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how does the water rising and falling affect the crappie bite
I was always told that when fishing lakes affected by the Mississippi River you wanted to fish on a slow fall or when the lake is stable.
My question is, does the same rules apply for lakes such as Grenada or Enid or even Kentucky Lake ?
In other words does the same principle apply that fish like everything nice and easy or slow, whether it is a rise or a fall.
Just like to hear what people think about this topic.
Crappie.com Legend
on the ms river lakes, i like a slow, steady rise or fall. seems the fall pushes them out deeper, slow rise they move into newly flooded areas and cover. I always look shallow as the water comes up. they seem to explore newly flooded areas and structure. I havent fished the big 4 enough to say how it affects these lakes, but this time of year, look shallow then you can move out to suspect spots if nothing is going on shallow
Crappie.com 1K Star General
This is a pretty indepth topic but to break it down to a couple basics...for me a rise is better than a fall...but I really like stable water and temps.
In some lakes like Kentucky the fish react to how much water they are discharging at the dam. People on the Lake sometimes refer to it as " pulling water".That flow sets up flow in the old major and minor river beds and to a lesser degree in and out flows from bays and creeks.
All things considered I like a reservoir at its typical pool for that time of year but enough inflow to keep them discharging at the dam. Sometimes peak activity occurs during peak electricity generating times if they have turbines.
Other than that you just have to figure out how the fish are positioning based on a changing conditions whether up or down. There are multiple things involved in whether they are actively feeding or not of course. Best once you dedicate the time and money to go fishing...always think that if you do the right thing you'll catch fish...and if you're not catching fish then figure out what your doing wrong. Somebody who has figured out the current pattern and will share it with you can sure save time or save a trip.
Not everyone will, but there sure are a lot of nice folks who will if you use the right approach.
Crappie.com 2K Star General
I have always preferred a very slow rise or fall with a river. KY Lake is another entire ball of wax, as stated before KY dam is always discharging or pulling water. The fish react differently to the different discharge rates. Once rates get to the 80,000+ cfs (cubic feet per second ), the fish will begin to relate to more structure. When it gets into the 125,000+ cfs, they will have a safety harness tethering themselves off to the structure! On the low end, last spring we began a drought with hardly any rains to speak of. The dam was only pulling 10,000 to 15,000 it seemed for months. This really hurt the water quality, and into the fall had pushed the fish to the very bottom. We caught fish with mud on their bellies.
As 'MO stated, hard pulling will suck them back out to deeper water, and a rise will send them more shallow. But they like it here on the big lakes with good current regardless of time of year!
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