Summer Peak Period

Water Temperature: Mid- to upper 70°F range

General Fish Mood: Positive

During the Summer Peak, weeds have arrived at their zenith, the food chain is humming along at peak production levels, and the metabolism of crappies reaches its apex for the year. The transformation from a cool to a warm environment is complete. Hatching insects leave millions of husks scattered on the surface film. Rooted aquatic plants reach the surface and begin to bend there, along the roof of their world.

In natural lakes, deep weeds develop a distinct edge, and crappies roam that edge like caribou skirting a pipeline. In reservoirs, crappies follow the year’s biggest schools of shad, gorging on and around the edges of creek and river channels. Crappies again group tightly, and fishing can be fast and furious.

The Summer Peak is one of the year’s prime times to be on the water. Crappies are more likely to be in a positive feeding mood than at any other time until fall arrives. Hungry, aggressive, and fully recovered from the postspawn blues, they school tightly, which promotes competitive feeding. To top it all off, the water is alive and brimming with food. Crappies now tend to throw caution to the wind.

One key to recognizing this period is establishing that the last crappies to spawn finished a week or two previously. Typically, deep cabbage tops appear for the first time through the surface film. The water first reached 70°F two or three weeks prior. The Summer Peak generally coincides with the point at which the water broaches the mid-70°F mark, and crappies reveal a propensity to consistently chase lures like jig-twistertail combos and small suspending minnowbaits.

By human standards, some years seem to have no fall season, jumping right from an extended summer to an early winter. By the same token, those years when weather is unseasonably cold and cloudy for several weeks after panfish spawn seem to have no Summer Peak Period on the crappie calendar, either. But even in such adverse situations, this time frame offers the best post cold-front fishing for crappies of the entire year.

Summer Period

Water Temperature: Annual maximum

General Fish Mood: Variable

As summer progresses, crappies become far less “suicidal” than during the Summer Peak Period. The sun is converting energy into life all around, and forage is plentiful in the form of plankton, insects, minnows, fry, and fingerlings. No longer driven by energy deficits, crappies can afford to be more selective and judicious in their feeding.

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.

Postsummer Period

Water Temperature: Rapidly cooling from annual maximum

General Fish Mood: Neutral to positive

The Postsummer Period is a reversal of the Presummer process, occurring at the end of summer when waters begin to cool. Hot days with dead-calm periods followed by cool nights are typical. Days are growing noticeably shorter. With less sunlight, the ecosystem begins winding down. Food production grinds to a near halt.

Ongoing predation by all species continues to reduce the now-finite food supply. Weeds begin to thin out. Insect hatches dwindle in size and number. Water levels in rivers and feeder creeks may reach annual low points, forcing fish into the deepest holes.

Crappies generally respond to this changing environment by holding tighter to cover and showing less tendency to suspend. Fish a weedline or timberline and you may not spot a single suspended fish on sonar. Pitch a jig to those edges, however, and you just might catch a boatload. Now it becomes necessary to fish them in order to find them, rather than depending on the depthfinder to locate schools.

Once again, crappies begin to concentrate more. Key spots become the edges of prime cover, making them easier to find and catch. Key locations tend to retain crappies for extended periods. A hot bite generally repeats itself for weeks on the same spot during Postsummer, but it all comes to an abrupt halt when the lake “turns over.”