Crappie fishing...

[sami0115]

i will be in Park Rapids, Mn next weekend (Jan 27 to 30) on Potato Lake. we have had great success fishing for pike with tip-ups, but have had no success for crappies or sunnies. the lake has a good population of big panfish, but we have not been able to find them. i have posted in the Park Rapids forum and am waiting for info from there, but was hoping that someone (Matt Johnson or some other Crappie master out there) could give me some basic ideas on where to look and what to try. i am very familiar with Potato Lake from bass fishing during the spring, summer and fall, so if there is a certain kind of structure or area i should look for i should be able to find it.

thanks

andy

[Matt Breuer]

Since Park Rapids is relatively close to Bemidji I thought I'd chime in. The fish here in Bemidji are still using the main lake basins, the deepest holes in the lakes. I would suggest finding a hole that hits the 30-35 foot range and look for them suspended there. As the season progresses the fish begin moving up the slopes. Later season we find pods in 17' roaming during the day, also weed edges late season. Hope this helps! Good luck!

[Matt Johnson]

Hey Andy,

How'd the open water season finish up for you? Land anymore 6 pounders?

Potato Lake huh, that lake has a pretty good sunfish population too. I'm with Breuer, I would check out the mainlake holes and look for suspended fish during the evening if you're targeting crappies. I would also look at the steeper breaklines straight out from where the sharpest break is. Lately I've noticed that some of the bigger slabs are cruising areas that you typically find walleyes right now, just another option to take a look at.

I would avoid the shallows unless you are targeting sunfish, the shallow water bite has seemed to really slow down for crappies and the ones you do get are generally small. The sunfish are still shallow though, say 15 feet or less. I would target anywhere from 25-45 feet for crappies right now. It's a big chunk of water, but holes and depressions can vary. Large underwater points with any inside turns will work too.

I would also work a 1/16 oz red glow jigging spoon packed with some maggots or a minnow head. That seems to do the trick on those deeper water crappies. The hot action bite is pretty short lived right now too and the window is only lasting for about an hour, then it's one here and one there type of stuff. Sundown and sunrise are the two prime times.

Another technique to use, that I normally use for perch but has been working very well for crappies lately, is a dropper rig. Tie on a jigging spoon and remove the treble and then add a 3-4 inch piece of flourocarbon with a size 10 or 12 horizontal glow jig tipped with a single maggot. The crappies have been more than eager to approach the jigging spoon, but they are beginning to get more and more finicky and won't hit it. By adding the dropper they will approach the jigging spoon, see the dropper and then hit that. Add plus, it's nice to have that extra weight when fishing deeper water to get the jig down too. Another nice thing about fishing a dropper rig in deeper water on finicky fish is that the jig has a lot less tendency to spin because of the small amount of line between the jig and the spoon. That can be a big advantage on negative days especially when you have to try and lower a tiny jig 40 feet without making it spin.

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[sami0115]

i will try my best... hopefully we can come across a few slabs.. other wise we will be targeting the pike..

thanks for the info