crappie in the bushes

I am not a spider rigger, and do more shallow water crappie fishin than deep water. So this past week, with what I know about the biology of crappie, told me to fish shallow (3 foot and shallower). And, not that I ever catch a lot of fish, but I did not catch a crappie. But I saw signs that fish? were in the shallow water, but could not get them to stay on the hook to verify what species. I was fishing different color jigs, and fishing them under a bobber. The fish ? would take the bobber under and push it to the side. SO, having the ability to sample with an electrofishing boat. We took it out today in the back of and embayment (Blood River) to sample around some shallow water habitat. In less than 5 minutes we had a limit of crappie. All were over 10 inches. Most were white males in their full dark spawning colors. The females were releasing eggs, and most were about done. Not wanting to mess up a lot of crappie spawning is why we only shocked for 5 minutes. We saw what we needed to see to verify that the fish in that shallow water were indeed crappie. A few of the crappie were in water less than 12 inches deep, while all were found in water less than 24 inches. The crappie were found at the base of button ball bushes, and a few from shallow water brush piles. From my experience these fish would be very hard to catch from a boat. Casting to them, would most likely leave you digging your jig or minnow out of the bushes. To vertical fishing would require you to get your boat in too close and spook the fish. My suggestion if you’re not afraid of snakes, is to wade fish. Still getting these spawning crappie to bite will be hard. Fish have two things on their mind, and usually only one at a time; eating and mating. Well, ok maybe three things; not getting eating by a bigger fish. This is not to indicate that all crappie are shallow right now. There are still some in deeper water.

I don't believe all the crappie are up shallow spawning right now. Another biologist in our office went this week and caught several crappie in 12 feet of water. The females were still loaded with eggs.

Very interesting report.....maybe it's not just me who can't catch a crappie.:D Didya shock any Largemouth while in the shallows? Thanks for the post.

Down here around perryville they get in the bushes especially if the water is up.When the water goes down it is like you said you cant cast or get to close. Usually you can go and find some sort of structure or rocky bottom in the same depth range and catch them.

Thanks Paul for the report.

Pretty neat info. Thanks for posting it. Wade fishing for those big crappie would have to be a ball.

Went to Blood river today fishing, the wind was terrible. But we ended up with 15 crappie, 4 bluegill, 1shellcracker and 1 catfish. That's what we cleaned. Most were black crappie,there were a couple of white's. We caught most all of the fish shallow. 2ft to 5ft casting jigs, jigs Mepperson tied. Sorry no pics.