Suspended crappies generally can be caught in fall, even within a day or so after a cold front passes. (Cold fronts can have the opposite effect in fall, actually inspiring fish to feed more aggressively.) Contact can be made with these fish by drifting, control-drifting, or slow-trolling with small spinner rigs, ultralight crankbaits, or suspending baits while keeping an eye on the depthfinder. They may position near bottom or suspend 5 to 15 feet above it.

Crappies tend to be closer to drop-offs by early evening. During morning and evening, fish tend to hold fairly tight to structure and close to bottom. On dark, cloudy days, Shield crappies tend to hug the bottom tighter for longer periods throughout the day and bite more aggressively. They tend to move less on sunny days in these environments. On sunny mornings and evenings, and during most sunny afternoons, crappies tend to rise up, and it’s typical to find them 5 to 15 feet from bottom in 25- to 40-foot depths. In this position, they become extremely active and catchable, especially when it’s calm or a slight chop breaks up the surface.

The midday, sun-related activity is probably due to the stained, tea-colored water common to Shield lakes. Sunlight makes it easier for crappies to see their food. The increased light penetration generates more activity among zooplankton, resulting in actively feeding baitfish. By late afternoon or early evening, crappies tend to move back to those drop-off areas surrounding points, humps, islands, or rockpiles, where the action can be fast for the last hour or so before the sun sets. This describes the same, roughly circular pattern of daily activities they follow in summer, from structure to suspending in confined open water, back to structure—except everything happens 5 to 15 feet deeper in most cases during fall.

Winter

The best way to locate winter crappies is to stay on them throughout autumn, because wherever they end up by late fall (mid-October Up North to late December down South) is where they’ll be for the next 3 to 5 months.

Crappies are forced to subsist on things other than minnows during winter in many natural-lake environments—another reason they’re drawn to basin areas with soft substrates harboring large supplies of invertebrate life. If enough baitfish persist through winter to keep crappies satisfied, they, too, will be drawn to basin areas, where water temperatures and food supplies remain most stable through the cold months. Water is most dense at approximately 39°F, and the densest water sinks to bottom. It’s least dense at 32°F (ice stage) and this floating layer serves to insulate both the lake and its inhabitants. Extreme atmospheric cold serves to thicken the ice from the bottom of the ice layer. But the thicker the ice, and the more snow that packs on top, the greater the degree of insulation and the more constant the water temperatures below the ice. The surface water is coldest; the bottom water, warmest.

In shallow lakes and ponds, crappies may not have the option of spending the winter any deeper than 12 to 18 feet. In shallow eutrophic lakes, crappies tend to settle in and near the deepest portion of the main-lake basin, and may continue to relate to any remaining deep, healthy green weeds. In larger, deeper lakes with more options, crappies tend to winter on basin flats or wide main-lake flats in depths of 20 to 45 feet. Though crappies can winter at 50 feet or deeper, it’s rare.

One of the most interesting things to note about wintering crappies toward the far northern end of their range is their seeming ability to predict just how severe the winter is going to be. Picture a chain of lakes, all connected by a large stream or canal. At the top of this watershed is a shallow lake only 12 feet deep, where “fish kills” occur due to oxygen depletion during the harshest winters. In the middle of the chain is another shallow lake, but with a slightly deeper basin of 15 feet. At the bottom of this chain is a large mesotrophic lake with some basins over 50 feet deep. Crappies can pass freely between the lakes. During late autumn just prior to a very harsh winter, we find no crappies in the top two lakes, even though they used these waters all spring and summer. Ice fishing for crappie is a waste of time on the top two lakes. But, during late fall before a mild winter, crappies can be found in the top two lakes of the chain and will remain all winter. This scenario has played itself out for us many times over a variety of chains in Michigan, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. This is just one more thing about crappies that makes you say, “Hmm,” reminding us that the more we learn about living things, the more we realize how far away we are from completely understanding them.