Thread: Summer Crappie Patterns?

When I fished the Catawba chain years back at this time of year I caught them on brush piles in 20-30 water on channel edges. They would be 15-18 feet deep over the brush just as the sun came up, then work their way down to the brush as it got lighter.

Where your fishing you should be catching something.

You could take your kayak up into the river section with a tube of crickets and have fun with the bream. Very small crank baits and spinners work good too.

They are moving, 2 weeks ago we were killem under deep docks, now you can't catch a fish under them same docks, This week we killed them on brush 12 to 18 feet, tried deep brush ( 2 days this week) nothing! in 20 to 30 feet of water. The bait has moved back in the creeks some, some of the fish have followed the bait. The fish are near the channel, nothing out on the flats. By Sept they should be on the brush good, right now one pile will be loaded and the next one will not have a fish on it.

I f you go for bream, try a flyrod with a bassbug and bream bug in tandem. As quiet as that kayak is and the surprise presentation of the flyrod, plus fast rate of casting, you never know what you might scare up.!

About the same pattern here fishing brush that Countryboy stated.Been off the last two weeks and killed them last week went back this week they were pretty much on the same places 12-16 ft. but instead of casting to them you had to get over them,lower the jig and lift it and they would nail it.I think they relate to the shallower brushpiles because of the thermocline.From now until fall I also catch a lot of fish letting the jig go all the way to the bottom around outside of brush.A 1/16 roadrunner works really good for this in late summer.

Appreciate the replies!' I tried around Southpoint wildlife landing this morning with not even a bite. I fished around the fish attractor just north of the landing in 20 ish feet of water, then tried the docks on the opposite side of the lake. There was even a recent big oak blow down from this year that went all the way out to 30 feet of water. I was using a white curly tail on small jig head. Tried vertical jigging with crappie nibble on jig and also shot docks with different retrieves. Nothing. I did see several schools of bait near the middle of lake in about 15 ft of water and even tried to cast into them. I need to figure something out soon. The yak is great but the area you can cover is extremely limited. Thanks again.

Crewmax42, yes a fly rid would kill the bream now. There was a large hatch of mayflies last night and all docks are covered. Saw bream hitting anything that floated, but no takers on the jig. I fly fish but not ready to try out of the yak yet.

Two ways find good brush or troll through schools of shad and I prefer the later. I guess a third could be under a light at night the perch are so aggravating then though.

What is good brush this time of year? Certain depth? Location? I'm a rookie. Thanks