How deep do you fish in February?

[arkansas slim]

Never Crappie fished in the colder months of Jan-Feb.... but thinking about it... I always wait till it warms up a little in March April and fish more the spawn....

Are the fish generally quite a bit deeper than March-April?

[Roper Outdoors]

Hey man, the fish will be normally a foot off the bottom and you need to fish slow. Just pay close attention to your electronics to see what depth their staking up at. Double Minnow Rigs are good to use and SCENT. Scent is key!

[gabowman]

I find most near the bottom during the cold water times too. Welcome to the boards.

[MEATGETTER]

we have been catching some 14ft deep in 25-30ft of water look at meatgetter jig on facebook.

[arkansas slim]

Thanks for the help guys.

So look for fish stacked up near the bottom? Then do you anchor and tightline a jig/minnow real slow or just let it sit? or do you cast and wind?

Sorry for all the questions but I have no idea how to fish when cold and deep.

I fish shallow with a jig/minnow around visible structure during the spring and love it but don't know a thing about fishing during the "winter"....

[Rubber Minner]

I have always located them then depending on wind, I tightline live minnows or jigs a couple cranks up of the bottom, or however high they are, using trolling motor to stay on them or over the type structure their holding on. The colder the water temp, the slower you fish. Alot of time the bite is very light. So watching your line and rod tip is critical.
Alot of times I will have multiple rods with different colors of bait. If they start biting a certain color more often, then I change all to that color.
Good luck. And it dosnt hurt to take notes on the water. Write down water temp, fish location, bait choice that works, what didnt. You can go back to as a refference in the future.

[NIMROD]

There is no set rule , depends on lake. Here it has been 8' deep lately. Have seen it where they were right off bottom at times. Later in the month after a few warm sunny days slabs have been known to pull up on real shallow cover where the sun warms it up. Have caught some dandies late feb. And early march in less than 3' of water after sun shines for a few straight days.

[Backwater Man]

Until the spawn begans at which I fish about 12-18 inches in the brush or close to banks.
Right now---- as one gentleman said--they are stacked about 2 feet from the bottom and close to structure.

Myself I fish for crappie using the tight line system--I place about a 3/8 oz. weight on the very bottom of my line and tie a couple of leads about 4-8 inches in length above that and about 12 inches apart. I usually bait one with a minnow and one with a jig. I like to hit the bottom with the weight and jig upwards until I find them--moving the line slowly upwards and lowering it again.---I repeat this over and over --Most of the time I find them deep.
I use this system with the pole that I hold--others I bait with jigs or minnows or both and place in rod holders. Usually I get hits on the minnows fishing off the bottom up 2-3 cranks.

I fish standing timber but also the underwater structure is thick but can not be seen by the eye.---Watch your depth finder and you can see them stacked up and down underwater structures just right under the surface and down to the bottom, which may be down as far as 15-20 ft.--Depending on the depth.
Lately I have been fishing in about 20-25 ft. depths among standing timber in a channel.
Many guys will tell you that trolling is an important part of fishing if you do not have your own honey holes baited with brush tops. I like to zag--zag from shallow to deep water until I find that great drop off with some underwater timber along side the drop off---Maybe a run off or creek.
I taught myself how to use Goggle maps and research where the creeks are and where they join the lake or river--than at times I just get out and start riding and exploring--you will be amazed at how far you can go up into some of these creeks and just kill the crappie, especially ones with a lot of fallen down trees or brush. Water may be a little shallow in places and at times 15-20 feet deep. Exploring is how these guys catch crappie they know where the Backwater places are.
I hardly ever fish in a big lake--I may explore it a little when calm---Millwood is a very dangerous lake to fish in the main part of it---wind comes from bad angles in that lake and it is very hard to get planed out, plus it is shallow mostly--A few do venture out there.
Most of the guys I know will fish the rivers and Oxbows---Other lakes you may have your own ways--Here in Southern Arkansas it is refreshing to fish some of these wind free sloughs and deal with the gators--Great bream and blue gill fishing also. Knowing the spots is to be a good crappie fisherman.
I was taught this by the best-----THE GUYS ON THIS FORUM---Read and pay attention--you can learn a lot---I did--

I just bought a new stick---steer Tracker---I am going to see how willing I am to get it in brush and maybe scratch it up some---I bought it to fish--- not to use as a photo opt---I imagine by the end of the year it will be scratched a bit---I usually break a couple of rods in the process--I forget to take them out of the rod holders when I need to. Spider rigs probably would not work in the places I fish----maybe one pole or rod---casting is usually a jig loss.
THANKS GUYS--GOD BLESS

[Turtlebait]

Casting is a different set of rules when it comes to winter crappie,as stated they are still deep.To find them I had rather cast into swallow water and let the lure fall though the water colum all the way to bottom.If no takers I crawl it a few inches before I hop it off bottom 1 to 2ft. and let it fall back to bottom.Some days even when useing braided line you do not feel the bite,just extra wt. felt on the lure.On mono line they can suck and spit it out and you'll never know it until you see you tube half off your hook.You'll see me preach "scent" though out my posting and its more important this of year then any other.I start my search by rigging up 4 rods with different jig wts.,1/32,1/16,1/8 and a pink crank bait.A finder would be nice but they aren't really needed in the smaller lakes and owbows,unless your clueless as what to look for.I like to start by fishing the points before trying inside blends or brush tops.B/c this time of year they're(maybe) on the move and will school off any type wood,open water crappie as I call them.They are by far to me the easiest crappie to catch,by useing scent you can sometimes set the school off into a feeding fiz.
Crappie aren't really hard to find,whats hard is finding the right colored jig head,wt.,color of lure,size of lure,speed of lure,which scent and a wooden nickel.If you can find all that it doesn't matter what type day,how cold/hot,swallow/deep you can catch enough to mess the dishes up.

[arkyfishing]

the best thing was said earlier, get out look at the water, study the fish and enjoy learning from the good folks on this board. I have been fishing for these things for several years and have yet to stop learning. Like Backwater Man posted, we fish close to the same way on Millwood. I also fish another lake or two that are deeper. The other day before the snow we fished at Gillham Lake and was catching them in 50 ft water suspended at about the 30 ft mark. water temp was only 43 and clear. Just give it a try and you cant go wrong.