Winter or Frozen-water Period

Water Temperature: Coldest of the year

General Fish Mood: Neutral

In far northern waters, Winter or Frozen-Water is the longest calendar period of the year for crappies. In many northern waters, ice covers lakes for up to five months. In southern waters, the temperature may never drop below 40°F and rarely dips below 50°F in the far south. In lakes like Florida’s famous Okeechobee, a temperature reading below 50°F is almost as rare as a polar-bear sighting.

Crappies feed on small invertebrates and minnows through the Winter Period, providing excellent ice-fishing in the North. In the South, open-water angling can be good, too, especially since few anglers pursue crappies at this time of year. Fishing small jigs 30 feet deep from a boat in the face of rain or sleet in a stiff wind is too much discomfort for most folks. Fishing from a toasty fish house on the ice, on the other hand, is easier and far more comfortable.

In general, crappies occupy the same areas they used during the Fall Coldwater Period. Basin areas are key in ponds, small lakes, and northern natural lakes, especially around hard-to-soft transitions. Deep edges of cover (weeds or timber), channel edges, and rocky humps continue to produce fish. The best areas lie in less than 30 feet of water but may be as deep as 45 feet. Active crappies often suspend within 5 feet of bottom during this period, sometimes higher. In clear weedy lakes, they also roam flats from 5 to 10 feet deep, apparently feeding on invertebrates, tiny bluegill, and minnows under ice cover.

During the middle stretches of the Winter Period, snow cover and thickening ice decrease light penetration. Along with shorter days, the dwindling light supply reduces plankton production to its lowest point of the year. In small or shallow northern lakes, crappies become lethargic, almost dormant, as oxygen counts drop. Best to concentrate on larger lakes at this point. Later in the period, as ice cover thins, they may suspend closer to the surface again. In some lakes, fish move to shallow areas less than 6 feet deep slightly before ice-out, especially in smaller lakes that may experience low oxygen levels. As the ice pulls from shore, life-giving oxygen again mixes into the water on windy days, and the bite improves dramatically.

Most crappie activity under the ice occurs at midday in normal to cloudy water clarity, but continues to occur during the low-light periods of dawn and dusk, or at night on clearer bodies of water. Night-fishing can be surprisingly productive during winter, north or south. Dropping a lantern below the surface (where legal) attracts baitfish and in turn attracts crappies. Lantern light flooding down the holes from ice houses often attracts the fish at night and activity levels increase, especially on lakes that receive heavy fishing pressure during the day.

During winter, crappies are concentrated and catchable on small lures or livebait presented slowly at or slightly above their depth level. Use sonar to determine the depths fish are using, then experiment with combinations of ice flies, spoons, and jigs tipped with minnows or insect larvae (maggots, waxworms).

In the South, most winter crappie activity is centered around brushpiles. As in the Fall Coldwater Period, active fish tend to stay within 5 or 10 feet of bottom, but may suspend in the tops of taller piles. Catching them means finding brushpiles situated at the right depth levels. In most cases, they use slightly different spots each year, depending on pool level and water clarity, but the right depth remains generally constant from year to year. As the days lengthen and the water begins to warm, they begin to suspend, often rising straight up and staging within 5 or 10 feet of the surface. When the water warms slightly again, they begin moving from main-lake areas back into the creek arms where they eventually spawn, which brings us full cycle once again to the beginning of the year of the crappie.