snowbird,
I have not been on the docks for the past couple of weeks due to family functions, but I expect to find crappies there until late in the fall when the docks get taken up around here. I will know more this evening, if the weather permits me to get out.
However, during the day I also expect to find them deep and bottom oriented during bright hot days in and outside of the outside weed line and not in the mood for taking much of any size or speed offerings. IMO they continue to graze on tidbits pretty much all the time, but become much more active and feed up in the water column and on larger offerings in low light such as very early and very late in the day. Where fishing pressure is heaviest that includes night time, especially for the larger sizes.
I general I fish crappies during low light periods both due to their natural tendencies and to their responses to fishing pressure, which is normally heavy around here, especially in the summer. In fact, I seldom fish them during the middle of the day at any time of the year, although occasionally I will do so and at times find a decent bite, although usually of smaller fish. I keep my tackle right in the car all summer and will at times take a break from an errand to do a little mid-day catch and release fishing, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, although I seldom get completely skunked. The scattered crappies I occasionally take during those periods point to crappie residence that I will concentrate on when I have the time to work more likely times of the day. IMO they are around if not active even then. I generally find crappie bite best either before or after bass bite has tapered off and sunnie bite has also. If you can find breakline perch, it often pays to wait out their end of bite as daylight ebbs. Crappies may follow their decreased activity. Some of my favorite crappie spots are multi-species feeding areas, and there is often a pattern regarding which species are most active and in what order. One other thing I key on is presence or unexpected absence of sunnies. If they are not out and about during their normal activity periods in their normal areas; something has disturbed them enough to put them down and crappies are even more timid, unless fully active and IMO actually key on sunnie alarm; so I do also. Crappie fishing then is likely to be difficult to completely unproductive.
This time of the year crappies can get real fussy about size, color, and pattern of offerings as well as presentations, especially when the sun is high in the sky and when there is little or no cloud cover. In a tough bite I generally downsize and slow down my action to almost nothing for best results, but if that does not work I go in the other direction. If that does not work, I move. I usually have backup locations in mind before I even wet the line for the first time anywhere. Usually I don’t work a non-productive location for more than a half an hour, before moving on.
One personal superstition, that I find has worked out far too often, is the fish on the first presentation. That often results in no further fish. It is the second and third offering and how they produce that I normally key on first, that and my confidence in the location. Far too often that immediate first fish is all that comes of a spot. Whether that is generally accurate or not, I do not know, but it seems to plague my fishing.
