Patterns aren't useful just for bass fishing !

One lake I've been fishing more than any other in my area has opened my eyes to finding and fishing patterns. Different patterns may be going on in one water on the same day and last for days. Once one or more patterns stop, others begin though at times hard to find without covering a lot of territory.

There were three patterns happening in the last few weeks.
1. larger crappie were always present in the south in 14' in a large pool of water adjacent to a long underwater ridge of rock and a parallel rock cliff.
Slow and deep was the key retrieve.

2. on the west shore the crappie were adjacent to dying weeds that formed coves from being wind blown to shore. Depth was 7' and prime coves yielded ten or more crappie for days.

3. at the north end, water depth averages 5' due to the drought which has dropped the lake more than a foot. The northwest part of the cove yielded mostly small crappie, decent size yellow perch and sun fish. It was not uncommon to catch 30 or more fish working an area 40x40 yards any day for a week.

Sonar showed areas that produced best, clean of weeds, unlike the mid third of the lake where casting distance is less than 8' and no fish vertical jigging or even seen on sonar. This weedy area accounts for the middle third of this elongated body of water and was more than 2/3 of the bottom-to-surface from spring up until a week ago.

Lure size of 2.5" and of a straight tail design-soft plastic using 1/16 oz jig heads in the north and 1/32 oz in the south (shallower end) was the rule rather than the exception.

Today those patterns are coming to an end as more and more weeds die and either sink or drift and the lake water evaporates lowering it more.

Today it was tough to discover another pattern where schools of fish could yield 10 or more fish per location.

New pattern discovered today:
Northeast shore/dying weed formed coves in 6 plus feet of water, again 50' from a weedy shoreline. Lure downsized to 2 - 2 1/4" on a 1/32 or 1/16 oz jig head - same tail design; three fish species all in the same area types and depth. Wind helped all day to circulate the water and suspended algae.

I'll be going back tomorrow and will count on that pattern along a 40 yard stretch in the northwest 1/3 part of the lake in 6-7'. Today, fish were scattered in 8 or more feet at the south end and though produced nice perch and crappie, far fewer fish per hour than with a pattern that worked.

In my mind (different than for bass), patterns are about finding schools of fish in certain areas and fish more apt to bite certain lures and on certain retrieves.

Shoreline anglers must be scratching their heads seeing me catch fish after fish, which I've demonstrated for weeks!

Figuring it out is a lot of the fun. Remembering it is what makes a fisherman good. Good post.

Thanks.

Today's update:
Northeast shore near weed coves less productive but crappie and perch moved further out in open water from those areas up to 30 yards away. Northwest shore not productive at all as it had been last week. I also found that downsizing jig hook size from 4 to 6 and using a shorter 2" soft plastic straight tail got easier hook-ups than the larger size which got mostly nipped. Wind velocity was a pain - 20 mph from the south all day, which might have affected yesterday's pattern. The fishing will likely be just as good in the next five days even with a 90 degree air temp and going our early was never my strong suit, especially since I retired a few year ago.

New to crappie fishing and have always believed that in order to be successful, one must learn how to follow the crappie patterns.
You have conquer that task and I appreciate these updates. Just maybe some day I will be able to do what you have done with patterns
and then start learning how to present the bait. Please keep the updates coming.

Mike

Hey Spoon, why are your lakes weeds dying already?

As you certainly know, when weeds die the available oxygen is used up by aerobic bacteria and fungi that accelerate the decaying process. This causes areas to be "Oxygen Poor" and the fish have to move to an area which has dissolved Oxygen at least 2-3 ppm. If your lake had a algae bloom, as the algae dies, the oxygen is also used up the same way....same depletion happen if your lake is so fertile that it has less than one foot of normal visibility, in this case oxygen cannot be produced by the lake, because so many types of Algae and zooplankton are using it. Turn-overs also cause a "Oxygen Poor" condition that will change patterns also!

Low oxygen conditions stress fish, it also changes their entire life cycle....feeding patterns will change and slow down, then they will become stationary to try and conserve energy. If too many congregate in an area one day, the O2 levels may drop, and the most stressed fish will move to another area with higher O2 levels the next day. Crappie are on the higher end of the needed oxygen scale, they have to be in the 3 ppm, as minimal oxygen levels.
Shallow areas with incoming water or wave action, can be areas with higher O2 ppm's during these times...same with shallow areas, with vegetation or plankton that are still producing O2.

Hope this helps you to see what might be going on in your lake!

Good Fishing
Brent

Brent, thanks for the breakdown. Fortunately there are always green weeds that hang around that sustains the best fishing of water 75-85 degrees while a certain seasonal weed dies at this time of year every year. The brisk daytime winds of the last 5 days have I'm sure done a fair job of circulating surface water along with the daily warming and cooling cycle of cool nights and warm days. The lake has never had a fish kill like in some of the monster NYC reservoirs south of me, even though the lake only averages 8'. I wish I could confirm why fish move to certain locations other than possibly following bait fish, but when an area proves productive, I sit on it and others like it for days or weeks, experimenting with different lure designs and presentations to see what variety or limitations present themselves.

I used to read everything in magazines about biological factors that affect fish location but found them less than predictive or reliable and let my lure do the talking. The thing I can't stand about some bass anglers on different forums is their insistence on the scientific reasons fish bit or didn't in an area or that fish are intelligent to a degree. But as we've all experienced - there are too many exceptions to any rule to rely on any one rule. There is one lure design for me that finds catches fish all months of the year and that is something I can take to the bank!