Observation last Couple Week

Hope this helps someone. We had water warming up nicely and the fish were getting more aggressive. Then got colder nights and the water cooled a few degrees. At 52 they would move to come to a bait and actually chase it. I even sped the bait up and triggered some strikes. The water temperature dropped back to 49-50 and their mood changed. Speed it up and they would turn away. Had to get the bait closer to get a reaction. Speed is critical!!! Troller, changing your speed a tenth could make a difference not so much about how deep but how fast they want it. Most areas the fish are still schooled up making it tuff on Longliners. Miss by a few feet and get nothing. Tightlining and Single Pole is probably best till they scatter. I had never observed how only a couple degrees made such a huge difference. It showed me how I had failed to notice. Pretty sure this is nothing new. I may be the only one that was just fishing and not really focusing. What I learned has helped me catch a few more lately.


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Thanks for the advice. Gonna be trying to get on some this weekend.

Tried yesterday and came home empty. Tried vertical jigging and longlining at .8 & .9 . Soft baits on jigs and minnows. Fished from 8:30 am to 1pm. Had much trouble staying on the fish with my live scope. At least I can see my jig now.
Tried last week for a few hrs and did no good. This crappie fishing is tougher than I thought it would be. :bash

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Originally Posted by Poorman

Tried yesterday and came home empty. Tried vertical jigging and longlining at .8 & .9 . Soft baits on jigs and minnows. Fished from 8:30 am to 1pm. Had much trouble staying on the fish with my live scope. At least I can see my jig now.
Tried last week for a few hrs and did no good. This crappie fishing is tougher than I thought it would be. :bash

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Thank you for sharing your findings with us. I learn something new almost every time I get out on the water.

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Originally Posted by fishfinder8

Thank you for sharing your findings with us. I learn something new almost every time I get out on the water.

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must be you got a good teacher :Rofl :Rofl

As an old school one pole jig fisherman, I can attest that water temps need to be 50 or higher for the fish to be aggressive towards artificial baits. My rule of thumb has been “Temperatures or 50 and below, live bait, slow troll, and fish slow.”

I learned a while ago, when you think your fishing slow, cut that speed in half, especially in cooler water.

Until the water temps reaches pretty close to 50* I usually find myself working on food plots and deer stands. Ive found that longlining doesnt produce so well when all the fish are lethargic and hanging to brush in cold, deep water. And from my limited experience the same holds true for me when the water is constantly over 80* too. Besides, I dont like sweating in a boat waiting for a fish to bite my hook.:biggrin

This is very helpful to me as a beginner. What depth are you measuring water temperature, right at surface or 6-12 inches below, etc? Have you ever had to calibrate your reading on your transducer with a thermometer?

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Originally Posted by cglarsen

This is very helpful to me as a beginner. What depth are you measuring water temperature, right at surface or 6-12 inches below, etc? Have you ever had to calibrate your reading on your transducer with a thermometer?

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It about a foot below the surface. The temperature is just a clue of where to look for fish. It also explains their behavior you’re seeing.


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Google lake water temps, then look for your lake. The hill has one on the internet, and like gabowman i pretty well have land based projects to fulfill. Once the temps start rising above 50 you have to adjust your game plan to the temperature. Once the temps hit 54, 55, i start trolling. As the water warms above 55 they will become more active. Hopefully this weekend and next week look good between showers. My trolling time from others may be different. Hopefully others will chime in. I am still learning myself.

I caught fish last weekend trolling and never found much concentration wise on the fish. We did catch around 30 fish, and most of the time speed was between .7 & .8...as TB said, it had more to do with how the fish wanted it than the depth I was pulling. And this time of year you have to hit them on the head...water temp was almost 51 where I was fishing. Just a degree or two warmup can make all the difference though. If you can catch the rise in temp from 50 to 53/54, things can get good in a hurry.

And I should mention that most of the guys that are talking about water temps are referring to the temps first thing in the morning before the sun comes up. Once the sun start reflecting off the surface of the water the temps rise giving you a somewhat false reading as to what the fish are doing (where theyre at) IMO.

You would think there would be a sweet spot where the temperature is good for the Crappie, but I’m catching them from 8 feet down to 18 feet. Majority are 12-16. Seems those about 10-12 are more aggressive.


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Been an interesting winter here for me. Moved down here in Sep. from IN and spent a good part of fall/winter/spring fishing crappie. Up in our IN reservoirs, white crappie vastly outnumber the black crappie. Here, I’ve hardly seen a single white crappie yet. Been interesting fishing for them (blacks), having to tweak and learn presentation differences, habitat, etc. They have bit good all through the winter, but I’ve been surprised how stable water temps have been. Hardest adjustment has been the heavy rainfall and the resulting red clay colored water. That takes some getting used to - lol

I have only been watching water temps for the last few years. I remember putting a temp guage back in the 90's on my bass boat. Water temp technology has only been available on depth finder for a decade or 2 maybe. My observations probably are not that accurate but only memory. But it seems like it has been a long time since the water temp got below 45 degrees in the winter. Today was 64 air temp here at the farm today, but last time i checked on the internet it was only about 52 degrees on the hill for the surface temp. Some creeks will warm up quicker than other usually the ones with wide shallow bays warm up first. Take notes on these creeks that warm up earlier. It will play out the same each year. Remeber these places and take notes. Back when i started longlining there was not a lot on the internet then. The experience of the guys on crappie.com will help out a lot. It has me.

I've been checking with USGS as they have data on many waterbodies thoughout the country and historical data with graphical results. Here's my lake's last 30 days temperature and water level elevation.

Falls Lake Above Dam NR Falls, NC - USGS Water Data for the Nation

I fished today 02/25/2024 specifically targeting whites on Santee Cooper. As stated earlier on this thread, I typically one pole vertical jig fish brush and structure. Last two times out on the lake, with water temps between 47-49 degrees and muddy, little to no action. Today, with lake still muddy and water temps at 53 the big fish were chomping. Fished same general areas, mostly deeper water, but this time I found the fish aggressively feeding. Caught a beautiful limit of fish between 1.5 and 2 pounds in less than 3 hours.

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Originally Posted by Team9nine

Been an interesting winter here for me. Moved down here in Sep. from IN and spent a good part of fall/winter/spring fishing crappie. Up in our IN reservoirs, white crappie vastly outnumber the black crappie. Here, I’ve hardly seen a single white crappie yet. Been interesting fishing for them (blacks), having to tweak and learn presentation differences, habitat, etc. They have bit good all through the winter, but I’ve been surprised how stable water temps have been. Hardest adjustment has been the heavy rainfall and the resulting red clay colored water. That takes some getting used to - lol

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Thanks for all this info. I have gotten skunked the last 3 outings and was starting to think I had lost my touch! Water temps 47-50 and fish were a few roamers and down in the mud. All were spooky and would barely look at a jig or minnow. The trolling motor would also scare them and fish close to the bottom would dive to the bottom from 30' away!
Guess I will have to wait a couple weeks until temps are higher. This week calls for rain almost every day. :banghead

Dont wait too late happy. It must have been awhile since you last went fishing. The fish are biting now.;):)

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Originally Posted by gabowman

Dont wait too late happy. It must have been awhile since you last went fishing. The fish are biting now.;):)

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No, just went this past Sunday. My local lake (water co. lake) is not known to be a great fishing lake- more pleasure boats than fishing. I need to get down to Murray or the Hill, but they are both 1.5 hrs away from the Upstate and both my fishing partners are unavailable for awhile. Wifey doesn't like me going that far away by myself. :banghead
Send me your hot spots and I'll be sure to check them out for you ! :Rofl Glad you guys are having good luck. Hang on, I'm coming soon.