Whats your strategy for Crappie on a lake like this?

[Jari Razskazoff]

Merry Christmas Everybody.

I have a proposition which hopefully I and others can learn from the responses.

Here is the scenario:

Its a 110 acre lake, dark stained water, formerly farmland, with the deepest part 9ft deep.

There is a slow stream which feeds in to the lake on the West side from a pretty big swamp/marsh, followed by summertime lillypads which extend from the East side of the lake, to about 1/3 the way across the lake. There is plenty of cabbage all over the lake, and then on the East sideabout 1/6 of the east end of the lake is stopped by a small dam which allows the lake to keep its 8ft depth. There are no deep holes in the lake, and the majority of the lake is under 6ft of water.

This lake holds HUGE northern, and the sporadic crappie I have caught were between 11-13 inches. There are plenty of decent size perch in here, and even more dinky perch. There are even a few bass.

On a lake like this, I know how to fish it in the summer with decent sucess, but I find it impossible to catch a crappies in the winter, let alone a pike (i DO NOT want to tip-up fish)

How what would be your strategy to get at the crappies?

I would like to try out some of these stragegies and learn.

Thank you in advance.

[LPCrowRiverFisherman]

The crappies probably do not school up in the winter. You would probably be best fishing in around 7 ft, and waiting for the random couple to come through. Maybe jig a small buckshot with a minnow head on it. A flasher would be important because I fish a lake similar to this and the fish come through all over the water column anywhere from a couple feet below the ice to the bottom. I think fishing midday and patience would be most important things to do and have.

[Borch]

Sounds like a run and gun lake to me. Fish in lakes like this can be very shallow. I'd drill a lot of holes and jump around until I got on fish. Being stained water I'd give each hole 5-10 minutes and if nothing shows up move on to the next hole until you make contact. Electronics won't always tell you the story as you cone will cover very little water given the depths in the lake.

Good Luck!

[th64]

Take me! Sounds like a great lake-

I agree with others, fish will not stack up-so drill lots of holes-of course always up your odds by using two lines-a tip up(yes for crappies) will help you get more-pm me if you want details on this.

Good Luck

By the way I am going to a similar lake today-I know it is not a numbers lake, so I will be content to just get a few nice ones

[fishuhalik]

and make sure to stay quiet! with this thin, clear ice every footstep you take is amplified 10x under that ice! It's almost like spearing when you're that shallow, any movement will spook 'em.

[Jim Uran]

Yep, like Borch said. Drill and fish, move on and drill and fish until you hook up. Rig up a few rods so you can switch up tactics at each hole. Dark stained water seems to have a better day bite and once the sun hits the trees activity will peak until dark. Glow red is my favorite color in dark stained water. And don't be scared to use something with a bigger profile, like the smallest lindy darter, or chubby darter on one of your rods and something small on one of your other rods.

Id use a flasher though, you will still be able to mark fish. Try to find weed edges and pockets in the weeds. Good luck

[gixxer01]

You're better off fishing the deepest portion of the lake with something that will flash/rattle/vibrate/sing/buzz. Shallow lakes with lots of northern will keep those crappies swimming. A camera is invaluable on shallow lakes like these.

[Jim Uran]

But they probably wouldn't be roaming through open water if the pike are in there as thick as he says they are.

[TruthWalleyes]

Sounds like a tough lake. Its going to likely take you a few trials to figure it out. Like others have already said, drill a bunch of holes at the beginning of the day and then progressively fish each of them. These shallow lakes make finding fish difficult - they won't be schooled up, especially not like they would be in deep lakes. Get some good ice fishing bibs with knee pads and start hole hopp'n.