Crappie and Bass in Winter

[LrgmouthShad]

Hey y’all, 

 

Do some bass and crappie have a tendency to occupy the same places in the winter? Or do they have a tendency to occupy different areas? If you found an area in the winter where there was a mother load of crappie, would that make you more or less apt to investigate it for bass?

 

Bait found in nearby channel and a little off dropoff

[TnRiver46]

Yeah buddy! Bass eat crappie. So many crappie guys get mad when big bass break off their 4 lb line 

[softwateronly]

Up here in the midwest, I think crappie are specifically targeted by the biggest bass in my lake.  If I find crappie, I'm all over, under, and around them with larger crappie-ish looking baits.

 

As a novice to crappie though, I've always wanted to know if they self segregate by size.  Do juveniles fear slab crappie canibalizing?

 

scott

[MN Fisher]

6 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

Up here in the midwest, I think crappie are specifically targeted by the biggest bass in my lake.  If I find crappie, I'm all over, under, and around them with larger crappie-ish looking baits.

There's a reason I have a number of crappie-style lures..

[WRB]

Texas State record LMB was caught 2 January 1992, 18.18 lbs, by a crappies fisherman.

Tom

[Dogface]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Yeah buddy! Bass eat crappie. So many crappie guys get mad when big bass break off their 4 lb line 

 

And so do pike. And to make things interesting those same pike eat my crappie minnows. Life is good!?

[Bankbeater]

Around here bass and crappie occupy the same places, and go after the same forage.  If you are catching crappie, then sooner or later you are going to catch some bass.

[Deleted account]

I'm sure they do, around here there is a couple of weeks in the late winter/early spring where they are on top of each other.

[T-Billy]

3 hours ago, softwateronly said:

As a novice to crappie though, I've always wanted to know if they self segregate by size.  Do juveniles fear slab crappie canibalizing?

Larger crappie are often deeper than their smaller counterparts. Sometimes ya gotta wade through a buch of aggressive dinks before your bait will make it down to the bigger fish.