The fall season is one of the best times in the year to catch fish. Crappie tend to school in massive numbers during the fall. This phenomenon gives crappie anglers a great opportunity to fill their freezers.
Where to start
There are a couple observations I like to make before I ever load up the boat and hit the water.
- Study lake maps for the specific lake you choose to fish
I love to study maps. I am a firm believer thorough knowledge of maps are a major key to a successful fishing trip. You can typically find a ton of helpful info from maps if you dedicate just a few minutes during the night before a fishing outing. One of the main items I focused on finding on a lake map is structure and creek channels. By knowing where these items are before you hit the water will eliminate a lot of wasted time and gas burned in your outboard.
- Make note of the obvious
What do I mean by this? Make not of where all the local crappie fishermen are congregated. I love to fish Lake Darbone in north Louisiana. One of the best indications crappie are biting on Darbone is driving across the bridges and seeing boats congregated on the creek channels. Also, when I see the local boat ramps are full of boat trailers, I know the fish are biting. This simple observation gives me confidence that crappie are biting. Now it’s time to go hook up the boat and get my gear ready for the upcoming weekend!
Verify with a boat ride
A huge advantage for fishermen today is technology. Electronics will uncover a wealth of information.
Remember, we talked earlier about observing where the majority of local crappie fishermen congregate. By making these casual observations, we can now idle our boat near the locations of the other fishermen and see exactly what they are seeing by using our electronics.
I am not in any way encouraging you guys to try and poach someone’s fishing hole. I’m simply stating the fact you can slowly pass near the other guys and by using your electronics, you can observe what they are looking at on their electronics. Then after you have an idea of what they are fishing around, you can go find similar structures to fish. Be sure to keep a respectful distance from the other guys fishing. You can easily gather key information without disturbing other fishermen.
Find and experiment
Once we have verified there are crappie schooling, the gun part begins. Typically crappie gravitate to the creek channels during the fall. This is because they follow the bait fish. When the water temp begins to drop, bait fish such as shade begin to seek deeper water. The bait fish will be a various depths throughout the day but ultimately, they will be in or around a creek channel. The Crappie typically position under massive schools of bait fish. The reason why it’s important to understand the depth of bait fish is so you can position your bait to entice a bite!
One of the biggest mistakes new crappie anglers make, they position their baits too deep. Crappie look up when they are in search of food. I recommend once you discover the general depth of a school of crappie, position two different baits at different depths. For you guys trying the spider rigs, you have a great opportunity to nail down effective depths quickly and efficiently.
I’m sure some of you guys are wandering why we haven’t talked about baits. Well we will cover that next.
Best Baits
There are a ton of effective crappie baits on the market. However, I can not recommend a specific type of crappie jig with a special color. You will have to experiment yourself. My best advice for a newcomer to crappie fishing is to go to your local bait shop. Once there, take note of the baits on the shelves. If there is a hot bait they are bitting, there will be a limited amount on the shelf. Ask the store clerk what he or she is selling the most of. This will get you headed in the right direction. Of course artificial crappie baits are not you only option.
A live shiner positioned at the right depth is never a bad idea! It is simple and effective.
Summary
Ask experienced anglers for advice when crappie fishing. Most will be glad to share tips and techniques. Fishing white perch in the fall is fun and very rewarding. If you are new to fishing during the fall , try the techniques shared in this post. You will not be an expert over night however, I hope this gets you started in the right direction.
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Thanks for reading!