Best/Worst Time of the Day for Crappie?

I'm a newby crappie fisherman, but have done a lot of bass fishing. I was wondering what the best and worst times of the day are to catch crappie in the summer? If I take kids, is live-bait the way to go? I ask because yesterday around noon I was marking fish all over just off the weedlines (suspended 7-10 feet in 10-18 fow) but couldn't catch a thing. I've read a lot of CDC and went to the recommended colors up here (black and chartuese tubes) and tried red/charteuse and white/charteuse - did not have one bite. I saw others fishing for them but only saw one guy pull a small one up. I even tried a worm on the end of my jig incase they were small gills and not crappie on the finder (but they were stacked pretty vertical).

Thanks for any help!

-Will

During the summer months 1 of the DEADLIEST rigs I use is a soft bodied "glo" floating head jig with a minnow (or BETTER yet, a small shad) tossed out at night. DO NOT use this rig around any @#$% ducks or geese because they WILL gobble it faster than the fish. Have caught many NICE crappies on it along with everything else ("by catch") from BIG cats, bass, walleyes, carp, you name it...

welcome to the club, Will (the crappie club). It will all fall into place soon enough. Down here in GA, You can catch them in the heat of the day if you're in the right place. I prefer a 2 inch curly tail grub for the majority of my fishing.

No such thing as best/worst time of the day. They eat 24 hrs a day. You just have to be in the right place at the right time and give them what THEY want. That is part of the fun in figuring out what that is. On a new lake I start with a plain minnow and find the depth the Crappie are at, with this you can see how aggressive they are, and then pick a jig to match their mood, whether aggressive or not. Drop your jig and see how far you can see your jig before you lose sight of it, and that will tell you how stained the water is. Clear water use bright colors and stain water use darker colors. Then that will cut down on colors to use. Depending on how aggressive they are determines the size of jig head to use 1/32, 1/16, or 1/8th. This determines the rate of fall or how long it takes the jig to get down to a specific depth, hopefully where the Crappie are. Once you get the jig head and color figured out to where you start catching Crappie notice how they are taking the jig in. If you are just catching them in the lip that will work but you don't have what they really want as far as color. This is the time to experiment with the color a bit. When you have what they really want they will suck the jig way down. This is when it gets fun and you load the boat with Crappie. You will be catching them on every cast.
In your situation I would have stayed out a ways and cast up to the weeds and let the jig slow fall through them. If I didn't have a response after a few cast I would use a bobber and set it to just above them or at the level they were at. If that didn't work I would try a minnow and if that didn't work, I would move and try to find a more aggressive bunch. If a lot of people were trying to catch them it will shut them off from biting for awhile. EB

Best time of the day for me is early morning this time of the year before the temps hit 100° :eek: I hit the lake at 5am and leave about 10am, if they bite, fine and if they don't I just enjoyed just being out there!!!!

as you should know from bass fishin'.
the magic hours are the one at sunrise and just before sunset.
midday is go hide and take a nap time for them.

i catch crappie all day but never in the same area. get to know your favorite lake and soon youll know when to move.ledges is the answer for me most of the time .good luck UNCLE JIMMY

I just started Crappie fishing this year due to the fact that there were none where I used to live! I have found they have almost the same patterns as small mouth do. Up here in the north the crappie seem to bite better in the morning and again in the eve. During the heat of the day they seem to migrate to deeper water and then back to the shallows in the eve.

I prefer daylight best due to the heat (on me). Rarely will I fish longer than noon i this heat. By that time I've had enough, even though alot of times I'll leave fish biting. Fish are usually caught shallower in the water column earlier then they start migrating into deeper water as the sun gets high. Our water temps now is 80+ degrees at daylight and I'll fish generally 8'-17' of water and the better bites on most days are at 6'-9' deep. Rely on your graph to show you where theyre holding and present your baits right above the fish if possible.

I've always had better luck, this time of year, by being on the water at sunup ... fishing around downed trees, on banks where the shade extended out over those trees. (ie - the same places I'd be throwing topwater for Bass Thumbs Up ) By the time the Sun was high enough to no longer provide any shaded cover/areas ... I'd either caught a mess, and was headed to the ramp, or switched species (usually trolling for White Bass/Hybrid Stripers ... just for the pullage, though, as I never kept "them").

Taking kids, or even one kid .... could mean live bait should be available for them to use. Depends on their age &/or interest level. You may even want to take along a Fish ID booklet or chart, and let them try and identify the various species they catch. Your DNR may have such a publication (Ky Dept F&W has one, in a booklet & an online PDF : http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/kyfishid.pdf )

... cp

I try to be on the water at sunrise and find the best bite is until 10AM, I usully stay until noon and then go home but honestly cannot say that the catch rate in the lkast 2 hours justifies it. I'd just rather be on the boat then at home.

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Originally Posted by Dutch552

I'd just rather be on the boat then at home.

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Amen to that.

Guess I'll have to decide before I go out what to fish for - bass or crappie. I'll try my favoite bass haunts first. I know after 9/10am I go deep for bass, so maybe I should do the same for crappie. Thanks for the help - live bait must be the ticket to consistent bites. I know when I started bass fishing it was using crawlers, now I don't ever use them. :)

In Missouri I usually start at 9:30 or so fish till 2:00pm then look for shade, along south bluffs, 4to 6 ft of water, slow troll two poles out the front, chartruse/and any other color usually works best on the clear water I fish, white/silver is also good in clear water early shad hatch. brush piles produce till noon or after then the crappie just go where ever some deep some shallow, I like chasing the shallow ones. good luck and welcome aboard

Any time I can go fishing is my favorite time; All jokes aside on a new moon to mid moon early morning. Mid moon to full late evening

sunup here

anytime here...

I would say at night or first thing in the morning. This seems to be the best around here anyway right now.

I didn't know crappie could tell time. I figured if you put something in front of them any time of day they'd eat:confused:

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Originally Posted by RCC

I didn't know crappie could tell time. I figured if you put something in front of them any time of day they'd eat:confused:

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RCC ... you bring up some interesting points. But, even though Crappie don't "tell time" in the same sense as we do .... I'm quite sure they're aware of "time", in the sense that they follow feeding patterns & seasonal shifts in their habits. Now, while a lot of that can be attributed to water temps, as Crappie are cold blooded creatures ... they're still aware of light/dark (day/night) and react accordingly. They are opportunistic feeders, in the sense that they'll often take a well presented bait or snatch an unsuspecting "meal" that ventures too close, even though they're stomachs are full. The easier the meal is to procure, the more beneficial it is to them (calories expended vs calories gained). They may not really "want/need" the meal, but if it presents itself as easily obtained, they're likely to eat it anyway. The prevailing "conditions" dictate when they're most likely to be feeding, which can & does occur at different times of the day/night. Crappie are ambush predators, built for stealth & not speed. As such, they're likely to follow their foodsource & stay close ... or set themselves up in a position to intercept the foodsource, at some point in its travels. In doing so, they're more likely to have a chance at a meal ... if/when the feeding mood kicks in.
Our plight, as anglers, is to "find" the fish, first & foremost ... then try & figure out what bait(s) & presentation(s) are most likely to incur a strike, given the prevailing factors that are governing their behavior at that time/place. When we do, we're likely to say that that's "the best time .... " --- and when we don't, we're likely to say "they weren't biting" Doh Rofl

That's how I see it, anyway Thumbs Up

... cp :cool:

Well said Crappiepappy. :)

What's the best between daylight? And after dark with a light?

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Originally Posted by GoneCrappieFishing

Well said Crappiepappy. :)

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I believe Crappiepappy layed it on the line. Ditto on the well said.Thumbs Up

The real answer is the best time is when you're catching fish. The worst time is when you can't go.

Best time is when you Can go. Worst time is when you Can't go. Going is the key. Whether you you catch or not you should Learn something every time you Can go!! Plus the book that crappiepappy wrote. :-)

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Originally Posted by Crappie Reaper

The real answer is the best time is when you're catching fish. The worst time is when you can't go.

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x1......

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Originally Posted by Blackhawk19

Best time of the day for me is early morning this time of the year before the temps hit 100° :eek: I hit the lake at 5am and leave about 10am, if they bite, fine and if they don't I just enjoyed just being out there!!!!

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I totally agree !!!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend I took what you guys said and applied it in my local lake. Saturday I went out and fished bass, then later (after 8) for crappie/pannies - and ended up with little of either. So today, I took my son out and we pulled oursleves out of bed at 4:45 and went to where the bait was and anchored. We found little bait schooled at the top of the water, not much was pushing it that I could see, but they were there. It took me a while to figure out HOW to catch the the crappie, but once I got the right color and speed of retrieve, I was catching them on EVERY CAST! About the time 7:30 rolled around, they had stopped biting or moved. We searched for a while, but couldn't locate them again. But that morning bite was awesome! My son is 6 years old and he fished with me for FOUR hours and had a ball fishing with crawlers. We must have caught 100 fish all told with small/medium gills and crappies mixed in. We took home 13 fish which turns out to be just perfect for feeding our family of 5.

Thanks for the help!

I'm from WI and would like to know when a good time to ice fish would be for crappies, bluegill, bass and northern. I'm new to it but my fiancé isn't and I'm not sure what or when is a good time I've tried looking it up on Google but every time on each one is different. Please can somebody help my newby self! Thank you!

That's what I enjoy whether you get fish or not the bigger picture is the effort and enjoyment of doing it. Patience is key!

in these parts in the summer months during the daylight bridges and big trees and docks in the shade are a good bet ....bait choices in most cases with me are jigs ....
tip them with a GULP brand crappie nibble and make sure the jig hangs perpendicular to line ... and you almost cant go wrong with bright chart ...
or very sparkly natural colors .......
as far as fish that wont bite on the graph image .....after a lil bit ...go look for some other fish is my motto ....
the bugs in the dark drive me nuts so i dont go much in the summer in the dark ...and its a short drive :biggrin

worst time is when I'm on the water, the best time is when someone else is on the water LOL

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

the bugs in the dark drive me nuts so i dont go much in the summer in the dark ...and its a short drive :biggrin

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And it dries, not oily, doesn't smell, or hurt any kind of Nylon or plastics...Picaridin is the repellent, more effective than DEET and safer...spray is good for 12 hours against ticks and mosquitoes!
You can get it at BPS, Cabelas, Dick's, Wally World, or on-line!

In the Summer, I only fish at night!:)

Dang! And I just left Bass Pro Shop:banghead:banghead:banghead:banghead