Follow the crappie as water cools and the fish head for deeper winter haunts

"The big take away with November crappie is that you need to go progressively deeper as the season lengthens and the water cools. You also need to entice the fish with enticing jigging not enthusiastic rod-pumping. If you jig like the tail sweeping back and forth below one of those silly kitchen cat clocks, you're definitely jigging too hard."

- Vic Attardo

After watching the leaves fall for some two hours, I was wondering if this would be one of those unfortunately fishless late autumn days. According to the sonar screen, the surface water was 47 degrees. Then the sun, which had been hiding behind thick clouds, popped out and as the boat drifted over a 17-foot basin, I felt a strong downward tug. I worked a 14-inch crappie from the water. That first fish came just after 11 a.m. following an 8:30 launch.

As the clouds parted and sun jewels began to glisten on the surface, a solitary swallow started dinking and dunking just above the lake. I tightened my grip on the rod anticipating a change in fortune. Another hard pull was telegraphed up the line and another beautiful 14-inch black crappie soon splashed by the boat.

I didn't have to wait long for the next bite or for a lot more bites after that. By 2 p.m., I had caught more than 25 crappie, including many no-doubt keepers. A nothing day had turned into something special. As the sun began a fast slant drop in the November sky, the bite also cooled. The action came to a grinding halt about the same time the sun sank behind the forested shoreline. I've never seen or even heard of an evening or night crappie bite at this time of year. When the water starts to chill, it seems to put the fish down.

That's the way it often is with late-fall crappie fishing when "come late, leave early" might serve as a good motto.

It's an anomaly, of sorts. During ice season, there's often an evening crappie bite and a great night bite that has more to do with light penetration.

Before the water ices over, there is another constant: crappie go deeper as air and water temperatures drop.

In early fall, I catch crappie 8 to 12 feet down in mid-size lakes. In mid-fall, the optimum range is usually 10 to 15 feet give or take a foot here and there.