Fishing Blog

Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets

Crappies can adapt and live in jusy about any type of lake and they go by names throughout the country such as calico bass, speckled perch, speckled bass, white perch, pole crappie, strawberry bass, and papermouth. You will be able to catch crappie in oligotrophic lakes (in back water areas), mesotrophic lakes, and eutrophic lakes.

 Oligotrophic lakes are very young in geological terms and you will only be able to catch crappie in these lakes if they are in their late stage of  eutrophication, and there is a good chance you will only find speckled perch in back water areas because the water temperatures are higher. Typically, oligotrophic lakes do not hold large populations of speckled bass.The majority of  oligotrophic lakes are found only in the northern latitudes of north America so there are only a few of these lakes that are located in the paper mouth habitat range. You can use a variety of different crappie bait to catch crappie in the back water areas such as live crappie minnows, fathead minnows, and small crayfish. You can also fish crappie jigs with plastic grubs tipped with wax worms around any structure such as sunken trees and logs or brush.

 A mesotrophic lake are sometimes called middle aged lakes and will hold good populations of white perch. Sand and gravel bottoms are the norm in these lakes and they harbor quite a few large shallow flats. There is abundant vegetation and a very good speckled bass food supply in these lakes. These lakes are typically located in the northern latitude of north America but just south of most oligotrophic lakes. There are normally large populations of pole crappie in mesotrophic lakes. You can use traditional crappie live baits such as crappie minnows, fathead minnows, small crayfish, and wax worms to catch crappie. Crappie jigs tipped with plastic grubs and soft plastics will work also. You will find papermouth on the large flats and on the edges of the plentiful vegetation in these lakes.

 A eutrophic lake is the oldest type of lake in geological terms and seldom are over 40 ft deep. These lakes are typically referred to as dishpan lakes. If the water is clear there is typically thick shallow weed growth which is a perfect  white perch habitat to catch crappie. In murky eutrophic lakes there is typically sparse weed growth with bottom being muck, marl, or clay. These lakes have progressed through the mesotrophic stage from amny years of sediment filling in. Typically these lakes are most fertile and hold very large populations of speckled bass in their early stages eutrophication. You can catch crappie in these lakes by fishing sunken brush and weed line edges. You can use crappie live baits such as crappie minnows, fathead minnows, shiners, small crayfish and wax worms. Artificial crappie jigs tipped with soft plastic grubs and wax worms work well too.

I want to thank you for reading my article about Artificial Crappie Jigs. Have a great day!

Check out Mark’s website to get some amazing fishing information and fishing articles loaded with fishing tips about Speckled Perch

Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 7:27 am and is filed under Fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.