Video: Late-Fall Crappie Smackdown

In my home state of Minnesota, fishing for crappies is popular during spring and winter, but many anglers focus on other species during summer and fall.

In the YouTube video below, Brett McComas explains why late-fall crappies should be on your radar. Crappies that have moved away from weedlines in 10 to 20 feet due to water temps dropping into the 40s, shift their location to deep holes. Finding them is relatively easy; simply cruise over these holes (about 25-40 feet deep) and look for schools of crappies on your fish finder. Sometimes the fish are stacked in the middle of the hole; sometimes they’re along an edge. McComas does an excellent job in the video pointing out likely holes on a map, then shows you what hundreds (thousands?) of crappies look like on sonar.

Even though late-fall crappies are deep, they are still aggressive and will strike just about any lure you put in front of their face. McComas prefers a #3 Rapala Jigging Rap because it’s compact (1.5 inches long; about the size of a crappie minnow) and heavy (nearly .25 ounce). A Jigging Rap plunges fast to the depths, especially on 4-pound-test monofilament line. Using this lure allows McComas to be precise with his presentation and efficient with his time.

McComas also provides a valuable tip: Fish caught from depths of more than approximately 25 feet won’t survive. The reason is because of the extreme change in water pressure, which causes a fish’s swim bladder to expand. The result is a fish can no longer control its balance or position (depth) in the water column. In addition, a fish caught from deep water can suffer ruptured organs and blood vessels. What this means to the late-fall crappie angler is you must keep every fish you catch from deep water. So keep enough for a meal, then stop targeting these fish.

Another benefit to finding late-fall crappies is these schools will likely be located in these same deep holes after lakes are covered with ice. It’s far easier to find them now in a boat with a fish finder than having to search this winter with electronics on the ice.