by far is the marabou jig. You should do some experimentation to find out what the fish want on the day you are fishing, but generally speaking using white, yellow, green, and chartreuse in clear waters will work better; and using dark colors like black, purple, and dark orange will work better in stained water situations.

So that’s the basic run down of the crappie spawn and how to catch them during this time of year. Look for more great tips from me at Hidden Fishing Tips.

Early Fall is the General Point

What I mean by this, is that year to year and location to location will vary. But specifically, what you want to look for is the change in the water temperature. When temperatures begin to cool off from the hot summer, so will the water temperatures, and that’s when you need to strike.

Here in the south, summer temperatures often hit 90 degrees and up. Bass in water temperatures above 80 degrees in the shallows will seek deeper, cooler water. And in those deeper waters, the bass will miss out and some of their meals.

But as the ambient temperature begins to drop, so does the water temperature. And when the water temperature gets back into the 70s and high 60s, the bass will move back into the shallows, and will attack in a very similar way as they did in the pre-spawn period during the spring bass fishing season.

So it’s critical to hit the lake and work the early morning and late evening hours during this period of temperature change.

Mid and Late Fall Bass Fishing Tips

After the early fall temperature change and resulting bass binge, the water will continually drop in temperature as the ambient temperature falls. And when the surface temperature of the water gets back into the low 50s or lower, the bass will begin to retreat to deeper, warmer water.

One point to remember, as the surface water temperature drops, there will be a point in time (it may be as long as a few weeks or more) when surface water temperatures and deep water temperatures are roughly the same. During this time, you will have trouble locating the bass, as they may be deep or shallow.

But when you are fishing waters that are in the 50 degree range, work your lures deeper, and try to find and work bottom structure changes like drop off points, large protruding rocks that are deep, the edges of grass or vegetation patches, cuts, and other bottom structure change points.

Late Fall Bass Fishing Pattern

Once the water temperatures drop below 50 degrees, you might as well head to the house. You may be able to snag a bass here or there by fishing a deep, slow worm, but your luck is going to be sparse, and frustrating. Bass like warm water and plenty of oxygen, and they are just going to be extremely sluggish in cold waters.