Amazing day! Prespawn crappie schools galore!
Last time I fished this particular lake was too late in the season (June 2017) when the heavy weeds in spots wouldn't even allow a trolling motor to push a boat without getting tangled. Today the water temp ranged from 59-69 - perfect for prespawn activity. Schools are the usual indication crappie are in prespawn mode especially when adjacent to the flats they usually spawn on.
This lake had flats with rock walls that are near drops that go down fast to 10'. On the shallow side of the wall in 3', my partner and I caught crappie on consecutive casts - over 15 in one instance - and the largest crappie I measured was 12.5" with the average 10.5" -11". The pattern was repeated moving north against a stiff 20 mph wind and chill 65 degrees. Bass and especially sunfish were also abundant, hitting the same lures and in many colors.
When the bite was very shallow, we switched to 1/32 oz jig heads; when a bit deeper, 1/16 oz did the trick. My partner finally was convinced of the need to use small diameter braid from here on in when using light jigs cast from his spincast reel. His mono had too much memory, twist and sag when working light plastics, resulting in missed strike and hook sets.
The Crappie Magnet and my similar cone tail grub worked great:
https://i.imgur.com/gGHgcFi.jpg?1https://i.imgur.com/ioTWIW8.jpg
CM tail attached to a different body:
https://i.imgur.com/wTaQJbE.jpg
Slider Worms reduced in length were slammed!:
https://i.imgur.com/IKb1x1j.jpg
...as did this hand poured worm"
https://i.imgur.com/m12Z0Fo.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/byErBNI.jpg
Spike tails also worked:
https://i.imgur.com/0zNArKh.jpg?1
*Picture for illustration only of lure design used.
Too bad I only caught one very large perch. Most are waiting to raid crappie nests and aren't in shallow yet. Can't complain with over 80 fish caught and released!
