Deep Water Crappie

So the game is beginning to change and the crappie will go one of two ways. Either up a creek for temporary relief of the water cooling or deep water to feed on schools of threadfins roaming the lake.

I usually target the crappie over cover in deeper water.

When you are fishing tops that are 7' tall in 25' of water. What brand & length of rod, and setup are you using?

Assuming you are targeting 18' water and then will slowly fish done into the tops from there.

I usually start deep and come shallow, but it depends on the sun, Higher the sun, the deeper in the tree top I go. 9 ft rod, 10 lb braid and Thermocline lures - Black Emerald Shiner, Ice Shad, Natural Shad and purple passion on a 1/16 ozz head but if windy, 1/8 oz head, usually pink in color

I fish a 7' rod most of the time for fishing trees or brush. 12' rods for spider rigging. 10' rods for spring shallow water fishing.


Gman

Thanks Papamark, I catch thousands of crappie during the spring, summer, and fall but for me winter time everything kinda grinds to a halt.

I need to do something different so I don't have the same results.

Gamblinman, is spider rigging the most effective way to catch crappie over deep water in winter time?

What brand 12' rods do you use? I tried the B&M rods at Academy but they felt pretty "wimpy" to me. It's a pretty good investment for the rod holders & rods and I would like to make the right choice?

Spider man, clean out your pm;s

Lately for water 15' or deeper I've been using a Pflueger Razor Tip IM-8 Graphite Rod 5'6" Light Action rod, a cheap / light Shakespeare plastic baitcasting reel with 6lb yellow Tuf-line braid, and a 6-10 fluoro leader. If there are obstructions I'll use one jig, fairly clear 2 jigs, or if the crappie are spread out on the graph 3 jigs, with a heavier jig on the bottom. I'll fish two rods at once with an identical setup if the bite is really slow and/or I need to figure out what color of jig they are hitting. The baitcast rig is a lot easier to fish deeper as I can adjust the brake to let the jig fall at just the rate I need and I can set the hook by simply reeling in quickly given the high gear ratio. I mark the line every 5 feet with a sharpie before I go out so I can easily count off the depth without having to drop to the bottom and reel up every time.

You can go with the longer rods and keep a sharp eye with the rod tip but if you plan to feel a thump for a bite that deep you will miss a lot of bites. If you are using a baitcaster and thinner braid you need to use some sort of coated / fused braid or plan for headaches. If the bait is really really light like during the dead of winter I might go to an unltralight spinning setup with 5 or 6 lb fluoro with line conditioner and a short ultralight rod, sometimes even an ice fishing rod.

Thanks for replying, Allot of good info there.

I use 20lb power pro braid on deeper set ups so marking the line at 5' intervals should be pretty easy. I know with crappie depth is #1 factor to catching fish.

Spider rigging can be used very effectively to target schools of fish in deep water in the winter time. There's no doubt there is a lot of work involved, but it can be rewarding. I use some older Wally Marshall rods for my spider rigging set-up. They have served me well. I don't see many spider rigging specific rods on display at the major box stores...Bass Pro may have some. Most of the rods I have seen are specific to jigging and do not have the proper action for spider rigging.

For 12' rods, I like the Pro Angler. They've got plenty of backbone for hook set (not wimpy) and for using 5/8 or 3/4 oz weights. Also, the longer rod helps when moving so the baits don't tangle down at 25-35 ft. If you want to one pole or two pole so you can feel the bite, then the 7-8' rods work well.
For rod holders, hard to beat the BeeReadys.

I need to get my BeeReadys mounted on my boat.
I have 6-14" Pro Anglers to use for spider rigging. I still need to get a telescoping net, but I do want to play around with this method this winter and early spring