Crappie Cronicles

[Traxxx]

Went out tonight on one of the local Brainerd area panfish lakes. Decided to fish a new spot and see if I couldn't find some crappies. The spot I fished was an underwater point extending out to the main basin. I started by looking at the H2O. Looking at the point, I decided to try, one of sides because it had more of a gradual feeding shelf off the one side, with a turn and it had more vegetation(in the summer). The point, of the point, was a sharp drop with not much of a feeding shelf. The other side was more of a staight break but had a small shelf I thought they could be, but decided the other side looked fishier. I drilled six holes starting in 13 fow out to 16' and back into 8' where I found green weeds. So, I started in the first hole I drilled and dropped a 1/16th ounce forage minnow spoon down. I dropped it to about six feet off the bottom and instantly here comes in, a nice mark from four feet off the bottom, nice crappie. Drop the spoon again, barely get the spoon on the Vexilar screen and another hits, three foot below the ice. Dropped the spoon down three more times, three more crappies all in under two minutes. Caught a couple sunnies and then it slowed. Reasoning that the crappies had moved, I jumped to the next hole and proceeded to catch another seven crappies, a couple more sunnies, a nice bass and a pike. After that hole slowed I went back to hole number one and the crappies were back. Caught a bunch more fish then slowed again. Decided to go try the hole, with the "green" weeds in it. Put the transducer down and all I saw was weeds. So I turned the FL-20 to the low power setting. This is really a handy feature, for weeds, if you have never tried it. It basically blocks most of the weeds, allowing you to see fish not just weeds. FYI...you may need to, turn up the gain, to see your jig. They were in the weeds too and feeding heavily on panfish fry. The 1/16th ounce forage minnow spoons, which mimic panfish fry, are a very efficient and effective bait for finding active panfish all season long. If you've never tried them, they take a little getting used to. Once you get the right jigging and confidence in them, they will produce fish faster and more efficient, than any other bait. You have to be able to read the mood of the fish, on the flasher, to determine how aggresive or subtle to jig but once you figure out how to get them to move, hang on. The crappies tend to like a more upward motion versus the sunfish like it jigged stationary or jigged subtlely down to them. A good sensitive rod helps in detecting some of the light bites. But when you get good at using a spoon, you will be able to make the fish bite and bite aggresive. Sometimes I will add some Gulp,waxie or larva to help if there is alot of sunfish or stubborn crappies but most of the time, I will fish them plain, no bait. Sometimes a minnowhead does the trick on the bigger crappies. Glow, especiallly after dark, is a really good attractant and trigger that some people may overlook as well. Right now, during the day you will find them in the shallows or on the break but after dark they have been sliding off the shallows into the basins areas. Good Luck. I posted this in the Brainerd forum but thought I would share some insight for the pannie nuts in here.

[redbandit]

Nice post. Thank you.

[ozzie]

what size crappies were you catching?

[fishersofmen]

Good info.

[Traxxx]

They were pretty nice fish.

[slurpie]

nice info ill have to try that.

[tacklebox7FF]

I would agree.. Good info.. you should become a guide, or product specialist