Thread: HOT - Where did they go and what is best way to find and catch them

Sounds like your weather and water temp is about the same as here in Central IL. I think you are fishing to deep at 12 -16 ft. I caught a lot of fish from the bank down to 7 feet this weekend. Most I caught were aroude 6 - 7 ft deep. Id concentrate a little shallower. I was using 3/8 oz weights slow trolling. The females I caught still had eggs in them so I wouldnt go full bore post spawn just yet.

Any water near the spawning grounds with 6 to 10fow with structure should hold your better females.... should be easy pickings with those conditions.... vertical jigging the structure will do you better than minnas....

! Your water is like it’s been in a lot of places this year but a lot of folks hasn’t considered how cold of a winter that we have had therefore it’s going to take a while for most the water to warm up .if you drop a thermometer down a couple feet or more you going to have a lot colder temps than the surface unless you are in real shallow water!

I always had a good time and good success trolling cranks during and after the spawn. I fished deeper than the spawning area down to where the thermocline usually is and looks for balls of bait. Always kept me busy in the warmer months.

Thanks for the replies, going to give it a try tomorrow. We are still very hot with some storms rolling around today so I stayed off the lake.

All I can add is that it's been a cold spring here in the N.E.. I think most of the crappie are still up in the shallower water because of it. If you've had a cold spring with slow warm up, it may be a similar situation. Here we are battling cold front after cold front. It's 90 degrees one day and 60 the next! Quite challenging!

by weeks end the water temp is likely to soar ....just saying
I would go to a full blown summer pattern if I was you ...
post spawn fish didn't hang long this year in these parts .

Still gotta consider the thermocline which will hold the feesh shallow even with the higher water temps....I know nature holds its own but I've gotta believe those crappie are as confused as we are with this strange weather.....