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Where Crappies Grow on Trees

by Kevin Patton

These 11 1/2 and 9 1/2-inch crappies were the best of the bunch that we caught in trees at Lake Storey on April 23.

There are crappie trees and then there are crappie trees.

Dee Dee Kumpf and I discovered that all crappie trees are not created equal during a recent trip to Lake Storey near Galesburg.

We launched the boat at 8:30 on this trolling-motor-only lake after stopping for minnows at Al's Sporting Goods on South Seminary Street (309-342-7776).

There was an east wind at 5-10 mph with a water temperature of 62 degrees at the west boat ramp. Water clarity was between two and three feet deep.

Our first stop was a downed tree along the north shore, near the center of the lake. The water temperature was 61-62 degrees.

We fished the thicker limbs of the tree near shore, as well as the deeper limbs in 5-8 feet of water. We left 40 minutes later, after catching 10 small crappies that measured no more than eight inches.

Our second stop was a tree with many branches underwater near the mouth of a cove on the south side of the lake. We stayed there two hours and 40 minutes, getting bites or catching crappies nearly every cast.

This tree was the most productive of the six trees we fished. We caught 80 of our 160 crappies from it using minnows on slip bobber rigs.

We started by fishing the easier, outer limbs where hangups were less frequent. We quickly discovered that more fish were holding in the inner, thicker portion of the limbs.

Most fish were 2 1/2 to four feet down over the lake bottom that was five to six feet deep.

The action was fast and furious, but we managed to boat only a handful of fish that measured nine inches or better. We did catch one 11 1/2-inch fish, which was our largest of the day.

We failed to hook many of the small fish when hooking the minnows through the lips, so we tried tail-hooking them for a while. This didn't help so we tried letting the fish have the minnows longer before setting the hook.

Another good tree where we caught crappies. The bare, lower portion of the tree is out of water, but the tangled, brushy limbs of the top part are largely under water.

When we left at 12:20, the water temperature had risen to 66 degrees.

After catching 80 crappies, mostly between 7 1/2 and 8 inches in length, we moved to another tree.

The third tree was just around the corner on the south side of the main lake. We caught 20 fish there in 35 minutes, including one 9 1/2-inch keeper.

Next we stopped at an old, large tree with barren limbs and few small branches. We failed to catch a fish on this tree during the first 15 minutes. We tried to find the crown of the tree in deeper water by using the depthfinder, but time had completely deteriorated it.

We moved on to a fifth tree that was much fuller and had an abundance of budding limbs under water. Here we caught fish near the outer branches.

On the way back to the ramp, we stopped at our first tree and caught seven more small crappies before moving on.

This bare tree with few limbs and tangled branches was the lone tree where we failed to catch crappies.

Our last stop was in a cove on the north side of the lake. The water temperature was up to 68 degrees there.

We caught 40 more crappies in less than an hour. Again, they were mostly from 7 1/2 to 8 inches in length.

We finished the day with 160 crappies in seven hours. Half of them were caught from one tree with 40 more being caught from our second most productive tree.

We had definitely learned that it pays to look for the best trees with substantial brush and limbs under water.

Don't count out coves on the south side of a lake just because conventional wisdom says the first spawning movements will be on the north side of a lake. You may have to move around a lot to find the right trees.

You might want to drive around the lake before launching your boat to get a mental picture of where the best trees are located. This may help establish a "milk run" of trees to fish.

Don't just fish the easy outside limbs. Get into the thick of it if you want to catch more crappies.

If you can't take a kid or grandchild fishing, at least take your dog. He will love days like the one we had.

We kept 17 of the largest fish for a meal and wondered if the big females were hanging in deeper water or if the crappies are terribly stunted.

Of the 17 fish we cleaned, seven of them contained eggs, so there are small females in the lake.

Catching only a handful of keeper crappies out of 160 fish seems to tell a story.

There is no size or creel limit on Lake Storey crappies. You may also keep 25 bluegills, three walleyes that are 14-inch or longer, six catfish, and one Muskie 42-inches or longer.

Six bass are allowed, but a protected slot of 12 to 15 inches is enforced. You may have one bass that is longer than 15 inches and five bass less than 12 inches in length.

Keeping some of the smaller crappies can't hurt the lake and they are not bad to clean if you use an electric filet knife.

Catching big fish is always number one with most anglers, but boating tons of smaller ones isn't a bad second.