As I mentioned in last week’s article, crappie will stack up in underwater trees, stumps and brush piles beginning in mid-June and will stay in those trees until late October or until a significant drop in water temperature occurs. August-October seems to be an excellent month to catch the crappie from the treetops if you can stand the heat. 

The techniques begin with finding likely areas holding crappie using your depth finder and when you find a good-looking area, throw out a buoy marker and fish that location thoroughly. If fishing trees, it does not matter the water depth or height of the tree. The fish will usually be 8-16 feet deep (occasionally deeper but never shallower). 

If you catch fish from a marked area make sure you note its location and a GPS will help you return later to fish those areas again. Just drop the marker off to one side of the tree, brushpile or stumps and use it for a reference to stay over the tree. Once you are over an area, it is fairly easy to stay over the area with only an occasional bump of the trolling motor. 

If you are fishing underwater trees, you may find two or three good trees in one plot and if so drop a marker over each tree and then just move from tree to tree. Just position the boat right over the tree and drop jigs or minnows straight down around and into each tree before moving to the next tree. 

You may have to try different depths but a good depth finder will in most cases answer that question. If the structure is holding crappie, a strike may occur almost immediately. 

If you are fishing trees, as mentioned above the crappie will be anywhere from 8 to 16 feet (this is the magic depth) below the surface and it doesn’t matter if the tree is 30 feet tall or 60 feet tall. When fishing brush piles or stumps laying at or near the bottom of the water column, the crappie may be near the bottom at different depths.  

During the June-October timeframe, crappie will hang out around some type of structure be it trees, brush piles, stumps or even deep docks. This applies whether you fish during the day or at night.

Once you have found a good-looking spot you have to choose the bait that will likely entice a strike. I believe the best bait choices are fairly easy and not complicated. Your choices are either minnows or jigs and I believe either will work but during hot weather jigs may be a better choice. Keeping minnows alive in the hot weather can be difficult.

Any number of crappie jigs and jig colors will work. We all know that crappie are finicky at times and testing a few different colors will work. The same jig choices you made when fishing jigs during the winter and spring will work, just remember that the water color may be different. 

Colors with a mixture of black, silver, grey and white that imitate the shad baitfish seem to work well. Straight jigs seem to work better than curly tail jigs. You will in in most cases be fishing straight down under the boat and straight tail jigs work better. In most cases, the jig does not require most action. Just a short lift and drop is all that is normally needed. 

Many times, the crappie will hit the jig on the initial drop. If nothing hits on the initial drop, you can work the water between 8-16 foot around trees or near the bottom if fishing brush piles and stumps just by lifting and dropping the jig or minnow. Anglers can also move back from the area and cast curly tail jigs to the structure. 

I normally use a 1/32 weight that I pinch on the line about 6-8 inches above a 1/16-ounce jig head with a black and silver tube jig. Other colors and types of jigs will work but it is hard to beat the black and silver tube jig. 

For minnows just swap out the jig head for a good minnow hook. When using minnows, you might want to use a 1/16 weight to add a little more weight. The weight is used simply to allow the jig to drop quickly into the zone where the fish are located and it adds better sensitivity. 

Other techniques like the drop-shot will work especially when working deep water. I feel the best line choice would be fluorocarbon in 4-6 pound test. The fluorocarbon is nearly invisible and is highly sensitive which is great at times for finicky crappie where the bite is hard to detect.  

Last week’s article mentioned that the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division has been placing structures in both Lake Sinclair and Lake Oconee over the last several years. I have a list showing GPS locations for those structures and will share those lists with any angler who drops me an email at brpeoples995@gmail.com. I will try to answer those requests as quickly as possible.

If the summer heat is too much for you to handle, remember the crappie will stay in the places described in this article until the first cold snap of fall. It takes some work to find and mark the best crappie areas but your efforts will often be rewarded with some excellent fishing. Good fishing and see you next week.