In-Fisherman Critical Concepts #1 Crappie Fundamentals A MUST READ for you crappie guys

I just finished reviewing the new Critical Concepts Book #1 Crappie Fundamentals by the In-Fisherman people.

Saw some stuff in this book that looked very familiar to me! I think that the science doc of In-Fisherman Magazine knows what I am talking about.

The book is very good. It's a nice complement to their Crappie Wisdom Book that was first published ca. 1985/86.

This book is not as thick as the Crappie Wisdom book as it's only 116 pages and it has a lot of pictures so it's not a hard book to read.

But if you really want to learn how to fish for crappie YEAR round then this is a great book.

It covers the ten calendar periods of the year. The 6 major lake types and the type of forage that crappie seek at different times of the year. From shad to Daphnia or copepods to minnows it tells a bit about the life cycles of the prey and how often and where these prey fish spawn. The crappie are not going to be very far form their prey. Just as wolves follow the caribou heard, crappie follow the thread fin and gizzard shad or the golden shiners in open water.

So if you have wondered where the crappie go after the spawn in April then this book will give you some great clues.

Confined Open water not true open water is the key to catching crappie at some times of the year.

There is some new information in this first book in a three book series on crappie fishing. This book has some information and conclusions on three radio tracking studies that were conducted on lakes by fishery biologist in South Dakota and Kentucky. Two radio tracking studies on two different lakes in South Dakota are discussed as well as the KY DNR study that was performed on black and white crappie in the Blood River Creek area of KY lake. You will be interested to know that Black Crappie in Blood river stayed in very shallow water <10 nearly all summer while the white crappie went out into the deeper water >10 ft deep. This may be why more fisherman catch more white crappie than black crappie after the spawn is over. Even during the spawn the black crappie went further back into the ends of blood river's creek and stayed there even after the spawn finished.

So if you want to learn to catch crappie year round then this book may be for you.

I know I really enjoyed reading it and I think I learned a few new things. Now if I can only remember what they are the next time I get out on the lake.

Oh yea. At certain times in during the winter months when the shad are depleted by cold weather and the minnows are hard to find the crappie will feed on small worms in the muck at the very bottom of the lake. These small creatures are found in the deeper flats and in the deepest water when the water temperatures gets down to 38 deg f and becomes more dense than water warmer than 38 deg F and water colder than 38 deg F. For water is most dense at around 38 deg F or 4 deg Centigrade.