Going Deep in Hot Weather for Crappie
Making Homes for Crappie
 Editor’s Note: Even with technological and informational advances in recent years, crappie anglers have tended to stick with three misconceptions about crappie fishing: persons who fish for crappie are bound to the crappie-holding structure they can see; crappie anglers have to stop fishing when the crappie stop biting; and when a crappie  fisherman finds a good location, he has to keep it a secret from other fishermen. But by using new information available to anglers, these misconceptions don’t have to apply anymore. Today’s crappie anglers are catching more and bigger crappie than ever before by going deep for crappie, which takes planning, close observation and special lure techniques.
Longtime crappie fisherman Tony Knight uses treetops instead of stake beds for making crappie  homes. Even though he sinks his treetops in open water, he’s very particular about where and how he sinks his trees. He explains, “Knowing that crappie move up and down old creek channels and understanding that structure on the edge of these creek channels hold crappie, I sink my trees right on the edges of old river banks and creek banks. I like trees that will stand 6- to 10-feet off the bottom and have branches running from the bottom to the top of the tree. I want my sunken trees to be 3- to 4-feet under the surface where they can’t be seen. Once those trees are sunk, I have fish attractors that will stop and hold crappie moving along the old creek banks and also allow the crappie to move vertically up and down in the water. If the weather warms, the crappie may be holding on top of or in the topmost branches of the tree. If the weather’s cold, the crappie may hold on the lower branches of the tree. But wherever a crappie wants to position itself in the water, it has structure to hold on, and I have a place I can catch them at any time of the year. My trees are like a stop sign with an elevator. The crappie stop at the tree as they move up and down the old creek bank, and they can go up and down on the limbs of the tree to reach the comfort zone where they want to be. For me, sinking trees on submerged creek banks in open water provides a place to catch crappie any time of the year.”
Whether you’re locating crappie with a depth finder, trolling for crappie or putting-out fish attractors, an angler who uses these tactics can catch a mess of crappie in any season.
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