The Panfish Trifecta....

[Jim Hudson]

WOW......is all I can say about this little gem of a lake that I fished today... With word about big crappies and 'gills that this little pot hole was supposabely to have, two friends and I set off on the journey back to this lake... And boy were we pleasantly suprised on our findings...

I named this post The Trifecta, due to the fact that this lake held crappies, 'gills, and perch... And the weird thing... Is they were all BIG!!! Something you usually never see... On most waters, it usually holds 1 or maybe 2 species of big panfish, but not this lake... You definately got your cake and ate it too!!

The fish were pretty non-aggressive though, probably due to the fact the lake is filled with food to produce the size of fish we were catching. But with a little teasing and temptation, the fish couldnt resist our offerings!!

There was no real hot jig as each of us were using different things, but one thing did matter.. And that was plastic color and type... The fish were really keyed in on the Little Atom Wedgie and this hot little plastic had to be the color green for the fish to commit... So, as I have mentioned before, when on a tough bite... Do experiment with plastic type and color before going through the jig box and switching up...

Here are a few photos from today... Not one of the bull gills we iced today were under 9.5 inches (the biggest stretched the tape to 10.5)... none of the crappies were under 13 inches (the biggest was 15.25)... and the perch were all over 12 inches(biggest being 12.75) Unbelievable.. I think I am still dreaming...

[Team Otter]

Very nice!

[harvey lee]

Looks like you guys hit the mother load. Very nice fish.

[BDR]

Awesome day Jim!! Congrats

[rangerforme]

Nice fish! There are still quite a few lakes that have fish like this around, just have to get away from the metro and be willing to adventure a bit.

[Studer]

Very sweet!!! Looks like you guys had an awesome time out there!!! What lake were you on?? Please give me the GPS Coordinates!!! Just kidding. Keep that one to yourself. Nice work gentleman. I hope to find one of those lakes around Saint Cloud.

[schr0563]

I am curious if you could share the approximate size of the lake and max depth. I am forever in search of a lake such as that one and I'm interested in knowing what it takes to produce fish like that. Big and shallow? Small and really deep?

[Matt Johnson]

Good work Jim! Nice fish buddy! Gotta love the plastics bite!

[Eyehawk]

Lakes that do not get the fishing pressure, and people catch and release anything over 9 inches or over for blugills, and release everything 13" or over for crappies. Studer you will have a tough time find a lake like that in the St. Cloud area, or virutially impossible in my opinion. But nice fish guys, did you weigh any of the crappies or bluegills? If its a true 10 1/2 inch bluegill it should be in the 1 lb to 1 lb 3 oz range. But looks like you guys had a memorable day of fishing!

[Jim Hudson]

Eye

You hit the nail on the head with your post about the lakes that hold big fish... We CPR'd all fish we caught that day, as we do so with all these big panfish. No weights were taken, just quick measurements and quick photos before the release... The 'gills were definately in the lb or more range, very thick through the back... Here is another one that was caught...

[whitetips]

Nice fish,

I've seen bigger ones than those and the type of lake is usually walleye,pike,bass, with the pike on the smaller side to keep the panfish in check, there are thousands of lakes across Northern MN in this class. What does it take, Lack of building around the shoreline, shiner population to feed the crappie and perch. Once had a spot like that, but I let a fella see what was in the bucket, Oh well. Anyway at least we had fun while it lasted, the other thing that helps is laying off the spring and summer harvest also the winters have been mild, so the tougher the winter is the less pressure.

If you are catching nice fish in a isolated area, thats usually the extent of the population, or I should say the major concentration. At least 150-270 miles from the Twin cities usually for that size. To me if large crappie are your thing Red is the place to be.

[Corey Bechtold]

Sounds like a gem of a lake. Lakes like that are true sleepers and if word got out there would be people that would come and devistate that fishery. Guard that lake with your life!

Good job,

Corey Bechtold

[DEADhead]

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the other thing that helps is laying off the spring and summer harvest also the winters have been mild, so the tougher the winter is the less pressure.

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There are many reasons why populations of large panfish may be present in a lake. Genetics play a big role, no doubt, but competition is probably the biggest factor when it comes to size structure in a given panfish population. Too much competition in a population (i.e. high numbers of fish) often leads to stunting. Unless you harvest the small fish from the population, you'll probably never recover from a stunted fish population outside of a fish kill. Selective harvesting is probably the most efficient way of preventing stunting. If you look closely, there are several lakes in Otter Tail county where there are special regs on crappies and sunfish, with a minimum size limit. These regs were designed to reduce stunting and increase harvest of smaller fish.

Another big role in size structure, is the tendency of a lake to winterkill. Believe it or not, your best bet for finding large panfish will be in a lake that regularly winterkills. Having this massize die off allows the remaining fish in the lake to exploit forage, and the result are fish that grow at an accelerated rate. I've tied into some crappies that make URL slabs look puny on some of these lakes. It should be noted, however, that these lakes do not support large numbers of these giant fish. Simple population dynamics demonstrates that there is only a finite amount of biomass that can be supported in a lake. The resulting population structure for most fish is simplified as follows:

high number of fish = smaller overall size

moderate number of fish = evenly distributed size structure

low number of fish = large fish

In a closed environment, the biomass of a fish population is constant, and you cannot have an increase in size of fish, without a decrease in numbers of fish.

[schr0563]

Great info everyone, keep it coming. I'm still curious as to the answer to my question I posted earlier. Was this lake big and shallow (greater than 200 acres, less than 20 feet deep) or was it small and deep (<200 acres, >35 feet of water)? I agree with the theory that fish in lakes prone to winterkill grow faster than average, and can therefore be larger than average. This would point to a shallower lake. As I posted earlier, I am just trying to focus in on a lake structure that will increase the odds of having a fish population such as this lake did. I would give up all my local fishing hotspots to find one lake where I had a decent chance at getting a crappie at or above 16 inches long. I don't want any of the URL 14-15 inch fish, just one true monster. So far I haven't found that little secret lake, but one can dream right!

[Jim Hudson]

This lake was under 200 acres and approximately 25 feet deep.

[DEADhead]

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Was this lake big and shallow (greater than 200 acres, less than 20 feet deep) or was it small and deep (<200 acres, >35 feet of water)?

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I've found huge slabs in both types of lakes around here. I don't think it's the size or depth of the lake, as so much its eutrophic state. Many of the lakes in this area are mesotrophic (some are even borderline eutrophic), and that seems to be the key for large slabs around here.

[Dobber]

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Was this lake big and shallow (greater than 200 acres, less than 20 feet deep) or was it small and deep (<200 acres, >35 feet of water)?

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I've found huge slabs in both types of lakes around here. I don't think it's the size or depth of the lake, as so much its eutrophic state. Many of the lakes in this area are mesotrophic (some are even borderline eutrophic), and that seems to be the key for large slabs around here.

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Deadhead,

I don't have my "Trophic for Dummies" book with me today. Could you please translate your post into Average Joe English? Thanks.

Dobber

[DEADhead]

forgive my laziness, but there was a discussion on this subject this past fall in this forum. My brief post on the subject can be found here. Hope that helps.

[Bobb-o]

oligotrophic= deep rocky, very little weeds (think canadian shield lakes)

mesotrophic = medium depth lake with medium amount of plant growth

eutrophic= very shallow, very fertile lake (these are the ones that will winter kill in bad winters without either aeration or current)