Back to the Shallows

[Scott Steil]

It has been quite a year. Despite the heat and warm water temps the crappies and gills continue to take to the shallows. On some of our stained lakes it is common as the pond weed dies, we don't get much for weed in the deeper water, and thus the fish take to the shallow cover.

However, in some of our cleaner lakes I am suprised by the fact that the big gills and slabs continue to feed shallow. I know they follow the food, and I have noticed an abundance of fresh water shrimp in a few lakes. I have a feeling this is the reason for the shallow fish....the feed bags is on.

Anyone else seeing this pattern around the state?

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Mille Lacs Guide Service
www.millelacsguideservice.com

[CrappieJohn]

Hey Scott...Good to hear from you. And yes, this has been a different year. The waters I normally fish at this time of year generally stained, but without any rainfall to speak of, they have cleared up quite nicely and the fish are doing things a tad backwards here too. As a rule, this time of year will find the craps right down on the thermocline. They have broken the rules now and are almost everywhere in much shallower water. Last week Mike from Hookedonfishing, RHW, and I went to the river and we were catching basically everything where on would normally fish just prior to ice-up or even first ice! I'm almost positive that without the rainwater to recharge the rivers and lakes we are starting to get some oxygen deprivation in deep water where these pups usually are found and that may well force the shrimp and other aquatic like much higher in the water column. I stopped at my favorite puddle yesterday on the way to the cities and did a temp check....85 degrees in the shade. Bath anyone?

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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[united jigsticker]

Yep. Still was getting them shallow last weekend. Evening time was when I found them at the deepest though, over 12-15 feet of water, only a few feet down though.

I anticipate that once this major cool down takes place we will harvest our Crappies from the deeper, typical late summer haunts.

But then again...What do we know? We're just the fishermen...They're the fish!

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Good fishing,
UJ
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[Guest]

All year I have never had to go deeper than 17 feet for crappies (in a very clear water lake). They are staged at/around 15-17 feet right now.

The whole month of June it was less than 5 feet, but they were suspended a foot under the water. Sight fishing was fun!

Sunfish are everywhere from inches of water to 17 feet right now.

[CrappieJohn]

Went to the Miss. backwaters today and didn't find much change in things. We managed some really nice sunnies on jigs and plastic out of some very shallow water and tried the craps at another spot where there was deeper water, but one God awful thunderstorm went ripping thru the area before we could fish it and pretty well ended the angling. The sunnies seem to be the most predictable fish right now and , indeed , they are shallow.

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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[Guest]

I camped out on Bear Lake (north of Nashwauk on hwy 65) this last week and got into some 12" crappies just before dark.The wind blew all day making it kinda tough to get my canoe out against those whitecaps so I had to wait until the evening bite. I decided to troll a small "beetle spin" slowly (one of my favorite methods) by paddling my canoe just fast enough to see the silver spinner blade turning......"whack"..the first crappie snapped it up.....the spinner was down only a couple feet so the crappies were just beneath the surface spread out over an area of about 200 yards....I caught 8 total in about a half hour and then they shut off like a light switch....great fun!...the next night....same thing!...just had a great outing!.....jon

[CrappieJohn]

Mike, from Hookedonfishing, and I went back to the backwaters this morning for another couple hours of exercise and we got it. The craps were in the shallows along with the sunnies and made for some fun fishing. Kept a few for the pan, released many more and had a great time with the cooler weather. We found the fish quite shallow in shallow water (5') and took them mostly on hair jigs with either a waxie or a small pinch of BioBait. I was using the biobait and waxies about 50/50. Both worked for me. Mike was using only waxies. Not unlike yesterday, the fish just quit at about 12:15...absolutely disappeared! These cooler temps will help things along some, but we still need some rain!

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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[Guest]

Hey Sixmile Jon,
I'm at work waiting for 5:00 to roll around. Bumpy and i are going to hit Blackduck on Sunday. We'll be looking for eyes,crappies.smallies and anything that feels like biting. I,m not sure whare the crappies wil be with this cold front, but we'll find something to bite I'm sure.

Exzoni