Crappie Patterns

I always fished in the marina at ray hubbard when it got really cold. so cold the ice would freeze to the end of your pole. I did good .
Or in the spawn.

Now that I have my own boat I have been sucking during summer and fall.

Some say they are deep in the summer. It seems they are deep in the winter too. But then you hear someone say they caught them in 8 ft of water
Some say they are in the creeks. But them someone kicks butt under the bridge or by the dam

I am learning that they may have a pattern.But that pattern is just a guideline and not always set in stone.

I assume it depends on the lake and the area too.

Just a thought

Texas is a big place. So you need to notice where the posts are coming from.

Winter is tough because as the water gets really cold the amount of food crappie will eat each day is less and less.

If you fish a lot of different lakes it becomes more difficult. I focus on a lake and learn all the changes in the bottom of the lake. Imagine if you took all of the water out and saw the terrain.


Since you have a boat and can catch fish during the Spawn, in mid February lookoffshore in those areas in 6' to 8' of water. The crappie will stage for a long time before they move up to Spawn. Even then there are waves of fish moving into spawning flats for a long time. Usually the bigger crappie Spawn 1st then smaller and smaller crappie will move in.
Once the Spawn is wrapping up crappie will move into deeper water (8'-10'). And will move to deeper parts of the lake to feed on Shad, mostly threadfin Shad.

Usually during the summer, I spend most of my time in 15' of water, offshore 100 yards or more. The crappie may be on the bottom or suspended at 6'. Temperature, sunlight, clarity of water, oxygen levels a lot of things come into play.
A good gps is really valuable when fishing for crappie.

I build brushpiles in different areas of the lake and different depths of water. If I haven't been on the lake in awhile. I will try different things until I start catching Crappie. Then I will target areas that have very Similar deep and water temperature.

Another hint is, the color jig you can catch crappie on when they are spawning is not the same color they want when they get offshore.

Thx, I will note all of this. They are a complicated fish.

Good advice above. IMHO crappie eat heavily in fall and winter. Once the water gets below 52-53, shad become more concentrated and are easy prey for all the other fish.
The biggest key for finding crappie in winter is find the shad concentrations. To do that, you need some electronics. mostly SI.

Crappie are like women, they are hard to predict. You will never figure them out.