Scorching sun and high humidity mark the dog days of summer for humans, but life underwater is in high gear. Thermoclines develop in many natural lakes and reservoirs. Other controlling factors like increased sunlight, competing species, and an increased metabolism demand order. Nature responds by regulating feeding times.

In some systems, big crappies vacate the shallows. During the Summer Period, they suspend more, roaming the edges of cover at night or during low-light periods. Most activity in the daytime is confined to depths ranging from 12 to 24 feet in larger lakes and reservoirs. The clearer the water, the deeper crappies suspend. The cloudier the water, the more they tend to use cover during the day. Active fish may be on the edge of cover or slightly within it, while inactive fish bury deep.

In natural lakes and vegetated impoundments, the best summer areas tend to be deep weededges. Crappies hold along points and turns in those edges. On deeper flats, rockpiles that rise slightly above the level of deepest sunlight penetration often hold large schools of crappies. Tall trees that fall across or slide down steep-dropping shorelines and intersect depths of 15 feet or deeper are crappie magnets. Similar spots in strip pits, ponds, and impoundments attract crappies in summer, as well.

In most reservoirs, flooded timber, deep stumps, brushpiles, and other manmade fish attractors substitute for natural weedcover or woodcover, but patterns are similar. Crappies use the best wood along the edges of creek and river channels and select depths based on water clarity. The precise location of the “best wood” can alter from year to year, depending on pool level and changes in water clarity. Active crappies hold in or next to cover. Suspended fish near cover can be negative or actively feeding. When marking large schools of shad around cover, assume suspended fish are feeding, especially those fish highest in the water column.

Crappies often suspend during the Summer Period, particularly in the daytime. In clear water, they become most active at dusk and during the night. During the heart of summer, the best fishing tends to be around classically positioned cover in the evening, at night, and at dawn. But in lakes and ponds with dark, stained, or cloudy water, the best bite tends to occur sometime between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

As a general rule, summer activity tends to take place deeper than spring activity, although crappies remain above the thermocline once it develops (usually somewhere between 18 and 30 feet). Crappies show a decided preference for roaming confined open water during the day and invading cover at night, holding at depths determined by water clarity. During the Summer Period, crappies group less tightly and forage more sporadically than during the Summer Peak.