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Fall Crappie Fishing

by Kevin Patton

This big tree has many of the characteristics of a great crappie hideout. It is a large tree with many limbs, is located near a main lake point, is almost totally under water, and lays in or over both shallow and deep water.

As the leaves begin to turn and the nights get chilly, many species of game fish leave their elusive summer haunts to feed up for the oncoming Illinois winter. Fishing for fall crappies can be some of the best times of the year.

On October 14, Dee Dee Kumpf and I headed to Evergreen Lake to see if the time was right to bring home some tasty crappies filets.

September in Illinois this year was unusually dry and warm. Good fishing for fall crappie, triggered by a drop in water temperatures, will come later than normal.

We were hoping that we weren't too early for the prime time. Water temperatures were 66-67 degrees and the lake was murky enough that we could only see a couple feet into the water. There was a very light east wind on this overcast day.

With the water so warm, I didn't really expect crappies to be spread out into the backs of coves, but decided to start at a favorite brush pile half way to the back of Osprey Cove.

This tree was almost an identical situation except that, while the first tree was located out of the wind, this one had a slight breeze blowing directly onto it.

Armed with two buckets of lively minnows and rods rigged with slip bobbers, we adjusted our bobber stops up and down to try to find a productive depth.

After 30 fishless minutes, we headed for the main lake.

Just west of Osprey Cove, near a rip rap shoreline, is a stretch of bank that has numerous trees and brush piles near deep water.

We caught only a few crappies scattered along the shoreline brush until we came to a huge tree that was located on a small point and extended far into the lake. Here we found a decent concentration of crappies that were suspended in 7-9 feet of water.

We caught most of our fish at the eight-foot level and it didn't seem to matter whether we were over 10-foot depths or water more than 20 feet deep. This eight-foot depth level would produce crappies for us most of the day.

We found crappies such as these 10 and 11-inchers scattered around several main lake trees, but caught the most from a tree located on a point that had wind blowing directly onto it.

After action slowed on our tree, we went east past the boat ramp and headed south down the lake.

We stopped at several sunken trees that are scattered along the west bank of the lake, between Campground Cove and the Pump House.

Again we caught a few crappies but didn't find a concentration of fish until we came to a second huge tree with many branches that extended far into the water.

Like the first tree, it was located on a point near deep water.

We found our largest concentration of fish on this tree, catching most of them suspended at eight feet over varying depths of water.

Wearing polarized glasses helped in this fishing situation by enabling us to better see the tree limbs. This didn't necessarily help us catch more fish, but it allowed us to better choose a casting angle that lessened our hangups.

Most of us believe that the little things make a big difference in our fishing success. However, I think we sometimes don't know which little things really make the difference.

For me, I usually prefer, except during spawn time, to fish in the wind if it doesn't become a nuisance.

We caught this 15-inch bass, several smaller bass, and bluegills while offering our minnows to crappies on slip bobber rigs.

I also would like the wind to be blowing directly onto the structure, be it a point, a sunken tree, etc., rather than across it.

The one obvious difference in the two trees on which we found crappies was that the first one was located out of the wind and the second one had a slight breeze blowing directly onto it.

This may have or may not have been the reason for our increased success on the second tree, but this is the kind of subtle difference that fishermen enjoy speculating about for endless hours during a long winter.

As water temperatures continue to drop, fish should remain active and more accessible. You still have time to cash in on some good fall crappie fishing, but that long Illinois winter will arrive all too soon, so you better hurry.