The crappie is a excellent fish to taget for the beginner angler. It doesn't take long to get hooked on fishing for these fish.You can catch these little critters in any season. If you
get into a big crappie school you will be amazed at how many fish you can catch in a very short period of time. You donot need a boat or any exspensive fishing tackle to start fishing for crappie. You can get started fishing for under 200$. Please use any of our crappie fishing basics information at your leasure, and we hope this information will be helpful on your next crappie fishing trip.There are two types of crappie the "black crappie" and the "white crappie" Please visit my crappie habitat page by clicking here after reading this article to get all the details of the crappies habitat..
Thank you for visiting our crappie fishing tips web page. Crappie fishing can be as basic as picking up a cane pole putting on a crappie minnow
with a small bobber and sitting in a lawn chair along at the bank of your local crappie fishing hole. If you want to take your crappie fishing experiences to
the next level and become a serious crappie fisherman you are going to need some fishing instruction and do some crappie fishing research.
For example i bet you didn't know that crappie prefer some minnow types to others, also that crappie minnows caught at the area you are fishing for
crappie work better than crappie minnows purchased from local bait shops. These are crappie fishing tips that are important to know. I bet that many
novice crappie fisherman do not realize that in many parts of the crappie habitat range , a good part of a crappie's diet consists of small crayfish.
Also you may not realize there are special crappie fishing rigs you need to know about that work better than others in certain fishing situations. Its
important to understand what artificial crappie baits such as crappie fishing jigs and crappie fishing lures work better in different crappie fishing situations.
It's also very important to understand the crappie's habitat because this will be key information to know depending on what part of the crappies
habitat range you are planning to go fishing.
Please feel free to browse any of the crappie fishing tip web pages we provide for you .
We hope the information about crappie fishing you find on our website will help you be better crappie anglers.
We all
learn how to go crappie fishing based on crappie fishing tips we have attained from knowledge we have learned from our parents or from friends.
But good crappie anglers are always looking for a better way to improve our crappie fishing techniques. Much of the crappie fishing
information and tips techniques that are available have been handed down from generation to generation.
The popularity of
fishing for crappies has increased over the years and know there are approximately 1 million crappie anglers today nationwide. Crappie
fisherman when combined with pan fish fisherman actually out number bass anglers.
It doesn't matter how many times you have
fished for crappie you still have a lot to learn Lets face it we all look for crappie fishing tips that can help us fish more productively.
Often times we need to seek knowledge about crappie fishing based on crappie fishing tips from outside sources.
We have collected
a variety of crappie fishing tips from our personal crappie fishing experience and from research. Please refer to the links listed below
for a list of crappie fishing tips that may be of use to you. You can also access our information about crappie fishing from our main menu
by clicking on the drop down menu under the heading "crappie fishing tips" Please enjoy browsing our information.
The crappie is one of the
most sought after game fish that fisherman target on a yearly basis. It is estimated there are somewhere around a 1 million crappie anglers
in the united states today. These tasty game fish can be caught in in most of the lower 48 states. They also have been nicknamed in different
parts of the country with names like, "white perch" "specs" "calico bass" "speckled bass" and "" so if you are ever in different parts of the country
fishing and local anglers are using these names you will know they are talking about crappie. Make sure you listen up so you can get some local
crappie fishing tips before you go out on the water.
Crappies do not like current waters so look for them in shallow mud bottom bays,
marinas, standing timber, fallen tree and brush piles, edges of weedlines, ect. Basically the crappie will be found anywhere there is adequate
structure for them to hide and wait for bait fish and other prey to come by.
What we want to do for you is provide you with some crappie fishing tips
that we have used to catch crappie and feel would be useful for you. So please browse our crappie fishing tips webpage selections. You can either
access them from our main dropdown menu or just click on one of the links right below.
Crappie Fish
The crappie is primarily a nomadic species of fish and locations that were hot spots one year may not be the next. In the heat of the summer
it's damb near impossible to predict the crappie fish's locations. That's why most crappie fishing is done in the spring when they are predictable.
In the spring crappies move into the shallows to get ready for the spawning season. In early spring they migrate to the shallows to feed
aggressively to build up their strength from the winter. They also need to fatten up to get ready to spawn.
The one time of year that the crappie fish is predicable is spring time. Crappies will normally go back each year to the same spawning
area they were the previous year, unless the habitat has been destroyed.
You would think crappie fishing would not be that popular throughout the rest of the year but that's just not true.
Even though these fish are very nomadic the rest of the year you can catch fish. Crappie are a schooling fish so if you
find there location the chances are you will catch crappie.
In recent year the popularity of crappie fishing has absolutely exploded!. Much of the explosion is do to the abundance of the tasty game fish.
Many states have adopted quality restock programs throughout the United States, Southern Canada, Also The crappie fish's habitat
has been expanded to states were crappies were not native before and these populations have exploded. The crappie fish is a very adaptable game fish.
There are two types of crappie fish and they are the black crappie and the white crappie. Both these species of crappie are many times
frequent the same habitat but typical the white crappie prefer muddy stained water, while the black crappie prefers cooler and clearer waters.
Black crappie have higher populations in the north while the white crappie has higher populations in the south. Both species of the crappie fish
prefer habitat waters that range from 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit . Both species can survive in temperatures that reach into the high 80's.
Crappie Fish Identification: (black crappie and white crappie picture here)Although the black crappie and the white crappie look very similar there
are some distinct differences you can use for proper identification. The black crappie have 7 to 8 spines on the dorsal fin and a deeper
body then the white crappie. Both the whites and the blacks have silvery greenish sides and that's probably why they have been given the
nick name "specks" throughout the years.
The White crappies have 5 or 6 spines on the dorsal fin and there forehead a has a deeper "dip like depression" larger then the black crappie's.
The white crappie still has specks but they tend to form in vertical bars along both sides of the white crappies sides.
Crappie Fish Spawning Information:
The crappie fish spawn when the water temperature rises into the low 60's They typically will build their nests where they can find sandy and small
gravel bottoms, in brushy or vegetation cover, or very near these areas.
In the north there is an abundance of a plant called "bull brush" and the crappie with use the dead stands of this plant from the previous
year for their spawning location. One key note: The crappie fish doesn't sweep its nesting area like the sunfish so there nests
are not as easy to locate.
After the female has laid her eggs she will migrate to a new location while the male crappie fish will guard the eggs until they hatch.
During the time the males are on the nest they will be a much darker color then the females. During this time the males become very aggressive
and catching crappie can be a very easy task.
As I stated above after the spawn and the eggs are hatched both the male and the female crappie will become a very nomadic fish.
There is a reason why the crappie fish does this. The primary food source for crappie after the spawn Is plankton.
And most of the time the crappie will roam open waters looking for these plankton blooms. That's why sometimes at night you can use a florescent
underwater fishing light the catch crappie.
The florescent light under water will attract plankton to your location and once the crappie fish find the plankton you are going to
be in for a exciting night of crappie fishing. Many times there will be small bait fish that will follow these plankton blooms and they
are also an important food source for the crappie.
Food Sources' For the Crappie Fish:
Plankton, small bait fish commonly referred to as crappie minnows, small crayfish, small insect larva, (includes maggots). (Worms in some areas).
Black crappie have a longer life span then the white crappie. There's documented fact of some black crappie living as long as 10 years.
The normal life span of both sub species is 5 to 6 years. Crappies live longer in the north typically a 1lb crappie in the north
would be about 8 years while the same size crappie in the south would be about 5 years old.
One of the reasons crappie live longer in the north is because the cold season lasts much longer.
The crappie fish's metabolism slows down in the winter months and starts to key up when the temperature starts to rise into the 60's.
In the south the winters are much shorter and the crappie's metabolism is keyed up much longer.
This is also the reason that crappie specks weighing over a 1 lb are much more common in the southern states.
Please Visit Our Exciting Crappie Fishing Links Below
