Summertime Crappies
By Adam JohnsonI had envisioned a quiet morning on the water chasing largemouth bass in the bulrush with a topwater lure. Conditions were right. The wind was a whisper and the weather had been stable for a few days straight. Most of the bigger bass were likely laying in the deeper water on the weedlines and rock piles, but I wasn't after lunkers. I just wanted to catch a bunch of fish on lures that were floating on the surface.
I hadn't motored far from the boat landing when my sonar indicated a school of fish suspended about 18 feet below the surface over 25 feet of water. My curiosity got the best of me and I tossed out a marker.
Everything suspends in the summer months. Walleyes, bass, crappies, baitfish, even big pike will sit in between the surface and the bottom without any structure to anchor them. The only way to know for sure what these fish are, is to send down a lure; and that's just what I did.
When I'm initially trying to catch suspended fish I like to hover over the school, if possible, and dangle in front of them an eighth-ounce jig with a two-inch plastic grub. With this lure you can catch nearly everything so if the suspended fish are walleyes, crappies, bass, whatever, a two-inch plastic grub on a jighead will generate a bite.
The lure barely rested when I felt the tug. It was a decent crappie so I kept using the lure I had tied on. With bass, pike or walleyes I might switch to a different lure like a heavier jigging spoon, blade-bait or a rattling crankbait that can be presented vertically. With crappies the jig and grub tail work great.
Of all the species in a lake or reservoir crappies and walleyes are the most prone to suspending. I have also been on some of those huge southern reservoirs where those big stripers like to suspend, but we're typically trolling for stripers. With crappies the vertical approach is one of my favorite.
Before I dropped the lure down again I circled the school of fish and pinpointed the center. I dropped a second marker to define the perimeter and started catching crappies. These fish weren't huge, about three to a pound in size, but I was having a great time. The jig would barely get settled and another fish would bite. That non-stop action can be quite a bit of fun, and on my ultra-light rod the experience was extremely satisfying.
I'm often asked if suspended fish are easy to target. The answer is, sure, but it's not always fun. When you're after suspended fish you often spend a lot of time looking before you actually start fishing. You can cover a lot of deep water searching for suspended fish and if erratic weather pushes the fish to the bottom you might not even find them when they're right below you. It's entirely a matter of covering a lot of water and keeping one eye glued to the sonar screen until a school of fish shows up. Too often anglers are focused on getting from Point A to Point B and any productive water in between gets glossed over.
One of my tricks when I'm vertical jigging a school of suspended crappies is to add a slip-bobber stop to the line, even if I'm not using a bobber. This is just a marking point so that I can make sure I get that jig back to the same depth each time. If those fish are at 20 feet I can be positive the lure is resting in nineteen feet just above their heads.
Another trick I use to catch suspended summertime crappies is to maintain mobility. I never anchor, instead preferring to use my bow-mount electric motor to maintain position over the school. This way when the fish move, and they never seem to hold in one place for very long, I can move right along with them. These schools of crappies don't just suddenly disappear, they just slip 20 yards this way or 30 yards that away. You can stay on top of them if you're not anchored to one position.
I never did get over to my favorite topwater bass fishing spot. Shortly after I left those crappies I stumbled onto a school of suspended walleyes. The wind was picking up so I tied on a deep-diving crankbait and started casting. I'm sure those bass will still be there the next time I launch the boat.
Reading Outdoors Archives
