Finding fish where you don't expect to....

[Crappie Kid]

3 years ago I found a huge school of Crappies on a well known central mn lake while searching for walleyes with my Vex. I did not expect to find them on the bottom in 50 ft of water with sandy/gravel bottom(checked it with the underwater camera) anyways these fish were very large and only bit during daylight hours. Can anyone explain why they were there? Also, on another lake I was catching some nice 8 to 10 inch crappies in 28 ft when all of the sudden I get a large red blip on my vex 5 ft below the ice I reeled up quick and jigged in front of it and wham!! I reel up a 17 inch crappie. I was on a good friends semi-private lake and was begged to let it go.(He's a hard-core Muskyman who releases everything)anyways he says the bigger ones always are up high on "HIS" lake. I'm lucky he let's me fish there. My question again is why were these fish up there? food? natural selection?

[Walleye #1]

17"er is a flat out HOG!! Way to go nice catch. I have heard of similiar stories about crappies being that deep and on the bottom like that. Fishing can just be weird at times. That is what makes it a challenge, but still fun. You never know when you will come across something that you have never seen before.

Keep those rods bending
&
the Auger drilling

Walleye #1

[Guest]

What kind of forage is in the lake? Blood worm, scuds, etc? Since the fish were in 50 feet of water and hugging the bottom that explains the daytime bite. Light is almost at a minimum down at depths that low so the fish can't really distinguish between day and night when they are that deep, especially if there is ample snow cover. Also, if you said that the bottom content was sand and gravel then it is highly likely that those fish were scrounging up larvae and plankton off or out of the bottom floor.

As far as the crappies right below the ice in concerned, I would say that either oxygen in the lake is low or they were following forage. Often times baitfish will swim right below the ice and as expected, game fish will follow (crappies, walleyes, even lakers). Also, if this was at night then it could be possible that zooplankton rose off the bottom and made it to the top and formed groups or pods of plankton. These groups make easy targets for feeding crappies and since crappies has a distinct advantage over prey at night because of the larger size of their eyes and lenses they can see these groups of plankton and strike from below. The light from your hole could have also attracted the crappies. There are many components that can contribute to these occurances.

Last winter I was fishing on Green Lake (Chisago County) on a 8 foot weed bed. I was catching 7-9 inch crappies and decided to head to deeper water to see if I could find suspended crappies. And suspended crappies I found, suspended 12 feet off the bottom in 13 feet of water, and if you do the math that places them a foot below the ice. I managed to catch three nice 13 inchers before the hole went dead. No 17 inchers but I think its still the same idea that you are getting at. I dropped an underwater camera down and found a school of baitfish right under the ice just sitting there. The crappies were gobbling up these baitfish as they sat defenseless in the open water, trapped between the ice and a hord of hungry crappies. As far as these fish being larger then the ones located near the weed beds, its a matter of shelter. Larger crappies are less susseptible to predators then those 7-9 inchers. The 7-9 inchers will stay closer to the weeds to seek safety in the weeds during early winter. As the season pregresses you will find these smaller crappies forming groups and staying close to the bottom on drop-offs and deeper holes, only rising off the bottom to feed at night when they have the advantage over their predators. Thats why during the midwinter months you have a hard time catching crappies consistantly during the day. Twilight bites become the standard for crappie ice anglers during midwinter. Once late ice comes into play then the crappies will move back into the areas where they will spawn (back bays, shallow bays, shallow reefs, transition points, etc).

Sorry if I rambled on but crappie fishing is what I spend most of the time during the winters months doing. I'm currently writing a book on the matter so if anyone else has any other insight it would be greatly appreciated. Or if you have anymore questions let me know. Either post or drop me an e-mail.

([email protected])

Good Fishin, Matt.

[Gissert]

Several years ago we were fishing on LOW. We had come out of the Angle, and were south of Garden Island, just off Starren Shoal.

We did quite well on Saturday, so we went back out there on Sunday morning. We had a nice mixed bag of walleye, sauger, and perch. Shortly before we left around mid-morning, we started having small baitfish swimming in the holes and just below ice level. Tons of them, actually.

There were walleyes and saugers following, scraping their dorsal fins on the bottom of the ice. Some of these fish were not showing up on the vex, as they were actually ABOVE the transducers.

[HOGEYE]

I've had much the same experience. Done lots of crappie fishing in small private lakes near St. Cloud. One lake every winter in fifty feet of water they are suspended at different levels. The hawgs (14-18") fish are usually two feet under the ice while the rest are in three different layers stratified at fifteen foot intervals. Sometimes I'll get sunfish down to the first fifteen feet as well.

[Eyewitness]

Interesting that you bring this subject up. This fall while trying to target some eyes on one of my local lakes, I couldn't even graph any fish where I had just caught them days before. After searching and searching I was moving from a point to an underwater hump and was going over 60-65' of water in the main lake basin. This lake also has some lake trout in it, and when i started marking fish 2-5' off bottom in 65' I thought to myself there must be some lakers down there, why not give it a whirl. After 5 minutes of jigging with a big rainbow minnow wouldn't you know I popped a 14" eye! Well I caught a few more and lost a few more in the next hour, but I would have NEVER gone to look there in the first place.....Last weekend up at LOW I was deicing my transducer in the hole. There was 7-8" of clear ice and my iceducer was hanging 2" below that. Well, I dropped my iceducer back into the hole after crunching the ice off when all of the sudden my iceducer float comes popping right up out of the hole! I look down in time to see a 20# class pike swimming directly under my hole with the transducer bouncing off its back. The ice was very clean and clear right below me and I litorally could of taken a picture of her. She was actually touching the bottom of the ice! Never seen anything like that before, and never would have targeted big pike 12" down in 19' of water either. Pretty strange stuff. Just when you think you got it all figured out...whammy! something comes aong to blow your mind. What a great sport!

[fiskyknut]

Cool- I've had my transducer attacked a few times over the years too on LOTW. Last year at the S. tip of Buffalo I had one grab it and pull, had to grab my flasher as it was being pulled into the hole! Scared the dump out of me too.

Fisky

[mistermom]

I know I'm preaching to the choir here but, if you don't use electronics you are fishing blind. Fish aren't where you think they will be all the time. I fish with guys who still won't invest in a flasher or something to see fish. They always come over and watch my flasher and watch me catch more fish. But they won't fork over the $250 for a unit. Then they complain about the lousy "luck." You get what you pay for.

mm

[Crappie Kid]

Thanks for the replies.Merry xmas 8~)

[Guest]

Welcome to the forum panfishhunter!

Good Fishin, Matt.

[Gonzo]

So you guys have had your transducers attacked? Uh Oh! A couple of my buddies said that happened to them while we were on LOW on two different trips, and I said they should lay off the schnapps. I was even in the house with them and thought they were being wise guys!It's not like it was the first time these guys have pulled my rattle wheel, but when they read this, They'll be drinking my schnapps again!

[rap]

pig_sticka: i've had the same thing happen with a slightly bigger perch. i was fishing a lake that was stunted with very little perch.. i lowered a plain hook down the hole on my bobber rod to check the depth with the big lead weight that many people use to check the depth of bobbber rods... i put it down to the bottom and pulled up the line and there was a 2.5 inch perch with his mouth somehow wrapped around my weight! i couldn't believe it. that lake is very stunted and the perch were very hungry, i probably caught over 200 perch that day on a plain jig, i finally got sick of reeling those stupid things up and left!

[This message has been edited by rap (edited 12-06-2002).]

[panfishhunter]

the easiest and best way to explain why you are finding fish were you are is because that is were the food is. The fish are where they are because they are feeding there. The fish on the bottom may be sucking in blood worms and such while the fish that are cruising maybe finding minnows. Any fish that is caught is because he is hungry, and is in a feeding mode.

[Pig_sticka]

i dont really have any neato stories like those. i once caught a 1 inch perch on a rapala seriously it was hooked in the mouth and its mouth was just big enough for the hook tip to go in it. i am betting that is real close to the smallest fish ever caught, it must have just hatched a couple days before i caught it.

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Good luck sticking pigs this year!