"North of the Border" crappies

[eyepatrol]

For all the crappie experts...

I fish Rainy Lake on the Canada side each year in July. I know there are some nice slab crappies up there (2 pounders and bigger), but have never been able to find them. I think my main problem is, I don't know WHERE to start looking for them.

A little backround info to let you know about....

The area we fish is Northwest Bay of Rainy Lake. Northwest Bay is somewhere in the area of about 8 miles long and probably 1 or 2 miles wide (depending on what part of the bay you're at). The entire bay is basically 28ft to 30ft deep with the exception of about 2 or 3 areas that get down to 35ft to 40ft deep. It's a Canadian shield lake, so the shoreline is mostly rock with the small and big bays being cabbage weeds. There are lots of islands, probably 25 or better in Northwest bay. There are even more sunken rock humps (sunken islands). Some are slow tapering up to 15ft and others are rapid drop-offs from 3ft to 28ft. Obviously there are many, many points in the bay too. The water has somewhat of a brown tint to it. The water temps in July are typically around the 68 to 72 degree range. I've never marked a thermocline on my locator, but from my swimming experiences, the water starts to get colder at about 6ft to 8ft deep. There is one bay that is identified as a "no fishing" zone which lasts until about mid-June. There is a narrows that is at the mouth of this bay which is probably about 200 feet wide. The bay itself is probably about a mile in diameter with a long channel at one end of it that leads into the bay. Many of the crappies are said to spawn in the bay where this no-fishing zone is located, my guess is the crappies head up into the channel that leads into the bay. There is also another area of the lake about 7 miles from this spot which crappies are said to spawn.

So, my question(s) is this. Where would one start looking for summertime crappies on a large body of water such as this, that has many islands, many underwater humps, many small and large bays and many points? I've posted a similar question in the Canada forum, but the responses I've gotten is that I'm going up there the wrong time of year. No matter what time of year though, the fish are in there somewhere and still need to feed, which means they can be caught.

Wondering if anyone can help me out on this one as I have no clue where to look (and no clue what depth either). The locals and resort owner are pretty "wishy-washy" when asked about where to find crappies, so I haven't been able to get much info from them. The areas I've tried in the past include some of the steeper drop-off points, a couple of the steep drop-off underwater rock humps, some of the islands with steep drop-offs, and between some islands where the water drops off steeply and the islands are separated by like 200 feet.

Thanks in advance for the help!!!

[ozzie]

I wish I could help ya but I can't. I have though stayed at a resort when I was youner and we slayed the slabs on Rainy. If I recall they just happened to be biting in a certain area and we got lucky!! I believe we were there in the begining of august. I wish I was a better crappie angelr to help you out but all I can say is ask the locals and hopefully they will be kind and help you out. I do recall the crappies were suspended in like 40 feet of water and we used slip bobbers.

[CrappieJohn]

I'd suggest moving this thread to the Rainy Lake forum and have them help out. Fishmeister is an excellent source of info in that forum. As a matter of fact, he and his brother have their mugshots on the front page with some nice crappies from there.

[eyepatrol]

CrappieTom

I think I made a mistake when I said I tried this post in the Canada forum, it was actually the Rainy Lake forum. Fishmeister and the others basically said that I was up there the wrong time of year, that the crappies are easiest to find in spring, fall and winter. Although they may be easiest to find at those times of the year, they are still somewhere in the lake to be had. I was just wondering if anyone had an idea of where to start, what type of structure to target....some kind of info on trying to pattern summer crappies on a Canadian shield lake such as Rainy.

I suppose my best bet would be to start looking in areas similar to where crappie stage here in southern MN. Perhaps over the deeper holes, areas of steep drop-offs and the like. It's such an expansive body of water that it's difficult to know where to start. Probably the best thing to do is to target various types of structure and see if anything produces.

By the way...would you happen to know how far crappie will move from their spring spawning grounds? Would they swim to over a mile to find their summer holding areas or do they typically stay within a mile of where they spawn? I guess if I had an idea to this question it may help reduce the amount of water I'd try to search/cover.

[CrappieJohn]

Bass....

Crappies are roamers after the spawn. They will not travel super far though-they are not designed for distance.

When you got up there, get a map of where you want to fish. Ask at a tackle shop a couple of things: where do they spawn, and where is the deepest area they occupy during the winter. They will be somewhere in between those two areas. Look for structural vantage points on that route....points humps, channels, weeds with deep edges. These are all places to look for crappies but they can be anywhere in the water column so searching is still going to be required.

If you can locate crappies not quite the size you think you are looking for, up-size. A 1/4 jig and a three inch Exude twister or something like a pogo style shad will not be out of the ordinary on large fish in warmer water. Working a # 9-11 rapala along weedlines might be an option. Casting and counting down before slowly retrieving a #3 Mepps spinner can turn them.

Large fish may be present in the waters there, but remember that they are large for a reason. Catching a few is something one can expect, but these biggies are super elusive and hopes of huge numbers of them are not the rule. There are days when it happens, but if you bank on it, well.....

To boost your odds I'd say stay alert. When one of those super-dutys comes to you, you will want to be able to do exactly what you were doing to get that one.

[eyepatrol]

CrappieTom

Thanks much for the suggestions. That will help me reduce the amount of water I decide to search...by quite a bit. I know of two areas where the crappies spawn and can now focus my attention to the areas nearby.

My grandparents went out with a local guy one time about 15 years ago and hammered the 1.5 pound crappies. Unfortunately, they get confused as to which bay they were in. One bay leads into another and they just can't remember if it was the first or the second bay they fished.

With the information you've given though, I should be able to select some locations on my map to look for crappies. The one bay that is closed in the spring for spawning is about a mile in diameter, and I'll probably concentrate my search efforts within or nearby that area.

If it doesn't work out and I'm not able to find them, that is perfectly fine with me as Rainy Lake has lots of other fishing to offer such as walleye, pike and smallies. I can always catch those types of fish, but it bugs me that I can't find the crappies. It's like a tough mathematical problem....you know there's an answer, you just can't figure out how to get it and it frustrates you!

Thanks again.