Spring is riss...

Magnolias and forsythia are blooming in Minneapolis, it is only March 22nd. Way early!

But the crappie bite is on. Below is one of some dozens of crappies two of us took this evening in about 2 and a half hours. None of the rest was this size though, mostly 8/9 inches. All were put back to bite another day.

13 and 1/4" The long
Attachment 86061


And the short of it
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This little cutie actually bit on the inch and a half tube you see in its mouth. One for the Dink Chronicles. This was the long and the short of it for me anyway. My partner has a much more impressive tale, but that is for another thread.

The crappies were in the back of a shallow cove. Air temp was in the mid 60's and there was a light drizzle. Pods kept coming and going. The bite was on the tubes, on black Twisters, on rattail baby shad baits, on tiny rapalas and my big crappie came on the tiny Salmo you see in the mouth of the crappie above. The bite would die down every once in a while as a muskie would cruise through. Shoreline fishermen using minnows were doing a whole lot worse. Mostly they sat. Both of us were rigged with 5' UL rods and 4# clear GAMMA copolymer line.

Very nice!

Thanks, Woody.

We are seeing more of this size fish in recent years, since some of these Metro lakes got tagged with a consumption advisory on the bluegills and crappies. Before that buckets of smaller fish were taken off regularly resulting in an almost complete disappearance of true slabs and an average size of 6-8 inches. The oldtimers were adamant that the size of the local crappies used to be much bigger. Even discounting a bit for fish stories, the word was just too common to completely ignore. The average is now closer to 7 or 8 to 10 and the slabs have reappeared. I really wish they would post a lot more signs about the consumption advisories. Lakes without consumption advisories still normally only produce the smaller size range.

I haven't much fished the little plugs for crappies before, either; so it was pretty exciting to take this one on about the second cast. My fishing partner was taking a number of average fish on the little Rap; so I dug into the bottom of my bag of tricks for something similar. I couldn't find any more with it though; so I swapped out to a plastic tail on the little jigs, which is what I generally use in one combination or another. The true slabs still only come in ones and two around here, but they are back for those who work hard enough for them.

Since this is deep in the Metro there were enough spectators that we will probably not be able to work that spot again for a while. When the word goes out on a catch like we had, crowds of wannabees show up almost instantly around here. You can almost hear the cell phone conversations, and the crowds assemble quickly.

The crappies weren't really the big story though. I am waiting for my partner to send me pictures on that. I hope they turned out; I sorta fumbled his camera phone while taking them. That also got videoed so word is going out about it around here. One more reason that we probably won't be able to get back to that particular spot for a while.

I understand completely. Even up here in Gods Country you have to be careful with hot crappie spots. While we might not be shoulder to shoulder with today's technology a spot can get decimated
if someone GPS's and starts giving the coordinates out. That is why I don't allow GPS units to come along on winter crappie trips.
Best of luck this spring.
Woody

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Woody Woods

That is why I don't allow GPS units to come along on winter crappie trips.
Woody

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Very good practice here. I had a guy with me once that pulled such a stunt. When he asked to go to shore for a leak-break he left the unit on the boat seat. Oddly somehow the delete all prompt got pushed.

The bite down here has been something short of unbelievable. Mark Pothen asked about you Dutch. We fished a local lake on Tuesday and smoked the crappies big time. Weds handed another guy and I about the same. Time to switch tactics now and next weeks cooler temps will settle things down good too.

That's a dandy fish Dutch.

Thanks, CT. There are some few, very nice fish deep in the Metro, definitely.

That wasn't the big story of that evening though. Since my partner is a bit camera shy at least about posting I am going to go ahead and brag for him. He picked up some Lake Fork Live Baby Shad plastics from Bass Pro last week. With the two vertical compressions in the tail and the tiny ball at the end of it, they are very active baits. They proved to be hot on crappies even though at 2 1/4" they are a bit longer than we normally use. We rigged them on 1/32 uncollared ball head jigs. The bonus of the evening was that one of those produced a 20 1/4 inch very fat old hen largemouth for my fishing partner. This is the second year in a row that he has taken a 20"+ largemouth form inner city waters during early spring crappie fishing with his ultralight on the little plastics.

Curiously we also saw the same muskie he tangled with in the picture I posted in Fish Stories that evening. Muskies cruise through when we are crappie fishing quite a lot, and we get to be able recognize some of the individual fish. This one has some distinctive scarring on the head; so that was easy.

It is absolutely amazing to us that we tangle with so many different bonus fish on the small crappie plastics we use. So far this spring that includes both large and smallmouth bass, carp, muskies, sheephead and channel catfish already besides our targeted crappies and the occasional sunnie. You never know just what will snack on the little plastics next.

We have been having on and off good crappie fishing all along this winter and spring, although not in the same spots. We move all over. Sometimes we hit it and sometimes just the wrong place at the wrong time. Usually if the crappies are on the bonus fish aren't, and vice versa so we seldom post a real skunk. We don't very often kick that cat. :) I really don't expect the bite to slack off all that much, unless winter returns in earnest, and I sorta doubt it will this year. Since the ice is really gone for good, I expect the crappies and sunnies, too, will respond to any sun to move up into the shallows one place or another. There would be a real long slaughter season this year, if most crappie fishermen were all that competent. As it is there will be more than enough for my tastes anyway. We are already seeing the party groups that can legally take off a bucket full of fish, mostly they are just sitting around now though just drowning their minners.

Say hi to Pothen for me, if you see him. I sorta doubt I will go back there either to shop or to post myself. Sorta left a bad taste in my mouth, but that never included everyone.