The lowly bottom feeder , poor things , everyone downs them . But to be sure we need clean up crews ,just like we need buzzards. Lobsters ,crabs ,catfish and many other species of marine critters make a living on the bottom of the water body and in many cases taste great on the table .
I could go on about how often they get a bad word and how many things in life have reference to bottom feeders and bottom dwellers but as most of you know it is a common thing to hear .
Now onto the fish that are not really “bottom feeders” but in fact do their part when needed to keep the bottom clean . Some on this list are well known predators and I have managed lots of species on the bottom when they were not the intended target .
I managed large mouths lots of times on cut bait and shrimp while catfishing and even managed a nice hybrid on chicken liver on the bottom one time . Mind you I am not talking about while the bait was sinking , I am talking about sitting on the bottom a while and then get a bite from a fish that most would say isn’t a “bottom feeder” .
So here we go with crappie and how they also bottom feed sometimes and to be sure will clean the bottom of items that are a food source if that’s where the food source is .Winter time crappie will move along the bottom and sit on the bottom and pick up dead and dying shad in lots of spots and to be sure some of them are taking the bait right off the bottom .
I enjoy the winter bite deep on the bottom when they troll thru in their clean the bottom of the dying shad run. It occurs daily in some spots and in several cases has a distinctive time it occurs as the struggling shad move thru on the warmer water search . As those shad take their last breaths and fall to the bottom they are quickly consumed by multiple species of fish and if its a larger school of shad lots of crappie will follow.
the winter bite is on at my favorite old fishing dock and to be sure a crowd is there every day filling up buckets with crappie . I got out there with a few buds yesterday am early and enjoyed the smack down about an inch off the bottom in 15 foot of water .
have a nice holiday and stay tuned ….:highfive
Still getting after it I see, that cooler looks like it’s time to heat the grease…
Excellent! Report & pictures.
Good post, And some good info.
Great catch, I catch a lot of Crappie near the bottom also.
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Bouncing jigs on bottom works well during the winter!
Ketch—sure wish we had a fishing Dock here on Lake Austin. Or Travis, LBJ, or Decker.
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CRAPPIE DO NOT FEED DOWN CAUSE THEY EYES ARE ON TOP OF THERE HEADS…
That’s a fact cause they said it…:Rofl
L…O…L
Nice catches Brother…
You suppose they swim upside down :dono
I caught a crappie on cutbait fished stationary on the bottom.
:Rofl …nonono but they will “stand on their heads” (as it were), as I’ve seen them do that chasing minnows swimming underneath them in my aquarium.
The idea that they don’t “feed down” because their eyes are high on their head is looking at it from a biological sense and from the idea that they’re not primarily looking for bottom dwelling critters for food. But, they will & do eat worms & crustaceans (which are primarily found on the bottom) so they’re not totally opposed to the idea of “bottom feeding”.
I’m reminded of a tourney I was in, down in Tenn, during some “unpleasant” weather conditions … and the winning team said they had to drag their Road Runners along the bottom to get bit. :yikes I mostly remember that because I was thinking that dragging a RR along the bottom took the spinning blade flash out of the equation (which went against my idea of what the Road Runner was intended to imitate) … and only gave the “bottom feeding” factor a mental shoulder shrug. Since then, however, I have personally caught Crappie when my bait was on the bottom or being dragged along the bottom. It’s only been a couple of times that’s happened to me, but it has happened, so I never say that Crappie “never feed down”.
Whichever way they feed, you got a bunch of em!:cheers2
Great post with some good information. This is what makes Crappie fishing such a great sport. When they do something that all the “experts” say they never do. Also it is what drives us all crazy at times trying to figure it out and gives us such a good feeling when we finally do figure it out. Great cooler of fish you have there. Keep up the good work.
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Being a predator means predating in whatever scenario presents itself . And for sure crappie can turn sideways to look down because I have seen them do it before . Crawdads are an example of a food source they won’t likely find off the bottom in most cases and they for sure won’t pass on a crawdad .
Just remember the golden rule of crappie ketchn …there ain’t one …:Rofl
Good writeup,nice catch.
Here in Pa, when I ice fish, I use a method that is called dead sticking. We are allowed 5 rods when we ice fish. The rods are put on buckets with rod holders and the bait is dropped down the hole and left to set waiting for a bite. I fish minnows 2 or 3 cranks off the bottom with great success. Crappies hug the bottom alot in winter.
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Crappie are a great aquarium fish if you can keep the water cold. And I watched them feed off the bottom like catfish.
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Very timely information! Thanks for the post.
ima bottom feeder. i live off crums.
I feed off crumb cakes so I can relate …the cinnamon ones are quite nice ….warm with a slice a butter …:crazy:
