I’m not the most experienced crappie fisherman on here but I do have to ask the question. Most crappie this time of year are caught in deeper water, but tonight, I fished from a pier in about 7 feet of water. The main purpose of my trip was to go see the water. I dropped a jig and caught 4 crappie, about ten inches each in about an hour. What’s up with that? Granted, the pier has good brush on it and it has a light that brings in plenty of bait all night long, but I really figured I was wasting my time fishing for crappie in shallow water this time of year.

Educate me.

If there is good cover around the pier such as brush piles and there are plenty of minnows, bugs, etc I would think crappie would hold there during the summer. I have caught crappie during the summer months off of docks that were in 7 to 10 feet of water. The docks supplied the shade and brush piles supplied the cover. A good combination for crappie is food, cover, and shade.


Side Note: Usually during the summer months I catch my crappie in 12 to 22 feet of water. Brush piles, ledges, and drop offs seem to hold nice numbers. Just my

I totally agree.....

On Texoma I've caught them in 1 foot of water in July and Aug.....Go figure.

Yep!! Some of our best stuff we fished there in the summer was 6’ of water! Strange how crappie act on different lakes. Whitney last week most were in 9-12’ of water. I try to go to new bodies of water with no preconceived notions for that very reason! Check it all out and let the fish tell me!!

A couple of years ago we were night fishing in 20’ of water under a bright moon. We weren’t getting many bites, and kept seeing and hearing fish eating bait on the surface. We rigged a couple of poles with bobbers, and started catching crappie 1’ under the surface in over 20’ of water. It was a fun night!

Oxygen and bait fish determine where crappie will be. I rarely fish more than 14' deep in summer. At Whitney, all my fish were caught in 12 ft or less, up to 7'. Thermocline determines where the oxygen is located. Big wide open lakes get more wave action to mix the water and distribute the oxygen. Narrow winding lakes have less wave action and oxygen tends to be higher in the water column. I've caught crappie 3' deep in August at 1 pm. Fished the same brush at daylight and nothing there. Go back at 1pm and catch 3 fish over a lb. The guide reports on here will state the fish were in 18-25 FOW but they were fishing 12-14 ft deep.

As Slew said, don't get caught up in preconceived ideas about crappie. Oxygen is a lot more important than water temp. With the hot water temps in summer (89+), the fish are stressed and don't eat as readily as they do when the water temp is 70 degrees.

Night is a whole different ball game with crappie. Most don't realize that they are a predator and feed at night just like white bass. They leave most cover and use the cover of darkness to chase shad and feed especially with a full moon. With that being said, The muddier the water, the shallower they will be especially white crappie. Black crappie tend to be deeper.

There are no crappie in Texoma

This thread is a great read!