Why are crappie such a prized ice-fishing target, and when is the ice bite best?
Because their winter food — zooplankton and small minnows — never runs out, crappie keep feeding under the ice all season, and they school so tightly that finding one fish usually means finding hundreds. The prime windows are first ice and last ice: early ice fish are still shallow-ish on green weeds and basin edges in 3–8 m (10–26 ft), and late ice pulls them toward oxygen and the coming spawn. Midwinter fish suspend over deep basins and demand more searching. On many northern lakes the best hour is dusk into full dark, when plankton rises and the school lifts with it.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Winter
Same topic, other species
- Do largemouth feed in winter or under ice? — Largemouth Bass
- Where do muskie spend the winter under the ice? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- What is the best time of day through the ice — and why not dusk? — Yellow Perch
- What is the winter pattern for pike under the ice? — Northern Pike
- Do smallmouth feed all winter? — Smallmouth Bass
- What happens to trout during the ice season? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- How do walleye behave under the ice? — Walleye