Many reservoirs are drawn down in fall, in preparation for winter precipitation and spring runoff. A radical Kansas drawdown is 3 feet over 2 weeks. In Connecticut, the water in some impoundments often fluctuates more than 3 feet within a day of fishing, and sometime during October the water may drop 10 to 20 feet in a matter of days. Drawdowns do not necessarily turn the crappies off in these impoundments, but they obviously affect their location.

When the water drops in some flatland reservoirs, it turns quite cloudy. Crappie may continue to bite, but angling success can be spotty. When the drawdown is completed and pool levels are once again maintained at consistent levels, the water clears and fishing can become spectacular.

By late October in Kansas, most river crappies near the head of a flatland reservoir move into brushpiles and submerged logs in 10 to 20 feet of water. These are shallower holes than crappies can find in the main body of the reservoir. Sometimes these crappies suspend within 5 feet of the surface during fall, loosely relating to woodcover. From this suspended vantage, they often drift horizontally right onto shallow flats. It becomes critical to check shallow shelves and flats surrounding deep bend pools, especially on the inside of a bend.

Crappies tend to relate to the more gradually sloping sides of the bank during early to mid-fall. Steep drops on outside bends, even with prime brushpiles staged along the lip, attract fewer crappies in these upriver areas. The fish may, however, wander onto shallower flats in 4 to 8 feet of water. Any woodcover in the form of laydowns, logjams, or submerged brush on shallow flats adjacent to inside bends can attract crappies during stable weather. With respect to scenery, solitude, and angling success, fishing the upriver areas of flatland reservoirs in fall can be rewarding.

When flatland reservoirs are drawn down in fall, crappies seem to hover near channel edges, perhaps becoming suspicious of shallow water. Often this channel edge is that of a secondary creek, though it could be the main river channel where secondary creeks don’t exist or have silted in. Adjacent flats may be less than 3 feet deep after a drawdown, though depths ranging from 4 to 8 feet are common, as well. Cover in the form of brushpiles may be important to these fish during fall, though this depends on the clarity of the water and the availability of forage. Crappies need to stock up for winter, abandoning woodcover in favor of feeding almost constantly. Finding them 5 to 10 feet down in cover-free areas is not uncommon. But, fishing can be spotty during a drawdown: When pool levels stabilize, angling improves.

Another classic spot in flatland reservoirs is a submerged levee or small pond dam within the river channel of the main lake. Steep, rocky shorelines in the lower third of the lake draw crappies in fall, too. Larger specimens often suspend just below the lip of the drop in these areas, but more often are found in brushpiles associated with mudflats and other ledge areas not associated with the main river channel. These brushpiles are often in depths of 10 feet, or even shallower.

Lowland and Flatland Reservoirs

As fall progresses, crappies may gather into increasingly smaller spaces, as perfect habitat in terms of stability (ideal temperature, pH, forage, current, etc.) gradually dwindles. This congregation continues after conditions stabilize in the North, but crappies may spread out a little more in southern waters. If water temperature steadily dips toward its lowest point of the year, crappies increasingly hold along steeper drops. During cold fronts, the bite doesn’t slow as much in fall, but the fish shift deeper. It becomes increasingly common to find them in brushpiles 20 to 25 feet deep. Old stock dams and levees in the main river channel become key spots. Rocky ledges in the main river channel hold crappies during late fall, as well. But a week or so of mild temperatures can draw them back to shallower brushpiles and, in the North, to weedlines in areas 10 to 12 feet deep near mudflats and other edge areas not necessarily associated with the main river channel. By November, these shallow movements often cease in the North, but they continue on through Christmas in southern impoundments.

What Does It All Mean?

We collected and analyzed data on the catches of many thousands of crappies during the fall period in reservoirs. Looking for trends and tendencies, these were the most obvious:

•The best crappie fishing tends to occur when water temperatures at the surface read between 40°F and 50°F.

•The depth crappies use doesn’t necessarily correspond to water color or light penetration, but they generally go to deeper water as the season progresses.

•They tend to be most catchable when relating to woodcover or steep drops during most of the fall season.

•Crappies are increasingly attracted to steep-breaking areas as water cools. Flats get some use, but movements there can be sporadic, related to stable weather, and short-lived.

•In water less than 44°F, crappies in clear water retain higher activity levels than those in dingy water.

The most telling pattern, however, may be the very unreliablilty of these general trends. Entries exist that contradict each of these tendencies, as day-by-day conditions often override trends. Fish are not automatons, nor creatures of strict habit driven entirely by instinct. In fact, the more we learn about crappies and other species, the more the word ‘instinct’ becomes obsolete. In other words, anglers who learn to expect the unexpected often rise above the rest, in terms of consistency.