papacrappie or whiskers or somebody...

Hey guys, thanks for looking. I will TRY to make this short and sweet.
I fish at Barren River Lake on a houseboat dock during the winter and try to catch crappie on trees (apple, willow, cedar, and some man made stuff) tied down from the dock. Usually I have decent success, and it is so much simpler to drive to the covered dock and drop a jig instead of getting the boat out and going by myself which I think is somewhat dangerous. (I use my boat at KY lake in the spring - which I am enjoying the posts on those topics) I will be the first to admit, I am not an expert fisherman, but usually the fish are there at the dock during the winter. The last 5 trips to the dock on Saturdays have produced about 3 fish. I don't know why they are not there!?! How do I know? After fishing for about an hour up and down the dock, if I don't catch anything, I will get out the underwater camera - they are not there. I thought the crappie moved into peninsulas and/or creeks during the winter. I know that I am isolated in how much lake I can cover, because I am on a dock. Are they in the river channels really deep or where are the crappie this time of year? The dock is over about 12- 20 feet of water with trees tied from bottom (because lake dropped) to about 5 foot from surface. I guess I need to study their movements. Whiskers, I read your post about falling lake levels and cold fronts. When you mean steady temps, do you mean temps are about the same during the day for a few days and lows during the night similar for a few nights? How much of a swing will affect crappie from one day to another? What about sunshine or clouds, barometric pressure, lake levels :confused: I guess I need to know where are the crappie this time of year and any advice to a very novice, beginner, unlearned crappie chaser who use to be able to catch a few crappie (not many) would be GREATLY APPRECIAETED. Please don't think me lazy or stupid because I don't get my boat out, this location I fish is usually productive and fun. Besides, most of the few spots I do know are out of the water this time of year, and if I built some, I wouldn’t know where to drop em.
By the way, I went this morning - should have stayed in bed.
Thanks to all who could give me advice, because I am going to use it.

I'm not familiar with Barren River Lake and I am sure that there are many others on here much more qualified to give advice on this lake than me.

With that said... I assume, as the name suggests, Barren is a river run lake with a main river channel and feeder creeks running in just like Ky. and Barkley Lakes, only on a smaller scale.

Crappie are crappie. I don't care if they are in a lake, pond or swimming pool they are gonna seek out a place, in that body of water, that is gonna be the most comfortable and provide access to food. By most comfortable I'm referring to water temp and dissolved Oxygen. In turn the baitfish will probably be close because they are fish too and require basically the same things the crappie do.

I’m sure you have a favorite place in the house where you are most comfortable. If there is a cold draft there you have 2 choices. 1. Get up and move. 2. Turn the heat up. Crappie ain’t got but 1 choice. They gotta move.

You said in the past this spot has been productive in the winter. Ask yourself… What is different this winter compared to the others when you caught fish. I’m gonna be the water is colder than it usually is this time of year and the temps have been a little erratic. I bet the water temp is around 37/38ish?

Crappie like stable conditions. The deeper they go the less and slower the conditions change. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of those fish are in 25 to 30 feet of water. They are just as screwed up as we are right now.

We get a few nice days in a row and that water temp. starts creep’n up, they’ll be back.

I have a buddy that fishes a dock that sets in about 24’ of water and he usually catches fish there all winter. Not this year. He’s have’n the same problem you are.

If you are catching a few fish you might want to go to 1. A smaller bait. Crappie are cold blooded and the colder it gets the slower their metabolism is. They need less food & feed less but might take a smaller offering. 2. Lighter line. 3. Try different colors. Maybe even micro spoons. But either way, ya can’t catch’um if they ain’t there.

I hope this helps explain what your problem might be. You can’t fix a problem to you know what the problem is.

P.S. I reserve the right to be absolutely, positively, WRONG! :D

Hi Jighead,

I think Wiskers is right on. I fish mostly on Green and water temps are below what we
"normally" have.
Once the temps fell into the mid to upper 30s the fish moved into 30 feet of water , plus and are holding very tight against the cover.
Not saying every fish it there, because I still experiment and can catch a few shallower, but by and far the bulk seem to be there. At least for my way of fishing.

Good luck to ya and if your ever up this way let me know. Most of my buddies give up when it gets cold and I end up going alone.