Fish are deep in SC

[StumpHunter]

Fished for 3 hours today and come home with a good limit of 20 crappie and two very good slabs. One at 16-3/4'' @ 2lb 13oz and 16-1/4'' @ 2lb 4oz.
40' to 50' depth and had to have the bait within 4' of the bottom. Minnows was the only thing they would touch.

 

[papaperch]

Wow I have never caught crappies deeper than 22' myself. Ohio reservoirs and lakes are mostly flatland and lack the depths of a lot of TVA lakes. Other than spawning season usually I work anywhere from 12' to 22'.

I have caught them on dropoffs that went down to 60 ' but the fish were suspended only 15 ' deep down. Is this a normal fall pattern down there Ron ? Anyway nice catch those 16 inchers are real bruisers. Another oddity for me I have caught one 18 " crappie here in Ohio. Quite a few 15 " but never a 16 " for whatever reason and never a 17 " either. Thats over 60 years of fishing up here.

Now yellow perch fishing in Lake Erie that would be a common depth for catching them almost anytime of year.

 

[Lost Pole]

Really really great catch and a few pigs in there! If you get a sec I'd like to hear a fee more details. I'd NEVER consider fishing 3/4 that deep this time if year or ever for that matter. Down here, sacs are almost taken 12' or less year round. For instance, me n my son caught a mess Sun, deepest we had to go MAY have been 6'.
Were you trolling? Did you find them with a graph or from past experience in location? Most importantly........what CRAFTED JIG?!?!


Good fish

 

[StumpHunter]

Papaperch, in the winter the big girls will move deep here. Everyone of them had full air-sacks when they got to the top.

 

[StumpHunter]

Really really great catch and a few pigs in there! If you get a sec I'd like to hear a fee more details. I'd NEVER consider fishing 3/4 that deep this time if year or ever for that matter. Down here, sacs are almost taken 12' or less year round. For instance, me n my son caught a mess Sun, deepest we had to go MAY have been 6'.
Were you trolling? Did you find them with a graph or from past experience in location? Most importantly........what CRAFTED JIG?!?!


Good fish

Last week I went to the same place and fished for 5 hours and never caught a crappie, did find some nice spotted bass biting so today I started fishing where I left off last week. Didn't go a few hundred yards and seen a lot of something hanging tight to the bottom. I had my rods rigged for spider rigging so I dropped some small minnows on a #4 Gamakatsu Octopus Red hook to the bottom and cranked up one turn off the bottom. Got a few so I tried two turns and started catching bigger fish. Lot of fish in both depths of 40' and 50', just had to adjust the bait when the bottom changed. Most years the fish here don't move to that depth until mid Dec but for some reason they have already moved deep. From my experience of fishing that water I knew of the places they wouldn't be but thought they would be in the 30' zone with the water temps we have. Just goes to show some times we have to work for them. At times the fish may move up into the 12' range if we have a few warm days in a roll but not often in the winter. I will be able to go back to the same area for a while and find them close by. Hope I can find some more of those big em When the crappie are this deep I try jigs but most of the time it's minnows they want. Very lite bites, had to watch the lines very close.

 

[Lost Pole]

That's really cool to hear. I usually find fish by accident now that I don't have electronics, but when I do the spot is triangulated and locked in my head bc they'll always be at least A few there. Glad you narrowed in on em and thx for sharing how. Hope you tear em up the whole winter.

 

[AtticaFish]

Dang, that is deep............. and some chunk fish! Good job on locating the school.

 

[CrappieHappy]

nicely done Ronnie!

 

[Hawnjigs]

Those slabs are nice! Interesting how 1/2" longer = 1/2# heavier.

 

[Ron Don]

Wow that is deep this early! Good job finding them!

 

[StumpHunter]

Those slabs are nice! Interesting how 1/2" longer = 1/2# heavier.

The biggest was fat and the girth was big. I caught a 17-1/4'' in Feb on that lake that weighed 3lb- 1oz that is my PB. Another 1/2 difference and only 4oz. Never know about the length and weight of crappie, they will surprise you at times.

 

[LedHed]

WTG Ronnie! Awesome eats.

Keith -see some strange things with the BGs too. Length is deceiving in judging weight - sometimes we get them tall - and sometimes they are super thick. Redear are even more trickier to guesstamate...