Three Frosts in a Row, Where to go?

We've already had three nights of frost in a row (early), and I'm not sure where or how to fish this time of year. I do okay in spring and summer locally, but I have a hard time finding them now. Suggestions?

This is Black Crappie. I have a big river (the Connecticut) depths to 40' and a smaller northern mountain river coming into it. Where they meet in a big flat muddy weedy setback the water is shallow -- mostly about 7' or less. One deeper pocket by some cliffs. The shoreline is good in spring because there's lots of overhanging brush. I don't usually find crappie there in that bay in summer.

Main big river has crappie in a few spots in summer. There was some summer bridge structure fishing a couple years ago, but that seems to have died back the last two years. It's heavily hit by bass tourney guys now.

Where the two rivers meet there's a hole and bar, depth in the low twenties.

There are 4 other setbacks on the bigger river I know of, they don't have streams feeding them -- they were just cut off by the building of railroad tracks. They all produce crappie in spring, but I haven't been lucky with them in summer.

So if you had these choices and daytime temp say 70 max, cold nights, clear cold-front weather, where would you be heading out to at this point? Shallows, deeps, structure? I'd really like to learn more about this time of year here.

Thank you all.

I am very interested in the replies, but afraid I won't be much help. I would say that the fish will seek bait,correct water temperature, and habitat in some order. I think I would spend a good deal of my fishing time where the two rivers come together. You said it around twenty feet deep, so you may find some weeds or humps or dropoffs. Take note of the surface temperature compared to other parts, but measurements could be much different down lower. The Lake may "turnover ",but usually not if any flow is involved. Pay some attention to your electronics, not only looking for crappie, but also for bait, weed edges, humps and ledges, and hidden wooden structure. Good luck

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Thanks Noodle rod. I went out today -- to a setback area I had never fished before. It was pretty windy from the north and I had to anchor to hold position. I tried about a half mile of shoreline, depths ranged from 18' to 7' in the channel. Found two holes. The holes appeared to have bait on the depth finder, though small bait was also flashing topwater in the shallows in front of lilly pads. It wasn't being busted. Just flashing -- maybe eating insects. I didn't see any predator action. I don't know if we have shad here up north, but whatever the minnows were there were lots of them topwater. Upper water temp was 58 when I got there at about 11:00, and 62 when I left at 3:30. Skunked on crappies. I got two 10" yellow perch, and two tiny pike (the size of a magic marker). That was it.

I will try the mouth of the river as you suggested. Current these days is iffy -- we have a bad drought, and the dam down-river is pretty much closed off. Next few days should be a little warmer, and light winds.

if the bridge has concrete pillars the bridge has them holding there is my guess .
possibly on the shallow ends of it .

Thanks ketchin. yes it does have those piers -- stonework. There is one of the deepest holes in the whole river stretch right below the two center piers, about 40 feet deep. Two side piers on one side get shallower.

There's stone rubble base on the bottom around the piers. On the upstream side and inside there are big trees tangled underwater from a flood two springs ago.

Odd thing, since that flood, when a massive amount of timber got caught up against the side piers, I caught very few crappie there But before that I used to catch a lot. I would have thought it would be the opposite.

This summer I tried there again -- less timber now, and I caught a few. Maybe one or two per session. But I used to be able to catch 20 there before 11:00 A.M when it would slow to a stop. Now also I lose a lot of jigs. Maybe I'm fishing too high and too fast because I'm afraid of snagging. Maybe that's the problem.

Well that was the summer. Maybe it is different in the fall and they will hole up there. I'll try it again. Thanks ketchin.

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Originally Posted by SRHacksaw

Thanks ketchin. yes it does have those piers -- stonework. There is one of the deepest holes in the whole river stretch right below the two center piers, about 40 feet deep. Two side piers on one side get shallower.

There's stone rubble base on the bottom around the piers. On the upstream side and inside there are big trees tangled underwater from a flood two springs ago.

Odd thing, since that flood, when a massive amount of timber got caught up against the side piers, I caught very few crappie there But before that I used to catch a lot. I would have thought it would be the opposite.

This summer I tried there again -- less timber now, and I caught a few. Maybe one or two per session. But I used to be able to catch 20 there before 11:00 A.M when it would slow to a stop. Now also I lose a lot of jigs. Maybe I'm fishing too high and too fast because I'm afraid of snagging. Maybe that's the problem.

Well that was the summer. Maybe it is different in the fall and they will hole up there. I'll try it again. Thanks ketchin.

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If you think the fish are kinda buried up in the brush/trees at the base ... get a couple packs of weedless jigheads in whatever size you normally use and try them. You will get snagged, on occasion, but way less often than with a regular open-hook jig.

You might also want to try this : Crappie Pappy Article (and just FYI, this article of mine was inspired by doing this technique down beside a bridge pillar) Also of note ... the 5-7sec per turn of the handle was stated when I was using the larger size spinning reel. If using a UL or small size spinning reel, you may speed up your retrieve to around the 3-4sec per turn rate.

That was a really good article Crappie Pappy. Very clearly explained. I'll take your advice around those pier snags.