Locating crappies - hitting the reset button

[mixxedbagg]

So, in past years I've had moderate success chasing crappies through the ice, but this year is different. I've been targeting some local lakes (Grand Rapids area) that I know have decent crappies and just can't seem to locate them. I've been out around a dozen times and have landed only one crappie, and in most cases I haven't been graphing fish at all--morning, day, or evening. I've fished from shallow out to about 36-38' in clear and stained lakes. I'd lament how bad the fishing is, but I suspect others in the area are having more success. It's driving me crazy that I can't get on fish this year for some reason!

I could use a little help 'hitting the reset button' and getting back to basics on locating crappies through mid-season ice.

[TyGuy02]

I'm in the same boat as you, except I've never had success finding them!

[slab master]

i've been finding them around the deepest part of the lake. a lakemaster chip in a gps is a huge help in this situation. when I go out i'll usually drill holes till I find them on the sonar then drop a line down to see if there active if there not keep moving until you find the active fish.

[Scott M]

What sort of structure do you have to work with Mixxedbagg?

[mixxedbagg]

Well, I'm in Itasca County, so I have almost too many options. In my area, there are several small (30 - 300 acre) lakes that range from 15' to 45' at their deepest points and are generally bowl-shaped or maybe have 2 or 3 basins with one being deeper than the rest.

The large lake that I visit the most is Trout Lake in Coleraine which pretty much has it all--shallow bays, points, sunken islands, flats, deep holes. I like the convenience of this lake, but I'm more comfortable trying to find fish on smaller lakes.

One question I have is when people say to go to the "deepest part of the lake or bay", I wonder if they really mean it when that bay is 40, 50, or 60 feet deep? I get a little nervous about wasting lots of time fishing over a 'dead sea' with nothing for the fish to relate to, I don't know what depth to start looking for suspended fish, and I usually don't know where to begin, so I rarely venture out to depths beyond 25' or so. (Yes, I do have an older Vex.) Also, I know that everyone tells you to "keep moving", but the crappie bite (at least for me) always seems to be compressed into that dawn and dusk window, so it doesn't seem like I have time to move around....I typically try to get a spot and 'set up' by 4pm or so to make sure I'm not dinkin' around when the fish get hungry. How do you "keep moving" without missing the good bite?

[Scott M]

mixxedbagg, very true about Itasca. Lots of options there. I've picked up some very nice crappies within the county. Our family has a cabin in the northern part of the county.

I have not fished Trout but have driven by. Looking at the lake survey catch, it looks like a lot of those non-trout mine lakes(i.e. a few crappies are caught but there are some big ones that can be found), deep and better suited to pike and walleye. If you wanted to devote a whole winter to crappie searching, I bet you could find them at Trout. That is one heck of an investment though, considering its just short of 2,000 acres.

Take it or leave it, but if it were me, I'd hit the smaller lakes where you are more comfortable. Like you allude to, they are easier to break down, and as far as square peg, square hole, are a better fit. Find a small sticky bottom lake and you will find a lake suited to bluegill and crappie.

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One question I have is when people say to go to the "deepest part of the lake or bay", I wonder if they really mean it when that bay is 40, 50, or 60 feet deep? I get a little nervous about wasting lots of time fishing over a 'dead sea' with nothing for the fish to relate to, I don't know what depth to start looking for suspended fish, and I usually don't know where to begin, so I rarely venture out to depths beyond 25' or so. (Yes, I do have an older Vex.)

People do really mean it when they say go deep! The thing is, rarely are you catching crappie at 40, 50, 60 feet, you are getting them 20 to 30 feet down, suspended over the deep hole. It's like they find the biggest vertical chunk of open water and set up over it, particularly mid winter when they move off the early ice shallow settings and before late ice when they stage closer and closer to shallow water in preparation for the spawn. It's a typical crappie behavior thing, and an important place to check when fishing new water or searching for crappie. There is always a caveat though. When you are dealing with a lake like Trout Lake, where it breaks hard and has very little shallow water, you probably aren't going to see anything over that 135' hole. A lake with consistent medium or slow breaks and a deep hole, or a sticky bottom lake with a couple deep holes, are the good candidate lakes for deep hole crappie fishing.

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Also, I know that everyone tells you to "keep moving", but the crappie bite (at least for me) always seems to be compressed into that dawn and dusk window, so it doesn't seem like I have time to move around....I typically try to get a spot and 'set up' by 4pm or so to make sure I'm not dinkin' around when the fish get hungry. How do you "keep moving" without missing the good bite?

I'm in agreement with what you are saying here...I like to be settled in if I know fish are going to be coming through. I think most people want to keep moving during the daytime when they are searching for fish. If you are setting up on the same lake, during prime time, and not marking anything, then its time to cut and move, a lot! This is a personal preference question. If you have a lake with an established pattern where you know when and where fish are coming through, hunker down. If its new water and you're attacking, or old water and aren't marking fish, time to cut and move.

I hope this helps. You're really overwhelmed with options up there. A great problem to have! Good luck.

[mixxedbagg]

Thanks for the tips, da_chise31. This is helpful. I should point out that Trout Lake is not technically a mine pit...it's a natural lake. It's a good walleye/bass/pike lake and I have caught nice panfish on occasion. I remember the first year I moved to Itasca County, I somehow stumbled on a nice crappie bite on Trout that lasted for 2 days--big fish--and have never made that happen again. I'd like to throw a few more questions out there for your thoughts, if you don't mind...

So, are you saying that if I am likely to find myself fishing 20 - 30' down, that I'm probably not going to be sitting at a 20-30' contour line if something deeper is available....at least not midwinter?

When you approach a lake that is more or less bowl shaped--we'll say 45' deep max--but the deepest part of the bowl is offset from the middle, do you start your search on the side where the dropoff is more steep or more gradual?

When searching a bay on a larger lake (or should I be moving away from bays to the main basin), should I be starting on the shore side of the bay or the main basin side of the bay, all things being equal? When fishing a large bay, or on a small lake the main basin, are there certain contour features to try and key in on or avoid?

[Jim in Sauk]

Hey mixxedbag, sounds frustrating.Remember the days.No expert but what works for me is get in between 20 some feet and a deep hole. With an old vex. like mine, start off the bottom with a minnow and play until you get a mark. If you mark them and don't get bites, then start down sizing and changing up. If you can't mark em then ya,maybe then you gotta be a sheep but stay outside of the pack.Good luck

[Scott M]

mixxed, you are right about Trout...not a pit. My bad. Definitely has the look from the contours.

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So, are you saying that if I am likely to find myself fishing 20 - 30' down, that I'm probably not going to be sitting at a 20-30' contour line if something deeper is available....at least not midwinter?

I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any misunderstanding. Like let's say I go to John Smith lake, it's generally 10-20 feet deep, gradually sloped, but next to an island there is a 65 foot hole. I could set up on that 65 foot hole and likely mark crappies 20-30 feet down. My experience has been that the fish suspend over the really deep holes, but they aren't at the very bottom of the lake, they are suspended 20 or 30 feet down. Sitting on the 20-30 foot structureless contour probably wouldn't do much for me.

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When you approach a lake that is more or less bowl shaped--we'll say 45' deep max--but the deepest part of the bowl is offset from the middle, do you start your search on the side where the dropoff is more steep or more gradual?

I would try both sides. It may or may not tell where those fish are coming from. One popular theory is that crappie suspend at a particular depth because that is the previous depth they were occupying at a different time of day. I haven't ground-truthed this yet, but it may hold some weight.

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When searching a bay on a larger lake (or should I be moving away from bays to the main basin), should I be starting on the shore side of the bay or the main basin side of the bay, all things being equal? When fishing a large bay, or on a small lake the main basin, are there certain contour features to try and key in on or avoid?

Allright, I'm going to throw a bunch of information at you here, and you can pick through it and see what you can use. This was taken from a presentation I gave at Thorne Bros. last year:

Structure by which to eliminate dead water

* Shelves (evenly spaced contours)

* Breaks/Turns/Dropoffs (erratic contours)

* Flats (in the context of crappies, preferable to be sticky bottom)

* Saddles (deep gap between shallow structures)

* Points (physical lake points that are extensions of a land feature)

* Fingers (underwater bars that are distinct in that they don't originate from points) and inside turns** (**where a finger meets a main lake contour)

* Manmade structures like retaining walls, pilings, cribs/aggregations structures, and bridges

* Reefs and humps

* Rock piles, stumps, or timber

* Inlets and Outlets

Where you are at mixxed, you may not have another soul to compete with for spots on some of the smaller lakes, so you can pick through many of the above. In places that are more pressured, I like to get away from the crowds and try to find some unexploited structure. Another thing a lot of people talk about is weeds, but in your neck of the woods, you don't have a lot of exotics so most of those plants have been down for a month or two since the ice went up. Canada waterweed, northern milfoil, and coontail are sometimes still around in structure at least, but are not green. You can sometimes still find fish here. I think that's a misconception, or at least something that isn't well explained. Everyone talks about finding weeds, but the biological fact is, they are down and dormant! The only weeds still standing in many places are Eurasian watermilfoil, late ice early growth of curlyleaf pondweed, and outlier natives that are here and there. The summer broadleaved natives have been down for months. I'm kind of surprised that the fishing preachers haven't been called out on this yet.

My last bit of advice, take it or leave it, is that you'll find the most success following the food. If you know what the winter forage is in the lakes you fish, the better you can locate the crappies. They may be chasing minnows in the shallows at night, they may be schooling and ambushing structure to find baitfish, they may be dipping in and out of the clouds of insect and zooplankton inverts that clutter up your flasher a few hours after sunset. Crappies, whether it be fish for the pan or the hunt for big fish, are past the size where they have to worry about predators so all that's on their mind is their next meal. Follow the food and you can find the fish. Culling your first fish and checking out stomach contents isn't a bad idea.

[river rat316]

Very good read, thank you

[magic_minnow]

just my .02, I fish for crappies in 10fow.

[1eyeReD]

da_chise31

I'm new to ice fishing... That's about the best durrnnnn read I've had on this site.

Thanks!

1ER

[Scott M]

Those are kind words, thank you much.

Nothing too earth-shattering though. Like any sort of learning, learning a lake is about building off a foundation of principles. We all just need to take the time to go out and break things down....which means, by golly, I just flat out need more time!

[WallyGader]

Very intresting info. da chise thank you for sharing.. I wish I had access to alot of the info. like you just gave. This is the type of info. I need to start breaking stuff down. Otherwise I sit there pondering or I just move to another peice of structure for no rhyme or reason.

I got a brain buster for ya, the lake I have been fishing was crappies all night long for a few weeks straight then one night it turned of about a half hour past dark couldn't even get a mark. Tryed the lake again a couple days later and the bight was on all night again. Well guess what happens a couple days after?? They turned of at dark again!?!?! I have no idea why, had same temps., and the same barro. pressure, the only thing I could come up with was that it was sorta foggy overcast for the 2 days.

[fumanchew44]

nice post da_chise31. just gonna throw some more food for thought out there. I like gettin to my desired lakes before the sun to start my searches. I like startin in the deep basins(deepest limit caught in 63fow 10 to 17' off so far this year). Last weekend it took 7 spots with 4 augers and i didnt wet a line til 2 in the afternoon, were leavin the lake at 330 with our fish though. Just settin up for a night bite seems like ur leavin a lot to chance. I like to make sure the fish are there before i go sendin my jig on its journey. Also there is ussually just a small window in the day when panfish are acctually willing to eat minnows. I prefer larvee over minnows or waxies because of there durability,the fact that they fish way faster than minnows, and that on most occasions these fish are eating shrimp, plankton, and other insects. And even if the fish are actively feeding on minnows they will still smack a few larve danglin off a tungsten jig on most occasions. Also if a spot is drilled and lots of green lines are showin up dont forget about em. Just cause they are not there at that moment doesnt mean they wont be when the low light periods start creepin up on u. whether it be zoo plankton, shrimp, or other insects congregating/hatchin it attracts hungry fish. I do fish shallow when the basin bite fails me and it does on occasion, but feel that deep water crappies are more susceptible to finding there way to my dinner plate or posing next to me for a photo!!!!

[RumRiverRat]

Da_chise thanks for taking time to post all of that info.