Post by yihunt on Mar 21, 2010 9:27:03 GMT -4
When the water heats up the crappies get active
Sunday, March 21, 2010
By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
At this latitude, the crappies get active right around the opening day of trout season, April 17. You don't suppose they know that anglers will be preoccupied?
"That time of year, right on trout season, they should be in shallow water and fairly easy to find," said Tim Wilson, a fisheries biologist for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. "Right now, as soon as the ice is off the lakes and the water is 37-38 degrees, they're moving in to feed -- in the next week or so I'll see boats on the Pymatuning outside my office. They don't spawn until the water is in the 50s or low 60s, and daily weather will affect how they move into shallow water."
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Crappie fishing runs hot and cold. They're a schooling fish -- when you're on them with the right bait at the right depth, it's not uncommon to fill a bucket with 10-15 inchers. each bearing a pair of nice fillets. When the crappies aren't there, well, you have to go find them.
Crappies are prolific, so plentiful and reproductive it's virtually impossible for angling pressure to impact populations. With a year-round open season, 50-fish limit for combined panfish and relatively easy fishing tactics, crappie fishing is a great way to introduce beginners to the sport.
Classified in the biological family that includes bass, perch and various sunfish, two types of crappies are common across Pennsylvania.
The most plentiful is the black crappie, identified by its general pan shape, dark spots in vaguely horizontal rows, and seven or eight spines on the dorsal fin. Twelve-inchers are common, and black crappies can grow to 16 inches or more. They like clear, cool streams, lakes and ponds with structure and some vegetation. The state record was caught in Tioga County in 2000: 19 1/4 inches, 4 pounds, 2.88 ounces.
It's close cousin the white crappie is striped with eight to 10 dark vertical bars. It's the only member of the sunfish family to have five or six spines on its dorsal fin and another five or six spines on its anal fin. Sizes of 6-12 inches are common, but white crappies can grow to 15 inches and several pounds, and they prefer warmer, turbid ponds and lakes.
"They can be very location specific," said Wilson. "Every lake has a little bit of a different nuance."
Generally crappies like to be near structure -- stumps, fallen trees, reed beds, decaying vegetation. Look for areas that warm up the quickest.
"Fish on the north side of the lake where the water warms up first," said Wilson, "or the north bank of a south-facing slope."
As the water warms, the biggest crappies are the first to visit shallow water, but they move out again almost immediately. Smaller fish move in every day to bask in warmer water, but Wilson said the bigger, more moody females are more particular about when they'll go shallow as the spawn approaches. Black crappies spawn when the water temperature in three to six feet reaches 66-68 degrees; white crappies spawn deeper in six to eight feet, and in temperatures from just under 60 to just over 70 degrees.
Karen Gainey, certified as a fishing instructor by the Fish and Boat Commission and host of "Karen's Fishing Corner" on PCTV-21, scouts lakes and ponds for crappies congregating near incoming streams.
"It may be only 2-3 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake, but that's where they'll be," she said. "I've been on lakes where nothing is going on, but go into a bay with incoming water and that's where the activity is."
Water entering lakes from shallow wetlands is almost always warmer than the lake in general.
"Look around and you'll find them pretty easily," she said. "Glade Run Lake has a little bitty creek feeding into it, and that water is warmer. At Lake Arthur, Dutch Hollow and the Muddy Creek arm warm faster than the lake. The upper lake at Deer Lakes Park is shallow and warms faster, and east of Meadville, Sugar Lake used to be a conservation lake. It has a feeder creek coming in and some of the biggest crappies I've ever seen."
Crappies can be caught from shore, but boats give anglers infinitely more options. In the warmest water available, fish just off the bottom. Live bait works best.
"I use jigs with a Twister tail and live minnow below a slip float," said Wilson. "Fatheads, 2-inchers."
Gainey said she like a maribou jig with a No. 8 hook tipped with a 2-inch light-colored minnow fished just off the bottom.
"No weight unless it's deeper than 3 feet," she said. "And use gold-colored hooks -- gold disappears in the water."
After Memorial Day, find crappies holding at the lowest level of light penetration.
"Once crappies are done spawning, they're pelagic -- they roam, they're not tied to structure," said Wilson. "A lot of times they relate to the thermocline in some lakes, so you'll find them at the lowest spot of light penetration."
Wilson recommends an easy way to determine that: Tie a coffee cup on a string and drop it in the water until it disappears. Double that depth to find the deepest light.
"I like to drift fish," he said. "When you hit a school of fish -- bang, bang, bang -- you'll know when you've hit a whole bunch of fish. You can try to stay on them, but it's hard to follow a school of fish. Just keep drifting until you hit the next one."
Gainey said knowledge of lake hydrology can also help anglers to locate roaming crappies.
"A lot of times," she said, "you'll drift over a creek channel and they'll nail it."
Sunday, March 21, 2010
By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
At this latitude, the crappies get active right around the opening day of trout season, April 17. You don't suppose they know that anglers will be preoccupied?
"That time of year, right on trout season, they should be in shallow water and fairly easy to find," said Tim Wilson, a fisheries biologist for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. "Right now, as soon as the ice is off the lakes and the water is 37-38 degrees, they're moving in to feed -- in the next week or so I'll see boats on the Pymatuning outside my office. They don't spawn until the water is in the 50s or low 60s, and daily weather will affect how they move into shallow water."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crappie fishing runs hot and cold. They're a schooling fish -- when you're on them with the right bait at the right depth, it's not uncommon to fill a bucket with 10-15 inchers. each bearing a pair of nice fillets. When the crappies aren't there, well, you have to go find them.
Crappies are prolific, so plentiful and reproductive it's virtually impossible for angling pressure to impact populations. With a year-round open season, 50-fish limit for combined panfish and relatively easy fishing tactics, crappie fishing is a great way to introduce beginners to the sport.
Classified in the biological family that includes bass, perch and various sunfish, two types of crappies are common across Pennsylvania.
The most plentiful is the black crappie, identified by its general pan shape, dark spots in vaguely horizontal rows, and seven or eight spines on the dorsal fin. Twelve-inchers are common, and black crappies can grow to 16 inches or more. They like clear, cool streams, lakes and ponds with structure and some vegetation. The state record was caught in Tioga County in 2000: 19 1/4 inches, 4 pounds, 2.88 ounces.
It's close cousin the white crappie is striped with eight to 10 dark vertical bars. It's the only member of the sunfish family to have five or six spines on its dorsal fin and another five or six spines on its anal fin. Sizes of 6-12 inches are common, but white crappies can grow to 15 inches and several pounds, and they prefer warmer, turbid ponds and lakes.
"They can be very location specific," said Wilson. "Every lake has a little bit of a different nuance."
Generally crappies like to be near structure -- stumps, fallen trees, reed beds, decaying vegetation. Look for areas that warm up the quickest.
"Fish on the north side of the lake where the water warms up first," said Wilson, "or the north bank of a south-facing slope."
As the water warms, the biggest crappies are the first to visit shallow water, but they move out again almost immediately. Smaller fish move in every day to bask in warmer water, but Wilson said the bigger, more moody females are more particular about when they'll go shallow as the spawn approaches. Black crappies spawn when the water temperature in three to six feet reaches 66-68 degrees; white crappies spawn deeper in six to eight feet, and in temperatures from just under 60 to just over 70 degrees.
Karen Gainey, certified as a fishing instructor by the Fish and Boat Commission and host of "Karen's Fishing Corner" on PCTV-21, scouts lakes and ponds for crappies congregating near incoming streams.
"It may be only 2-3 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake, but that's where they'll be," she said. "I've been on lakes where nothing is going on, but go into a bay with incoming water and that's where the activity is."
Water entering lakes from shallow wetlands is almost always warmer than the lake in general.
"Look around and you'll find them pretty easily," she said. "Glade Run Lake has a little bitty creek feeding into it, and that water is warmer. At Lake Arthur, Dutch Hollow and the Muddy Creek arm warm faster than the lake. The upper lake at Deer Lakes Park is shallow and warms faster, and east of Meadville, Sugar Lake used to be a conservation lake. It has a feeder creek coming in and some of the biggest crappies I've ever seen."
Crappies can be caught from shore, but boats give anglers infinitely more options. In the warmest water available, fish just off the bottom. Live bait works best.
"I use jigs with a Twister tail and live minnow below a slip float," said Wilson. "Fatheads, 2-inchers."
Gainey said she like a maribou jig with a No. 8 hook tipped with a 2-inch light-colored minnow fished just off the bottom.
"No weight unless it's deeper than 3 feet," she said. "And use gold-colored hooks -- gold disappears in the water."
After Memorial Day, find crappies holding at the lowest level of light penetration.
"Once crappies are done spawning, they're pelagic -- they roam, they're not tied to structure," said Wilson. "A lot of times they relate to the thermocline in some lakes, so you'll find them at the lowest spot of light penetration."
Wilson recommends an easy way to determine that: Tie a coffee cup on a string and drop it in the water until it disappears. Double that depth to find the deepest light.
"I like to drift fish," he said. "When you hit a school of fish -- bang, bang, bang -- you'll know when you've hit a whole bunch of fish. You can try to stay on them, but it's hard to follow a school of fish. Just keep drifting until you hit the next one."
Gainey said knowledge of lake hydrology can also help anglers to locate roaming crappies.
"A lot of times," she said, "you'll drift over a creek channel and they'll nail it."