# Lake Erie Crappies.....?



## Hardtop

I have been an avaid crappie fisherman for most of my 60yrs up around the marinas of the western basin. I really enjoy the simplicity of catching them durring the spawn in the spring, I have asked a couple of times on other pages of OGF to see if others enjoy this too and if anyone has ever figured out where they all go after spawn.? I used to fish the navigational jetties at East Harbor thru the summer and we would catch a few in the deeper water around the huge boulders real early each morning, but no quantity of them. There has to be millions of them that leave the shallow marina's when the water warms up.......where do they all go........? Any ideas...? HT


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## creekcrawler

Wish I knew!!

I'd love to know where all those FO crappie go after they leave Whiskey Island in the spring. It's like they disappear!


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## Shortdrift

We used to catch them all year long in the old sunken freighter slips and coal docks as well as Battery Park pn the Sandusky area. Some of the creeks that passed under the railroad tracks that paralleled Rt.6.
East Harbor off the docks at night was always good. Can't help that some of these places would still produce.


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## Hardtop

I agree Ron, I remember a sunken barge on the east side of the old bay bridge, near the south end, Dad would take us over there towards dusk and we would fish around the visable framing that was exposed with minnows under a float and we would catch some really nice slabs, not a lot of them but real nice ones. And the challenge was to bring them in thru all the debris without losing them. I have never put a lot of tiem into the night thing but have always wondered if they might go in my marina. They don't just dissapear........somewhere thru the summer there is a bunch of them, really suprised someone here hasn't stumbled onto them.......HT


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## Chef T

Sounds like we nee to get a bunch of us together this season and go find them, lol. Lake Erie still has a ton of untapped fisheries and crappie rumors have always persisted.


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## creekcrawler

The only guess I can take, is the deep shipping channels right outside the marina.
We always seem to mark a bunch of suspended fish on the way in.
Lots of marks 10-20 ft deep over 35 feet.
Never really tried to catch there though, we were always on our way in from perching and done.
I remember someone mentioning catching some crapppie in a shipping channel, maybe in the Black River?


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## Harbor Hunter

I remember a day a few years back when I had a chance encounter with a large school of big crappie in late summer.These fish were no where near any place you would have suspected them to be.There's a deep hole off the northern side of Kelley's Island just about half way over to Middle Island on the Canadian side,I believe it's pretty much near 50' deep.We had been perch fishing out off Chickenolee Reef and we were heading back in and we noticed a couple of schools that resembled perch marks on the sonar except these marks were suspended about 20'-25',we thought what the heck and dropped out a couple of slip bobbers set at that depth with shiners.To both of our amazement they turned out to be slab crappies.I really can't remember how many we caught but I'm sure it was at least a couple dozen.Like others said I also always wondered where those big spring crappies went in summer,well at least one time I found out-deep.I've tried that same spot many times since that day and never caught a single crappie-lol.


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## NorthSouthOhioFisherman

I have always wondered the same... May be a long mystery... But I see no reason why they wouldn't head out to the deep like harbor hunter has said. They want to cool off a bit I'm sure. Either way Dick were goin' crappie fishin this spring!


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## Saugeyefisher

How many of you guys tried slow trolling sr5's #5 flickershads,and other smaller cranks in and around all the deep structure just outside,in,and around all the harbours, bays,rivers? A good way to cover ground till you find them and im sure other species will keep you busy...


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