Late summer pattern

The crappies here in the Twin Cities are starting to show late summer patterns, moving up on the docks to feed in the evenings and at night, even with the recent heat. This evening my partner and I will be testing one of our favorite fall crappie docks to see how far that has progressed. Last evening I hit another and for quite a while it was a fish on every cast. Once this pattern starts to work, it generally continues for us until the Park Board and the DNR de-install the docks around the beginning of November. For us late summer and fall are every bit as good as pre-spawn and bedding time.

I normally expect this to start around here when the tomatoes start to ripen and the potato vines start to die off. Both are happening in my backyard garden.

We found a few fish at the dock this evening. Different lake than yesterday, one with a consumption advisory and so less intense harvest and a bit larger average, although still not really slabs. Between the two of us we put back about 2 dozen crappies in 2 and a half hours up to just under 10", mostly on the tiny white tails again. We tried white a number of different sizes and colors, but most of them struck out. Once again the size improved as it got closer to full dark, but the numbers were off. We had smaller fish pretty regularly earlier, but as it got later they seemed to move out and different pods of a bit bigger crappies would pass through but not stick around. A whole lot of our fish came from close to the bottom again, but they are now moving up on the breaks better than earlier when the summer heat really kicked in.

No crappie update from me tonight. My son's fishing buddy wanted to find some "other" fish on tnka tonight. We found some bruisers...which will make it tough to get him to go out for crappies any time soon. :p

Attachment 95991

Nothing at all wrong with walleyes like that.
I wouldn't worry. I sorta doubt he will forget the crappies, but then it's all good, when you get into that quality of the fish you target.

Good report no1. Man, our seasons are WAY DIFFERENT from each other. My maters (and the rest of the garden) have all but burnt up now, the water temps are @ 85* at daylight every day. Strange enough though...I'm till catching fish in 10'-12' of water with them hugging the bottom. I tried some deep water docks earlier. Maybe it's time to check 'em again. Thanks for your post.:)

IMF, I'd say that young man was excited! Congrats to you guys on the "eyes".Thumbs Up

What were you catching the crappies on? I am back into fishing after many years! I had a similar experience Wednesday night. I fish from shore where an old abandoned road divides 2 small lakes One side is deep and open water where I have been catching a few nice fish. The other side has is covered with weeds and has a few open spots were the weeds are a 1-2 feet below top of water. I was catching no fish, in frustration, I threw a tube into the weeds at dark and caught one sub-9" (legal is 9"+) after another with a couple of keepers.

Any suggests on how to fish this area? I was thinking of trying some larger tubes if I have the same experience again.

This year the seasons are not so different. I would have lost my entire garden already to the heat, if it were not for the water hose. I cheat a bit on that planting my vegetables in about 2' wide trenches, which due to the sandy nature of my soil allows me to fill them to three or four inches directly where my plants need them. I do that a couple or three times in the evening every couple of days. They are due for a good feeding now too, since that kind of watering leaches nutrients so badly from my beds. The rest is generally pathways between and sprouts few weeds in this kind of weather. I raised the trenches last fall when I started to get ready for garlics and set up early beds for this spring's plantings. That was a mistake requiring even more water than I should have needed, but I am not sure how to address it and still have the necessary foot paths.

My longtime established daylilies have been hit hard this summer by our combination of heat and lack of enough rain, but I am a bit too cheap to water everything, while the limited water has made weed control much easier than otherwise in those portions without wanted plants in them. I worry a bit more about my Siberian irises than the daylilies that normally take care of themselves very well.

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Originally Posted by snowbird

What were you catching the crappies on? I am back into fishing after many years! I had a similar experience Wednesday night. I fish from shore where an old abandoned road divides 2 small lakes One side is deep and open water where I have been catching a few nice fish. The other side has is covered with weeds and has a few open spots were the weeds are a 1-2 feet below top of water. I was catching no fish, in frustration, I threw a tube into the weeds at dark and caught one sub-9" (legal is 9"+) after another with a couple of keepers.

Any suggests on how to fish this area? I was thinking of trying some larger tubes if I have the same experience again.

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Right now I am to best on 64th oz jigs tipped with about 1" rattail shads.

For your situation you will probably do best with different presentations to the different sides of the roadway. Bigger on the deeper side and smaller on the weedy side. You will also find that different spots along that roadway will do better, some days here and some days there, but over time specific spots will stick out on both sides.

Work what holes and slots there are in the weedbed, sometime a tiny slip bobber allows both extended casting reach and better weed avoidance of tiny offerings. GULP works as well as plastics at times, under a bobber. Do not be too quick to move the offering either.

On the deeper side, do not overlook close in drops and edges that go rapidly to 8 to 10 feet of water. Vertical jigging in those spots can be dynamite since schools of crappies and other game fish will often pin forage against the breaks. For casting look more to the larger shads 2" or so and the bigger tubes, and active lures like Road Runners and twister style grubs. If you can reach over the first break, you have an area to examine pretty closely, especially the edge where the inside bends start to reach out into the lake, but any finger along that may also be prime holding territory for feeding schools. A lot of times crappies don't take all that much of a change in structure to orient on, especially the black species which moves more up and down structure than the whites who tend to move more horizontally.

For black crappies which is what I mostly have available, I start at the bottom following a controlled settle and move up in the water column. If they are active I hit them right away on the settle, but if not they will be more bottom oriented as they rest or start to move up to feed. Most of my crappies come more bottom oriented as a result, but I am still able to identify strata above that. You fish them down as well as on the retrieve. I watch my settling line very closely to see what level I need to be at and then how that changes, if it does.

Luck to you. And don't be worried about the dinks. You can and should learn something about where you are fishing from every fish you catch, and there is no limit on those you release in most areas.

Thank you for the information! On the deeper side, I was using tubes, road runners, Blue Fox flash spinners, and shad ... catching a few fish, but nothing worked on the deep side the last couple of trips. There are a couple of places I caught crappies while fishing for bass last fall after the top weeds died ... may try a few holes in the weeds now for crappie.

Thanks again for responding to my questions!

no1son,

Are you still catching crappies around the docks? I have not caught a crappie in the last 3 or 4 trips (since July 13th). I was thinking that the problem was the water is clear and bright sun, therefore, the crappies may have moved beyond my reach. However, this afternoon and evening, it has been cloudy ... still no crappies! I have had fun catching nice bass on light tackle ... but hungry for a mess of crappies :)

snowbird,

I have not been on the docks for the past couple of weeks due to family functions, but I expect to find crappies there until late in the fall when the docks get taken up around here. I will know more this evening, if the weather permits me to get out.

However, during the day I also expect to find them deep and bottom oriented during bright hot days in and outside of the outside weed line and not in the mood for taking much of any size or speed offerings. IMO they continue to graze on tidbits pretty much all the time, but become much more active and feed up in the water column and on larger offerings in low light such as very early and very late in the day. Where fishing pressure is heaviest that includes night time, especially for the larger sizes.

I general I fish crappies during low light periods both due to their natural tendencies and to their responses to fishing pressure, which is normally heavy around here, especially in the summer. In fact, I seldom fish them during the middle of the day at any time of the year, although occasionally I will do so and at times find a decent bite, although usually of smaller fish. I keep my tackle right in the car all summer and will at times take a break from an errand to do a little mid-day catch and release fishing, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, although I seldom get completely skunked. The scattered crappies I occasionally take during those periods point to crappie residence that I will concentrate on when I have the time to work more likely times of the day. IMO they are around if not active even then. I generally find crappie bite best either before or after bass bite has tapered off and sunnie bite has also. If you can find breakline perch, it often pays to wait out their end of bite as daylight ebbs. Crappies may follow their decreased activity. Some of my favorite crappie spots are multi-species feeding areas, and there is often a pattern regarding which species are most active and in what order. One other thing I key on is presence or unexpected absence of sunnies. If they are not out and about during their normal activity periods in their normal areas; something has disturbed them enough to put them down and crappies are even more timid, unless fully active and IMO actually key on sunnie alarm; so I do also. Crappie fishing then is likely to be difficult to completely unproductive.

This time of the year crappies can get real fussy about size, color, and pattern of offerings as well as presentations, especially when the sun is high in the sky and when there is little or no cloud cover. In a tough bite I generally downsize and slow down my action to almost nothing for best results, but if that does not work I go in the other direction. If that does not work, I move. I usually have backup locations in mind before I even wet the line for the first time anywhere. Usually I don't work a non-productive location for more than a half an hour, before moving on.

One personal superstition, that I find has worked out far too often, is the fish on the first presentation. That often results in no further fish. It is the second and third offering and how they produce that I normally key on first, that and my confidence in the location. Far too often that immediate first fish is all that comes of a spot. Whether that is generally accurate or not, I do not know, but it seems to plague my fishing.

" Kids Corner"

no1son,

Thank you for your reply ... I was not very clear. I have been fishing in low light ... first light before dawn in the mornings and 6:00pm until complete dark in the evenings. I was just wondering if the bright days had pushed the fish out and they were not coming in as close in the mornings and evenings. It may also be that the lakes are really down and that has pushed the crappies beyond my reach from shore.

Your observations about the sunnies is interesting. Last night, the sunnies were up on the shoreline. The night before, they were out ... I caught one in deep water on a vibrax.

jackie53: " Kids Corner" .... should I be insulted :) For some of us old farts, shore fishing is a lot healthier than a boat ... especially standing and walking (or in my case riding a mt biking) into places is healthier than sitting for long periods of time.

How dense am I!

Lake levels way down changes the usable and comfort structures and light penetration. That moves the forage, too. Not much you can do from a dock when water levels change dramatically. Normally I catch my crappies along the dock leg rather than at the end, and I have long docks available; so I would move out to farther breaks, but the proper breaks may just not be there.

But last fall I found crappies at various depths on the inside of the cross T. They were laying in the proper degree of overhead shade rather than at a given depth. When they are in at the docks, mostly they lay in the dock shadow far more often than roaming out in open water.

If your heat wave finally broke like ours has, don't give up on the docks too soon. Especially not if you are now getting some rain like we are that is restoring your water levels at all.

Tried two docks this evening.

The first is a short dock, just barely beyond the outside weedline, and the Park Board cleared away the weeds for about 50 feet along the one side. Sunnies were around and some bass for those who could cast far enough, but the crappies were missing in action. Left after about half an hour or so.

The second is a long dock well out beyond the weed line past a couple of deeper breaks to water over 20 feet deep. The take was 15 small crappies between 8:00 and 9:15, plus a few sunnies and a dink perch. First crappies were deep at the breaks out to 20' on a pearl 1" shad on a 64th oz jig head. Initial bite was so soft that I doubt I would have noticed it without the noodle tip on my little stick. Later on the crappies moved up the breaks and up in the water column and the bite also got more aggressive taking a pearl BG baby shad. Size improved too, but this is a small fish lake; so there were no slabs and probably no fish actually made 9". All fish came out of the dock shadow fishing on the side were the slight current flowed under the dock carrying the little jig back under with it.

I packed it in about dark, when I could no longer see my line.

One other guy on the dock ended up taking a walleye about 14" and a 30" muskie casting a fat crank bait. The walleye was at the outside weed line, but the muskie was under a tree right up at the shoreline. He was rigged for bass; so there was a bit of excitement around the muskie.

Nice reports no1son. thank you