Fishing at the proper depth can be a critical factor for maximizing crappie-catching success. Fortunately, several techniques allow for good depth control – and you don’t need forward facing sonar to make them work!
Controlling the depths of baits is important for crappie fishing. Whether crappie are holding on bottom structure, tucked into cover or suspended among baitfish schools, most crappie in an area will tend to use the same depth range any given day. Even with right bait presented well in good areas, if that offering stays too shallow, the fish will hesitate to move up. If it’s too deep, they won’t consider it.
For brief periods during spring and autumn, many crappie stray shallow. During those times, keeping jigs or other crappie baits in the right zone is simple. Most of the year, crappie tend to be a bit deeper, and getting crappie jigs to the best depth and fishing them in that zone calls for greater intentionality.
Electronics, history, fishing reports and adjustments based on what the fish reveal all help you figure out the best depth to fish any given the day and in a particular area. These five tactics can help you keep your crappie jig at that depth, and each provides advantages for different situations and crappie fishing techniques.
1 – Slip Bobber
When crappie are holding more than a few feet deep and casting to the fish provides advantages, a slip bobber or slip float rig is tough to beat. Before a cast, the float rests on your jighead or split shot, creating a compact package that is easy to cast. Once the rigs lands, the line slides through the float and jig sinks to the depth determined by the bobber stop placement and suspends. This provides dependable depth control, every cast, and is simple to adjust between casts.
If the crappie are tight to a target, like a bridge support, the edge of a dock or flooded timber, you can cast and leave the rig stationary until it drifts from the zone and then reel back and cast back to that spot or to a new target. If the fish are spread across a broader zone, like the top of flat, point or hump or over a large brushpile, you can cast to the upwind side and let the rig drift across it or cast past the key zone and work the suspended jig back with pulls and pauses.
With a rounded slip float, like a Thill Wobble Bobber, you can also add action to a jig without dragging the rig substantially (or at all with the right touch) by gently jiggling the rod tip with the line almost tight. Those slight pulls make the bobber wobble – hence the name – giving life to the jig that is suspended beneath it.
2 – Bobber Stop
For more active jig presentations and for times when you want to control the line and feel what is happening at the business end with your rod tip, a highly visible bobber stop like a bight colored Thill Premium Bobber Stop, with no float on the line, provides a visible measured distance indicator that makes it easy to keep your jig in the key depth zone.
For vertical presentations, this is simple and precise. If the bobber stop is 8 feet from the jig, when it’s right at the surface, the jig is 8 feet deep. If the stopper is submerged 2 feet, the jig is at 10 feet. As you fish, adjust the stopper. If most fish are hitting when it’s three feet beneath the surface and barely visible, simply slide the stopper a few feet up the line and resume fishing with it right at the surface. You can measure baits down, which we’ll address next, but this is a quick way to repeatedly drop your bait to the same depth.
For casting and reeling presentations, you must account for the angle of the line. If the stopper is set at 10 feet and the line is angled away, the bait is less than 10 feet deep when the stopper is at the surface. Don’t worry. You don’t need to drag out Pythagorean theorem math to fish effectively. It’s more intuitive than it might seem to set the stopper deeper, based on your pitches or casts and to adjust as you go. If you pay attention to what the fish reveal and adjust the stopper accordingly, it provides a simple means to be consistent with the depth of your presentations and figure out where the crappie want the jig in the water column.
3 – Measured Pulls
As noted above, for fully vertical presentations, counting measured pulls is a highly dependable way to get a jig to a prescribed depth. To execute, begin with the rod extended and at your preferred jigging angle and the jig right at the surface. Flip the bail but hold the line with your finger. Then count out 1- or 2-foot measured pulls against the rod, allowing the line to feed from you finger only as much as you pull. Need 10 feet. Five 2-foot pulls. Simple as that.
This is an accurate way to place a bait just above a brushpile or to a depth where the crappie are suspending. Most people have a pretty good sense of a 1- or 2-foot pull. And if you want to be certain of your accuracy, measure 2 feet from where the line comes off the reel and add a piece of visible tape to the rod or paint a ring with nail polish at home. When you measure, you might also discover that the first line guide or some other easily distinguishable spot on your rod already marks 1 or 2 feet.
4 – Counted Sink Time
For straight cast-and-reel jig presentations, where you want to keep the bait moving faster than you can beneath a float, an excellent strategy is to learn to sink rate of your jig, count the bait down after a cast lands, and reel steadily at a moderate pace to maintain the depth range.
I recall doing this with an old-timer who had brush piles scattered all over a lake. He would position the boat a short cast from a sunken brushpile and tell a buddy and me the direction to cast and the number to count to before reeling. He would count aloud to reenforce the timing of the count. Our baits would pass just over the brush, often getting eaten, and we only got snagged when one of us tried to quietly drop the bait a bit deeper in hopes of gaining an advantage. He knew!
To learn the fall rate, simply drop your bait straight down at a few different known depths and count at a consistent pace. It won’t take long to figure out the right count for the depth you need. This system is less precise than a slip float or measured vertical presentation, but it is more than adequate to get in the right zone once you’ve practiced it a bit.
5 – Set Line Length
For depths to a dozen feet or so, where you’ll find a lot of crappie a lot of the time, a simple and precise depth-control system is to maintain a measured length of line from the tip of a long rod to your jig, fishing with the rod tip at the water. When you hook a fish, instead of reeling, use your non-rod hand to pull the line away from the rod and then swing in the fish. Do likewise to control the bait when you return your jig to the water, which can be done with a straight drop of a short pitch that allows it to pendulum back to the measured depth.
Measuring out the line at the beginning is simple if you use your rod as a measuring stick. Point an 8-foot rod straight up, and you know that when the jig is beside the rod butt, you have 8 feet of line out. A foot up the rod, 7 feet. Two feet below it, 10 feet. With that system, measurements up to around 12 feet are simple, and a bit deeper remains reasonable. That distance is also manageable for handling line without needing to use the reel.
Dipping, as this general technique is sometimes known, is fabulous for working a flat or channel edge or other areas where the most crappie are suspended at specific depth range. It also works nicely for walking along a dock or fishing from the bank when crappie are holding near riprap, beside laydowns or in other spots that are within reach of a long rod.
Bobby Garland Crappie Jig Options
NEW Head Lock’R Jigheads – Hold your crappie baits firmly in place through cover and after fish strikes with a well-designed screw-lock system. Available in four colors, including unpainted, and three key sizes.
NEW Slab Stalk’R – This new mini-swimbait falls between standard crappie baits and the Itty Bit Series in size and combines Baby Shad body shaping, a tail joint and a thin paddle tail for optimized swimming action.
Original Baby Shad – America’s best-selling crappie bait set the standard and stays at the top for good reason. It looks like an easy meal, and constant subtle movement, even when the bait is held still, is irresistible to crappie (and other fish).
Itty Bit Mayfly – The Itty Bit Mayfly provides an outstanding option when fish get fussy, whether due to conditions or fishing pressure, and the profile and wavering action scream dinner.
