5 Simple Rules For Summer Crappies

It is hard to say anything negative about the black crappie. Here’s a fish that has a good attitude about hitting live or artificial baits; that presents a bit of a challenge to land thanks to a papery mouth; that schools strongly so good numbers can be taken; that provides a lot of meat for its length and that rivals or beats yellow perch, walleye and anything else you care to suggest as the best-tasting freshwater fish. Probably the only thing any of us will complain about is that they become elusive after the spring spawn.

- Geoff Coleman

Most years, by the second week of May in southern Ontario, crappie will herd into the warmest water in the lake, waiting for perfect spawning conditions. This pre-spawn period can be a notoriously fickle bite. Many times you will happen upon immense schools of indifferent fish in a creek arm or a sheltered, shallow bay waiting for the green light to start spawning. The next day they have disappeared, maybe drifting out to the main lake again, or hiding in weeds.

The strangest behaviour is when you find them evenly spaced horizontally across a canal, just below the surface, all pointing the same direction as if they are an army awaiting inspection. Crappie like this are nearly uncatchable since any bait sends the eagle and osprey-wary fish scattering even before it hits the surface.

Luckily, during and after the spawn - initiated when the water temperature reaches about 15°C - things improve considerably. Now, male black crappie occupy river backwaters or littoral lake areas to build their nests, typically on or near vegetation beds on a mud, gravel, or sand bottom. The eggs hatch in two to three-days and, like the smallmouth bass, the nest is guarded by the male until all the fry leave the site.

Also, like the smallmouth, they become ridiculously easy to catch as the males aggressively run off any fish, bug or crustacean they think might be a threat to the eggs or hatchlings. This is the time when most people catch their crappies.

We fish them in sheltered, south facing bays and creek channels, near emergent vegetation like bulrushes and pencil reeds, and avoiding sites with a lot of submergent aquatic vegetation if possible. Experts say stemmed vegetation gives predators fewer hiding places than submergent weeds, making it easier for males to defend the nests.