Best/Worst Time of the Day for Crappie?

[wasilvers]

I'm a newby crappie fisherman, but have done a lot of bass fishing. I was wondering what the best and worst times of the day are to catch crappie in the summer? If I take kids, is live-bait the way to go? I ask because yesterday around noon I was marking fish all over just off the weedlines (suspended 7-10 feet in 10-18 fow) but couldn't catch a thing. I've read a lot of CDC and went to the recommended colors up here (black and chartuese tubes) and tried red/charteuse and white/charteuse - did not have one bite. I saw others fishing for them but only saw one guy pull a small one up. I even tried a worm on the end of my jig incase they were small gills and not crappie on the finder (but they were stacked pretty vertical).

Thanks for any help!

-Will

[Lowellhturner]

During the summer months 1 of the DEADLIEST rigs I use is a soft bodied "glo" floating head jig with a minnow (or BETTER yet, a small shad) tossed out at night. DO NOT use this rig around any @#$% ducks or geese because they WILL gobble it faster than the fish. Have caught many NICE crappies on it along with everything else ("by catch") from BIG cats, bass, walleyes, carp, you name it...

[omegapd]

welcome to the club, Will (the crappie club). It will all fall into place soon enough. Down here in GA, You can catch them in the heat of the day if you're in the right place. I prefer a 2 inch curly tail grub for the majority of my fishing.

[Eager Beaver]

No such thing as best/worst time of the day. They eat 24 hrs a day. You just have to be in the right place at the right time and give them what THEY want. That is part of the fun in figuring out what that is. On a new lake I start with a plain minnow and find the depth the Crappie are at, with this you can see how aggressive they are, and then pick a jig to match their mood, whether aggressive or not. Drop your jig and see how far you can see your jig before you lose sight of it, and that will tell you how stained the water is. Clear water use bright colors and stain water use darker colors. Then that will cut down on colors to use. Depending on how aggressive they are determines the size of jig head to use 1/32, 1/16, or 1/8th. This determines the rate of fall or how long it takes the jig to get down to a specific depth, hopefully where the Crappie are. Once you get the jig head and color figured out to where you start catching Crappie notice how they are taking the jig in. If you are just catching them in the lip that will work but you don't have what they really want as far as color. This is the time to experiment with the color a bit. When you have what they really want they will suck the jig way down. This is when it gets fun and you load the boat with Crappie. You will be catching them on every cast.
In your situation I would have stayed out a ways and cast up to the weeds and let the jig slow fall through them. If I didn't have a response after a few cast I would use a bobber and set it to just above them or at the level they were at. If that didn't work I would try a minnow and if that didn't work, I would move and try to find a more aggressive bunch. If a lot of people were trying to catch them it will shut them off from biting for awhile. EB

[Blackhawk19]

Best time of the day for me is early morning this time of the year before the temps hit 100° I hit the lake at 5am and leave about 10am, if they bite, fine and if they don't I just enjoyed just being out there!!!!

[BigMack]

as you should know from bass fishin'.
the magic hours are the one at sunrise and just before sunset.
midday is go hide and take a nap time for them.

[unclejimmy]

i catch crappie all day but never in the same area. get to know your favorite lake and soon youll know when to move.ledges is the answer for me most of the time .good luck UNCLE JIMMY

[countykayaker]

I just started Crappie fishing this year due to the fact that there were none where I used to live! I have found they have almost the same patterns as small mouth do. Up here in the north the crappie seem to bite better in the morning and again in the eve. During the heat of the day they seem to migrate to deeper water and then back to the shallows in the eve.

[gabowman]

I prefer daylight best due to the heat (on me). Rarely will I fish longer than noon i this heat. By that time I've had enough, even though alot of times I'll leave fish biting. Fish are usually caught shallower in the water column earlier then they start migrating into deeper water as the sun gets high. Our water temps now is 80+ degrees at daylight and I'll fish generally 8'-17' of water and the better bites on most days are at 6'-9' deep. Rely on your graph to show you where theyre holding and present your baits right above the fish if possible.

[CrappiePappy]

I've always had better luck, this time of year, by being on the water at sunup ... fishing around downed trees, on banks where the shade extended out over those trees. (ie - the same places I'd be throwing topwater for Bass Thumbs Up ) By the time the Sun was high enough to no longer provide any shaded cover/areas ... I'd either caught a mess, and was headed to the ramp, or switched species (usually trolling for White Bass/Hybrid Stripers ... just for the pullage, though, as I never kept "them").

Taking kids, or even one kid .... could mean live bait should be available for them to use. Depends on their age &/or interest level. You may even want to take along a Fish ID booklet or chart, and let them try and identify the various species they catch. Your DNR may have such a publication (Ky Dept F&W has one, in a booklet & an online PDF : http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/kyfishid.pdf )

... cp