Summertime Crappies?

[kevheads]

Will be up in the Ely area the first week of August and don't have a clue where to find summertime crappies.The lake we'll be on shows a good crappie population according to the DNR site.But the lake is a deep glacier lake with alot of islands,sparce weed growth to 7 ft. The only structure is points,flats and shallow bays,no underwater humps on the topo map.Where would you start your search for them? TIA

[CrappieJohn]

Welcome to the greastest fishing webpage around-FishingMinnesota.com! Always happy to see a new name and hopefully a new facw someday.

From your info, I am assuming you are talking mid-summer. I am also going to assume that this is quite clear water too. I'd begin with the map and look for those points which offer a number of things:

A northern exposure for daytime shade;

Being adjecent to a shallow bay and also adjecent to the deep flat water;

Largish, vertical rocks and boulders.

You will need something to shelter the fish a bit, so I'd start somewhere where the large rocks and rubble stack up along a point near the shallower bay water, but is found in the deeper water. I'd try to determine the depth of the water at the transition from shallow to deep and use that depth over the deeper water and rubble.

During the daytime if the water is very clear, look for fish to be relating to the shade-line in the deeper water off points. These will likely be suspending fish and not relating to structure other than the point/deep/ shallow relationship.

In periods of low-light and on heavily clouded days I'd be more than willing to slip into the bays and work any flat water back in them. If you can find rock/rubble piles be sure to fish around and atop those.

You stated the water is weed poor. Back in those bays you might stumble across some non-emergent weeds. If you can find any that have 10-15 feet of water over them, back the boat out as far as a long cast and set a float to hold the bait JUST over the tops of those weeds.

Do not be afraid to down-size baits or to up-size baits.

Being a glacial lake, the one thing I's suggest taking along is a thermometer designed to be sunk for a minute or so. Put the thing on a stout cord and use it. When you find water that approaches 55 degrees and up, you can start to talk crappies. Personally, if the water is already quite warm, I'd look for a thermal breakline(thermocline) on a deepwater flat and fish just on the top of that temperature transition.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Kev-I really dont have anything to add to what Crappie Tom wrote... he really knows his stuff... However, I did also want to welcome you to FishingMinnesota.com.. great to have you on board!