any pointers?

[kdawg]

Went out on Forest Lake today after marking a number of spots on my GPS last night. Started out at 12:30 and began in around 5-7 feet - no fish. Moved many, many times to many depths. Caught small perch in some spots, and then caught small sunnies in others, small sunnies were around 10 feet. Most spots that I fished had weeds on the bottom and I tried to fish somewhat near structure such as a 12 foot shelf area adjacent to deeper water. I used very small jigs and used either euro larvae or the bigger grubs (waxies). I found fish holding in the deepest holes, but these fish really weren't interested. I had the best luck with small jigs but a bigger grub - the eurolarvaes were pretty unproductive. Finally, at the end of the night (I had to leave to take my daughter to movie) which was prime time -5:30- I caught a decent size crappie with a tiny jig but I had a crappie minnow on, and I jigged it upward and got him to chase it upwards. Prior evenings sitting at this same deep hole, I would usually catch 6 to 8, but only a few of decent size. My approach was to try and look everywhere as my luck hadn't been the greatest at these deep spots, but as the situation turns out, I really couldn't get any action with any decent fish at any shallower depths (20 feet or less). Should I just try a different lake? Am I missing something here? Thanks.

[Rick]

I can't speak for Forest Lake but the things you are saying remind me of what I've been seeing and suggest that you might want to try fishing the basins on the shoreline sides of them and upsize as well as use a crappie minnow and checking mood swings using the waxies as a change-up.

Click Here to se the pattern I'm on right now

1/16th oz Go Devil Crappie

Click Here to se the pattern I'm on right now

[kdawg]

Thanks for the info. Rick. Btw, I am pretty new at this, so by "basin" you mean the deeper holes? Thanks again.

[CrappieJohn]

dawg....

Basically any depression in the lake floor can be a basin. Some are huge, some maybe only a matter of feet. Regardless, it is the difference in depth that is the key.

I always look at crappies under the ice from the onset to the end as being in three seperate phases. The first and last involve larger, more aggressive baits and that one in between being the one where a person has to down-size to be successful. Right now we are starting to see signs that the last phase is coming into it's own.

We've seen some advances in the jigging spoon designs in the last couple years, but most of this has come to the attention of the anglers in the last year. JBlures makes a Jigging Eye which is perhaps the most aggressive in this 1/16 ounce arena, followed by the Scenic Go Devil in 1/16 and 1/8 ounce models being the next aggressive and finally we come to the size 6 and 4 in the Custom Jigs Jigging Demon. The Frosty Jigging spoon is also in this last catagory.

Except immediately after a storm passage or the bottom dropping out of the thermometer over night, I start my fishing with one of these spoons, usually in a glo red, and loaded with euros or waxies. 5 or 6 even if the fish will hit that much bulk. Fished as such, these baits are noisier than the subtle jigs like the Marmooskas and the Wolframs and will attract fish by noise and flash. It is not uncommon to find no marks at a hole and drop one of these down in the drink only to have several fish charge right in and the chase begins.

Right now I would start to look at deep water as a post-front water. The basin lips will likely act as magnets for the crappies which are probably beginning to roam. Keep in mind now that roamers are feeders. If you can find weeds deep along the lips of this(these) basin(s), they too will serve to hold fish for a while. A kind of catch 22 here is that the fish that are actively roaming one day on these lips will never get too far from deep water, the deepest in the immediate area, and use it if the weather does a flip-flop.

Moving to another water is one of those decisions only you can make and be comfortable with. Me? I'm a die-hard and am convinced that there is always something that will fool the fish, but that is why I get fooled by the fish so often. Once I come across a structural elemnet that has given up fish in the past I will work it until I know it almost by rote. Maybe I don't have luck right off at a place, but when the bite does start I have the upper hand by knowing what that spot is about. Ther are no loses in fishing unless you just quit.

I'd stickthis one out for a while....like thru the weekend. Up-size to larger, noisier jigs and workthem with more activity than what you are used to. And work the whole water column. Lots of big crappies will zoom in on a bait at ten fett and hit it right at the ice. And at this time of year, don't be startled by fish hitting that your locator didn't show....they are flying in from outside of the cone and things will happen faster than you can almost react. If you are fishing small, you might be getting over-looked.

[kdawg]

Thanks fella's. I swear, I've learned more since joining this site than I coulda done on my own in ten years. I really appreciate the info and I'm planning on going back to the 'ol drawing board, drawing up a new plan, and hittin the ice tomorrow eve.

[CrappieJohn]

If you can find a map with decent detail, buy it. These are a great help while at home wondering about a body of water and what secrets it may hold. Lots of times you can see or locate potential sites to concentrate on without having to spend three days drilling holes.

[Dan Thiem]

Good solid info Tom! When is that book coming out?

[eyepatrol]

I think he's already written it, we just need to go back through the history of his posts and piece it together! Although, I'm sure this is one book that will never have an ending.

Nice post Tom. I sure do enjoy reading them and taking info from them.

[eyepatrol]

Quote:

---

Except immediately after a storm passage or the bottom dropping out of the thermometer over night, I start my fishing with one of these spoons, usually in a glo red, and loaded with euros or waxies. 5 or 6 even if the fish will hit that much bulk. Fished as such, these baits are noisier than the subtle jigs like the Marmooskas and the Wolframs and will attract fish by noise and flash. It is not uncommon to find no marks at a hole and drop one of these down in the drink only to have several fish charge right in and the chase begins.

---

Thanks for the tip CT! This morning I was using a size 6 glow-red demon jigging spoon tipped with a minnow and was catching some fish, but missing quite a few. I remembered reading this post last night, so I took the minnow off and tipped it with 2 euros and what a difference that made! Crappies were MUCH more agressive on this presentation, but even better, my catch rate increased significantly! I mean a lot! And yes, I was sitting there with a blank screen (except the spoon) and all of a sudden I'd see a mark shoot up from under my jig and hammer it without hesitation. It was a blast!

Thanks again. Another valuable lesson learned.

[CrappieJohn]

We found the opposite where we were at. The spoons got one fish and it was small. Two of the bunch were housed up over a sunken tree in 24 feet of water with some substantial clutter spread around it. The bottom three feet of water was literally unfishable. Some good camera work was showing the sunfish setting, yes setting, right on top of the larger limbs and crappies sliding in and out of the limb tips. The crappies hit only in the thick of this maze and generally on #8 Ratsos/worms or a minnow hung down there. A few larger crappies were taken but again, they came from inside this thicket and it covered a small area.

The sunfish were very negative yesterday. I had to have that bait right on the nose of the fish I managed and even then I had to use the smallest Wolfram I own with only a portion of a euro.

This lake has a long steep shoreline where we were fishing and the average water depth is 24 feet with some 30+ water right handy too. It was the general consensus yesterday that the crappies were neutral, but on the move....cruising this deep shoreline. Also was the opinion of the others that we had to have over twenty feet to stay in the company of the fish. After twenty feet were saw and marked fish freely, they just did not hit....anything.

This is a tough lake. The fish should have begun their shift by now with open water showing further up stream in a few places,but I think that the severe cold after the warm January messed the fish up there big time.