Lake City crappies

I was in Lake City on pool 4 this morning for some business at the DNR headquarters and when I finished there I hit the pond for some crappie action. I was not let down in the least.

In a couple hours of fishing I caught 6 darned nice keeper crappies to make tomorrow's dinner. I had several come un-pinned before they hit the hand and a couple real nice sunnies came off the hook and went back in the drink. I got a northern of about three pounds and a sheeper swung in for excitement and after I got stunk up removing it I decided I'd had enough fun for the day.

What a day to be out along the river. The wind was a companion but out of a direction that caused absolutely no problems. The sun was out strong and at 71 degrees on the 4th of April, who could harbor a complaint.

Plastic color, size and action all played into whether I got hit or not and several color changes were made in the couple hours on the water. What a day....great fishing to boot.

It has been real nice on the water. A little protection from the breeze and that sun has some power. The fish are definitely stirring too. The Minneapolis Park Board got it together early this year and has already put out most of its fishing docks. That is close to a month early. It seems like the short, mild winter has a lot of the gamefish in good shape and active early, too, not just the crappies and sunnies. That half dozen nice crappies should make for a real nice dinner. Enjoy!

I was back to the same area again this morning and caught 5 crappies period in three hours of jigging. The cold front that came barreling in last night brought high skies and wind with it and all of those factors combined to put the fish deep and bite shy. With the bright sun shade became a factor along with deeper water. I was able to find both next to a moored sailboat where I could sink my jig straight down and work the lower 5 feet of the 18 foot water. This is where I caught my fish. If I strayed into sun-lit water or water any shallower all I got dome was pass time. Wierd circumastances, but the same jig plastic combo did the taking.

Oh yeah! That fine shadow edge is so often critical!

My partner had the same experience as you last evening. He only managed 3 crappies for the hours we were out while I released more than a dozen from ALMOST the same exact spots. He was experimenting with a new piece of tiny hardware quite a bit of the time, though, learning it. His end of the evening waldo caught on it paid for all as far as he was concerned. All my crappies last evening came on jigs and various plastic tails, and they weren't fast and furious for me either. It seemed like if I caught one or maybe two crappies on a tail pattern the rest had seen all of it they wanted and I had to switch out. Most of those switches came up empty anyway.

Moored and even anchored boats can provide just that touch of a shaded edge necessary, as can swimming platforms. Far too many crappie fishermen do not look for that kind of overhead shade and just plain miss out.

It definitely also pays to move until you make contact regardless of whether one is on foot or in a boat. For us a lot of that initial contact is ticks and nibbles, very often sunnies, from which we try to sort out the one timers hoping they are crappies. Very often they are when those one timers are in the bottom layers, although they may not cooperate too well, in which case we move.

If they aint biting where you are, why waste any more time there!