Crappie Fishing Catch and Release Tips

Crappies often congregate during the summer in natural lakes and reservoirs around sunken brush piles or submerged timber, providing anglers with plenty of opportunities for nighttime action when fishing these areas with either a jig/plastic bait or minnow under a slip-bobber.

Plastic that closely resembles minnows is best for clear water environments, while stained water requires brighter colors, such as Refrigerator White or Hot Chicken, to avoid becoming clouded in color.

Best Practices

Crappie (specks or papermouths), is an esteemed game fish found throughout North America. A favourite target for anglers of all skill levels – from novice youngsters to veteran veterans. To successfully catch these resilient panfish it’s essential that one understands basic principles and techniques of fishing for them.

Long-line trolling often outwits other techniques when targeting winter crappie when the fish are lethargic and deep, due to its ability to bring strikes from deeper locations than dragging jigs. The key is finding areas with structures providing different depths where these deep fish may congregate, such as humps, drop-off edges, or dock pilings in creek channels.

Use lures that closely resemble the minnows crappie typically feed upon in your local waters. Green, chartreuse, yellow, and orange lures typically work best in clear, clean conditions. In contrast, lures that contrast with these hues (coffee or tannic acid-colored water), such as brighter or darker lures, are more effective in stained waters (coffee or tannic acid color).

Before launching your boat, scout the area where you plan to fish in advance. Pay special attention to both the overall temperature of the body of water as well as localized pockets where temperatures vary widely; every day, when temperatures increase, you will increase your odds of finding an active crappie and creating ideal fishing conditions.

Crappies are nocturnal feeders. During the day, crappie tends to lie in deep cover near their favorite summertime places – brush piles, rock outcroppings, or sunken logs, for example – before becoming more active as soon as the sun goes down and air temperatures start dropping – venturing out into open waters to forage for food and foraging for sustenance.

As such, a simple float-and-fly approach is usually most successful for targeting crappie at night. When asked by most ACC Crappie Stix pro staff members what the easiest way was to rig this style of fishing, one answer they provided was using slip floats – these provide great control in slowly presenting jigs to suspended crappie while being relatively inexpensive electronics alternatives for beginners.

Proper Handling

Many crappie anglers mistakenly store away their gear during winter months, missing out on valuable fishing opportunities. With some adjustments to tackle, strategy, and location—and by being more creative about when and where they fish—colder temperatures can provide an ideal environment for catching large numbers of crappie and some larger species.

One essential adjustment is making sure your tackle and equipment fit the circumstances. Crappie are notoriously picky fish and will reject baits that are too big for their mouths or have too aggressive an action. Small lures with gentle, slow action tend to produce better results.

Weather should also be considered. Colder water temperatures can be tough on fish, so it’s important to find areas of the lake where temperatures remain constant throughout the day. Typically, this means searching out flats populated by shad or baitfish—this could also provide great opportunities to hunt crappie!

Trolling can be an excellent way of targeting crappie during pre-spawn and post-spawn periods, particularly in muddy or stained waters. Slow trolling with double-hook minnow rigs tends to work best. A swivel tied around seven feet of the leader is often sufficient, followed by a 3X or 4X tippet (crappie are not shy about breaking the line!). For added effectiveness when fishing for crappie (they are known to bite!).

Trolling motors allow you to quietly approach fishing spots without disturbing fish. A model with variable speed capabilities will enable you to adapt your trolling speed according to current fishing conditions, increasing your odds of finding that first strike!

Along with a reliable trolling motor, you should also seek out a comfortable boat with enough storage compartments and live wells to easily organize and access your gear. Look out for models equipped with front live wells to quickly store any catch until it is time to clean and release it back into nature.

As an added precaution, it’s wise to carry a basic first aid kit on board your boat. Bandages, antiseptic solution or wipes, medical tape, and tweezers will prove invaluable in case of an emergency situation onboard your vessel. A Coast Guard-approved life jacket should also be present.

Dehooking

Quality ice fishing gear is crucial to your success regardless of your experience level or expertise in crappie fishing. Smith’s Consumer Products — known for over 130 years as The Edge Experts since 1886 — offer knives, tools and accessories designed by “Mr. Crappie” Wally Marshall with thoughtful insights to enhance your experience and increase productivity.

An often-made mistake among crappie fishermen is their insistence on setting their hook too hard, when this species only requires light pressure for hookset. A weak hookset could mean losing fish and feeling heartache over a lost catch.

An effective way to increase your hooking percentage when fishing crappie is to add just a bit of weight to your lure. This enables it to be fished deeper while still offering action on the bottom. This simple change could significantly boost your catch rate!

Exploration with various colors is also key. Crappie are easily attracted by color, so having multiple lures available will increase your odds. You can also try switching up your jigging action and retrieve speeds to trigger more bites.

Crappie fishing can be most productive in the morning and late afternoons. As water temperatures warm throughout the day, crappie move shallower or deeper depending on current conditions, making areas with multiple depths, such as flats or concrete structures like bridge piers, riprap bluffs/dams, and timber structures, ideal spots.

Wintertime crappie fishing with live minnows under bobbers can also be highly effective, provided that your bobber has an adjustable float to reach the appropriate area of the water column. A lip-hooked minnow makes this technique particularly efficient; otherwise, you might wait an indeterminate length of time until a fish takes your bait! Additionally, using one with Snagless hooks reduces the chances of losing it altogether.

Releasing

Crappie are one of Minnesota’s most desired game fish, yet anglers must exercise caution when targeting them. Crappie are vulnerable to barotrauma, a condition which causes gas bubbles in their bloodstream that can eventually cause death. Last winter, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Lindner’s Angling Edge in Brainerd conducted a joint study to ascertain what effect depth has on barotrauma rates; their research revealed that fish captured in deeper waters (30 feet or deeper) are significantly more likely to succumb than those captured in shallower waters (from this research).

Crappies are highly sensitive to temperature and water clarity conditions. To limit exposure, anglers should avoid fishing in lakes with clearest waters and deepest sections for small and medium lakes; also limit fishing time during bright days while shifting towards fishing at night or during cloudy or rainy periods.

Location and water clarity are also key elements to finding crappie. Most often, spawning crappie prefer gravel beds and brush piles near creek mouths or spillways to spawn, typically between May and June in warmer waters, but in colder environments, they may wait until July to do so.

Crappie, after their spawn, can often be found in shallower, weedier areas during the day and on sunken rock reefs or other structures at night. You can target these fish using jig-and-bobber techniques, spinner baits, or buzzbaits, which tend to work particularly well in summer.

Crappie jigs can be purchased at most bait shops. To fly fish for them, consider using a tungsten sinker on a long leader with something float-based like a marabou crappie jig or Woolly Bugger; such a simple setup can produce many fish quickly while being enjoyable to use.

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