Tight-lipped summer crappie can usually be coaxed to bite if you try some special tricks. (Photo: Keith Sutton)
The Ultimate Guide to Dog Days Crappie
by Keith Sutton
Unlike many people believe, Dog Days have nothing to do with lazy dogs lying in the shade. The ancient Greeks actually coined the phrase after “The Dog Star” (Sirius) which hangs in the night sky during the sultry part of summer.
For crappie fishermen, however, the Dog Days can bring on lazy, hard-to-catch crappie – unless you know some secrets for success. These tips I’ve learned during more than 50 years of persistent angling could give you an edge up when other tactics won’t produce.
Work the Weeds
Weedbeds are often overlooked as crappie concentrators, but the fact is, beds of aquatic vegetation may provide some of the most outstanding summer crappie action in shallow waters. Green weedbeds provide protection and shade, as well as abundant oxygen produced through photosynthesis. Baitfish and other forage animals are attracted to this comfortable environment, and crappie follow.
Aquatic vegetation takes many forms—milfoil, coontail, hydrilla, elodea, lily pads and reeds, among others—but all of it can be fished using 1/64- to 1/16-ounce jigs. I prefer to work a 1/32- or 1/64-ounce rubber-skirted jig on 2- to 4-pound-test monofilament line. I rig the lure one to four feet below a small bobber and cast into open pockets or along one edge.
The rig is retrieved in a jerk-stop fashion, pulling with a hard tug so the jig rises toward the surface, then stopping long enough to allow the jig to sink down perpendicular to the surface again. This process is repeated all the way back to the boat or until I feel the tell-tale tap that reveals a striking crappie.
When all the vegetation seems to look alike, fish around features that don’t conform to the norm. Timber stickups frequently hold fish, as may open cuts through the vegetation and nearby points or underwater humps.
Try the Backs of Creeks
Another often-overlooked summer crappie pattern is fishing the backs of tributary creeks. The best creeks will have a slow, steady flow of current and plenty of woody structure like fallen treetops and stumps. Your chances of finding crappie will be even better if you happen upon a spring-fed creek, because the cooler water will attract more crappie.
When you locate a likely looking creek (good lake maps or GPS can be helpful in this regard), motor as far upstream as possible, then gradually fish your way out. You’ll be working fairly shallow water, so using a jigging pole rigged with jigs or minnows is an excellent tactic. Work both the creek channel and the shallow banks on either side, taking time to fish even dense cover where big slabs may be resting out of the current.
Be Patient When Using Night Lights
If it’s jungle hot outside, fishing at night using specialty crappie lights can increase your catch. But be sure to allow plenty of time for your set-up to work.
Inexperienced night fishermen often move after 20 or 30 minutes, thinking a lack of bites indicates a lack of nearby crappie. But you should stay in one spot longer than that before relocating elsewhere. Relax, have a soda, and chew the fat. Be patient long enough for the light to attract plankton, for the plankton to attract baitfish and for the baitfish to attract crappie, a sequence that may take more than an hour.
Attract Minnows, Attract Crappie
When fishing is slow during daylight hours, try an approach that duplicates the use of a crappie light at night. A light attracts insects, which in turn attracts minnows. But minnows also can be attracted during the day by chumming with dry dog food, bread crumbs or similar offerings.
Scatter the chum by handfuls in several shallow-water areas, then move back to the first place you put chum and drop in a minnow. Fish each consecutive spot and see if your catch rate doesn’t improve. Often, it will.
Side-trolling
When trolling for summer crappie—another tactic that works great for finding tight summer schools—try mounting your trolling motor on the side of the boat instead of the front. This allows you to move in a very slow, controlled fashion so you can mine deep structures more efficiently.
Pumping Iron
Summer crappie often suspend in 10 to 20 feet of water around the branches of standing submerged trees. To reach them quickly, lower a small jigging spoon on a tight line directly down through the branches. Give the spoon a short upward pull at every three feet of depth. Crappie often inhale the lure as it falls, and the jerk will hook them.
Fish Storm Fronts
Summer weather tends to be stable, with minimal effects on crappie activity. But when conditions are such that afternoon thunderstorms are popping up day after day, plan an outing that allows you to fish just before a storm hits. Don’t be on the water during periods of lightning or high wind. But if you can do it safely, be fishing when the clouds start to thicken and the wind picks up. Just before a storm hits, crappie often move to surface strata and feed actively. The action may last only a few minutes, but during those few minutes, you may catch more fish than you will the rest of the day.
After the Storm
When a summer storm ends, look for crappie in the thickest available cover—buckbrush, willow thickets, etc. Allow the wind to blow your boat against the cover. Use a long pole to work a jig into the brush, then fish little pockets most folks miss. Fish the jig with little movement, and work each hole thoroughly.
Bass Baits for Big Ones
If you want to target the biggest crappie in a lake – let’s say you want to catch that 3-pounder you’d like to put on the wall – try throwing a spinnerbait made for bass. You probably won’t catch many crappie, but if the body of water you’re fishing has a healthy population of big slabs, you could find a real whopper on your line in addition to some nice bass.
Summer isn’t the best time of year to catch crappie, but neither is it the worse. If you go at it properly, your hot-weather fishing can be very productive and provide an exciting alternative if other species are hard to come by. With the many methods you can use, in shallow waters and deep, almost anyone can enjoy a successful outing for summertime slabs.
Keith Sutton of Alexander, Arkansas is the editor of our sister publication, CatfishNOW. He’s fished for crappie in more than half the U.S. states during 58 years pursuing them. Learn more in Sutton’s “Crappie Fishing Handbook” available on Amazon.
