I still Crappie Fish

[wicklundrh]

It has been awhile since I have been out chasing the pan fish. Too long I would guess. I've spent most of the spring fishing for walleye and trying to master my craft.

Memorial weekend is NOT the time to be on the water if you are from Michigan. That is unless you don't mind dodging personal watercraft, people pulling tubes and skiers, and anyone else that thinks a license to operate a boat comes with the owners manual. I spend Saturday doing custom farming work for a longtime customer of mine. Sunday I spent doing work at my place. Brian and I did manage to hit a local pond that I have not fished in quite awhile. Did some bank fishing and managed to catch around a dozen large mouth bass. Brian caught one crappie.

I figured that Monday afternoon would be a decent time to hit one of my local favorites. Give the travelers time to vacate their campsites and get their boats out of the water. We hit the lake around 5:15 and headed to a known spawning ground we have previously discovered. We took note that the water temperature (surface) was 78 degrees. We made one pass tossing some soft plastics and only managed one large mouth. I assumed that the spawn was finished. In hind sight, I wish I would have thrown a minnow or three up that way. During the spawn, this area just doesn't seem to produce near as much on soft plastics as it does on live bait.

We moved out to around 8ft of water and found a cluster of weeds about 20x20 foot. We drifted next to it and each of us picked up a crappie. I used spot lock to keep us up wind of the weeds and we casted back into the pockets and on the sides of the weeds. We managed to catch 22 crappies and kept 19. I think Brian included a few of his throw backs into the livewell!! Most fish were caught on minnows below a bobber using a standard size 4 gold Aberdeen hook and sinker.


Took Bugofficer with me yesterday to the Bay for a little walleye fishing. Got a two person 16 fish limit in just a hair over 2 hours and had lots of fun doing it. The waves were more than predicted but it wasn't a big deal. Same area I told a couple of friends about last week. They told me that the area didn't have anything to offer. I guess they don't know what they are doing!