Crappie timing

[Gnote]

I am wondering how long after the ice comes off a canal or river that it takes for the crappie to move in. The ice came off my backyard canal 2 days ago and i have been trying hard but no luck. Last year was my first targeting them until the carp come in.

If you would rather pm. Me thats cool thanks in advance.

John

[BillM]

What's the water temp? That's the biggest factor (at least for me when fishing spring crappie)

[mike rousseau]

Depends on spots...

 

I have spots that hold crappie from November till the end of June some years....

 

I have others where the crappies don't move in until the water really warms up...

[Thrilla]

Few nice days seems to get them going

When the water comes up a couple degrees

Lake st clair area this past weekend was good depending where you were

[Sinker]

I have spots I smoke them THE DAY the ice is off, and others that need a few degrees to warm up. I will tell you though, the spots that happen first, are very isolated. What I mean is you could fish the whole canal and not catch a single fish or even get a bite unless you cast within a 6ft circle. Sneaky fish those crappies!

 

S.

[Gnote]

Im going to check the temp later, if its like last years ice off it should be 37-39f about now. I think i might need a couple sunny days hittin the bottom to bring them in though.

Thanks fellas

[EC1]

If you tell us what lake it is, someone would know

Sinker is right. Depends on what the bait is doing in the lake, and varies from lake to lake, perhaps even different areas of the same lake. Remember which ones run first, and they will likely be first to run year after year.

[Terry]

lets see

 

he lives in keswick

 

and he said the canal in his back yard

 

I think we can figure out what lake..lol

 

it changes every year there, I have seen when the first open spot with no ice on the canal produces fish and other times well into may before they show up

[EC1]

Reading skills are obviously not up to par.

 

And if that's the case, there should be some sort of fish in there by now. I have seen fish caught when the fisherpeople had to push/break the last chunk of ice around in the canals

 

Timing them and hoping that they'll stick within casting distance from your backyard, is more of a coinflip. I do remember one day where I used a canoe to look for fish in the "less pressured" canals to only find millions of baitfish, and the people fishing from shore were catching a few.

[Gnote]

Thanks for the input guys ill keep trying till i get them. I might be touchy feely about some of my spots but simcoe isnt exactly a well kept secret lol

[bigugli]

2 factors. As said before, temperatures. Secondly, the availability of food. If there are no baitfish swimming around, there is no reason for the crappie to be there.

[Gnote]

Its odd last year i had millions of minnows in my canal from fall right through to spring. This year there was no minnows fall through till now. I was hoping i would start seeing them soon but no luck yet.