Where I live in the Northeast, crappie fishing is primarily a spring thing. Come April, coves will be ringed with anglers, but once summer rolls in, crappies take a back seat to a plethora of other species. In other parts of the country, however, crappie fishing is a year-round event. The South especially is steeped in crappie culture. It’s true that when crappies move shallow to spawn in spring, they’re pretty easy to locate, but according to my buddy and veteran outdoor writer, Jason Sealock, it’s even easier in the fall. Furthermore, there is no better time to put a hurt on trophy-class fish.
Sealock is a true crappie addict who has chased them all over the country, and a lot of his focus is on very large bodies of water. But even if you target crappies on small lakes and ponds like I do, his lessons for a fall attack apply. And if you’re one of those anglers who thinks crappies really are just a spring deal, you have no idea what you’re missing.
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Back to School
Summer crappie fishing can be a challenge, especially on large bodies of water like Kentucky Lake, which Sealock calls home. They often hold in river channels and areas in the main lake as deep as 25 feet and loaded with stumps. Between the depth and frequent wind, targeting them any other way besides trolling crankbaits can be difficult, but that all changes when summer starts to loosen its grip.
“In the fall, the crappies will start transitioning back to shallow water and move back into large bays,” says Sealock. “What black crappies are notorious for this time of year is grouping up into big schools and herding baitfish. By September the shad have spawned multiple times so there’s often more bait in the system this time of year than any other, and all that bait moves to the bays, too.”
According to Sealock, crappies are more aggressive in the fall than spring — something many casual or spring-only crappie anglers might not know. They are also in bigger groups now than during any other point in the season. When trying to locate those schools, he looks for high spots with cover within bays where the average depth range in 8 to 10 feet. Sealock notes that once you home in on a school with your electronics, you can expect them to stay in the general area until the water gets too cold. It’s not uncommon for him to target the same school of fish for up to a month.
Throw Some Shade
What many anglers might not consider about crappies is their light sensitivity. If you’ve ever noticed that the bite on your local water really ramps up during the last hour of sunlight, there’s a reason for that. Sealock says there’s a lesson there that provides a huge advantage once the fish school back up in the fall.
“Crappies are kind of a dark water species,” he says. “They’re often more active in low light, so anywhere that provides shade is attractive to them. Docks provide all-day shade, and the nice thing about fishing them is it’s a pattern you can run around and find. You can spend an entire day targeting docks until you locate a bunch of fish. I might check out five docks and there’s nothing under them, but then I find a school of 100 crappies on the sixth dock.”
Sealock points out that good docks usually have a significant amount of water under them, which can be difficult to find on some lakes. Others, like Lake Guntersville in Alabama, are famed for their dock-shooting opportunities. But even if your lake has limited docks or no docks, he says you’ll score some fish if you focus on the darkest shaded areas you can find, even if that shade is just thrown by overhanging trees.
Swim for It
Floats go together with crappie fishing. You rig a small tube or grub so it suspends in the water column, give that bobber a few shakes, and watch it go under. It’s a highly effective technique, especially in the spring, and a float helps you keep your lure right in the school. In the fall, however, Sealock takes a more active approach that allows him to cover water faster and draw quick strikes from the heaviest fish.
“I’m mostly casting small crappie swimbaits like the Crappie Magnet Tiny Dancer,” Sealock says. “What I like about fishing this style of bait is you can take them and just run. You can just keep moving until you land on a school and once you do, you just cast out and wind in and you’ll get bit on just about every retrieve.”
Read Next: The Best Crappie Lures: Proven Baits for Catching Slabs from Spring to Fall
During the spring, Sealock says upsizing to a larger profile lure can matter in terms of numbers of bite from big crappies, but that’s not the case in the fall. Soft plastics measuring approximately 2 inches with a paddle tail are Sealock’s favorite, and he notes that when you find a school, it’s usually the biggest fish that will be most aggressive and strike first.
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