Thread: Crappie New Year on the Northwest River

I went fishing on the Northwest River last Friday, January 2. I arrived at the ramp kind of late, around 7:30 a.m., and by the time I ran to my spot and put my lines out, it was getting close to 8:30. It was a beautiful, overcast day that was mostly calm.

I got lucky, and by 12:30 p.m., I was packing it up and culling through a mess of fish trying to decide what to keep for supper.

I put out a whole group of rods: 8 long ones (16’ and 14’) out front, and 2 short ones (6’ and 7’) on each side of the bow. I pushed Little Pinkie jig/minnow and Baby shad/minnow combos about 7’ deep in 10 FOW. Chartreuse, white and any combo of those colors worked well. So did pink and white.

The yellow perch are in--nice ones with eggs. Although I was trying to stay in deeper water, when I drifted into 6 FOW, I would get bit. I caught five while trying to avoid them.

During the four hours I fished, I caught 23 crappie, 5 yellow perch, 2 fliers, 3 pickerel and 1 grendel.

The biggest crappie was around 13”, and the biggest yellow perch was just over 12”. I kept 15 of the biggest fish for dinners:

I only saw four other boats on the water that day…what a great way to start the New Year!

Good luck fishing!

Id