Intro and report from Wednesday

[limeyangler]

Hi all,

Great site you got here. New to the forum and relatively new to crappie fishing.

I am in Northwest Ontario and love to fish all species. I found there were crappie in the lake we live on and have been chasing them now for 3 years.

I have only mananged to catch them post spawn once last summer, and have been lurking here for a while looking for new and better strategies.

Here is a video of my outing last wednesday followed by a more productive outing in the same spot 2 years ago. The last video shows how hot the bite can get when they are in the shallows. They are starting to move in now, water temps still around 48F. They were shallow and deep(1' - 15'FOW) of water on wednesday, but when the spawn gets under way its all in around 1' - 3' feet of water.

Season for crappie here is open all year round....limit of 15 per person.




THIS WEDNESDAY'S ADVENTURE
Slip bobber for Crappie, pike,bass and walleye..wmv - YouTube







2 SEASONS AGO..... SAME PLACE






I am going out this evening for 2 hours after dropping my boy off for swimming.......will have another report this evening...successful or not

[RBeav]

Nice thanks for sharing

[bdorman]

I'm not as far north as you (northern IL) but our water temp is still around 55-57. I hope our next warm spell sticks around for a while and gets us into the low-60s. I've been catching bass and northern pike, but crappie have been elusive.

Good luck!

[CrappiePappy]

Welcome to Crappie.com, Limey !!

Looking forward to exchanging ideas & strategies.

... cp

[RetiredRR]

From Texas too.

[skeetbum]

Welcome from Middle Tennessee. We might have the better weather but your fish up there are just fine. Good video, thanks for sharing with us.

[limeyangler]

I'm not as far north as you (northern IL) but our water temp is still around 55-57. I hope our next warm spell sticks around for a while and gets us into the low-60s. I've been catching bass and northern pike, but crappie have been elusive.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the replies guys.


Bdorman...i would have to agree.....i was surprised to even get one the other day. Surface temps were not above 52F, and that was with the wind blowing into that cove all day, would think the rest of that lake was around 48F MAX!!!

I think its when the temp hits what you described is when i get the best results...Not long now dependent on weather conditions.

[limeyangler]

Hi All,

My evil plan worked last night and I indeed did get out fishing. Ok...so here is where my evil, selfish plan comes in. Mum is at work....I am looking after my son Jack. It’s been a kinda busy day and I have not had much time to play with him...he is getting bored and restless.


Jack loves going in the boat....mum is taking him swimming from work at 6:30pm in town. Wabigoon River is behind the pool.

I asked Jack if he wanted to go for a ride in the boat to see mum for swimming....lol....the plan involved 3 of Jack's favourite things so I knew the answer would be yes.

I called mum to tell her to meet us at the dock...she was fine with that......then called my buddy Sven who said he'd join me for an hour in search of crappie.

Just as well my evil plan actually worked cuz I really had the itch to fish yesterday because I found a bunch of bobbers I did not know I had!

In a reply on another forum to a recent report I did, it was mentioned I should use clear Drennan floats for crappie, as they can get spooked by more ‘solid’ bobbers in shallow waters. I am not to convinced that this is the case, well…not when they are in spawn mode…I don’t think they are spooked by anything…maybe the case when the spawn is over…what do you guys think?

however, in reply to that I mentioned that these were the floats I normally use already but had not been able to get hold of any new ones since I stepped on my last one shore fishing walleye just before the ice arrived .

I actually have been using them for years...in particular for pier fishing mackerel and sea bass back in England.

That got me thinking..."hey....I have an old sea fishing tackle box!" and low and behold I dug it out of the garage rafters and opened it up to find.................












.................a bunch of Drennan floats and 'subfloats'(awesome as inline weightless livebait rig for sea bass)



In the end Sven caught the only crappie...another monster 14"er. We caught a ton of perch and even more hammer handles.

I think the water temps are still a little low for the spawn as the crappie Sven got came out of 14'FOW in front of the bays they spawn in. At least for once I have managed to find them where they are meant to be pre-spawn...even if in low numbers.....see....sometimes I do pay attention to what people tell me!

Surface temps creeping up around 52F. After all the excitement about the slip bobber, most of the fish including the crappie fell to jig/minnow presentations.

















WE WILL RETURN!

[Sandwich Maker]

Welcome! Very good and entertaining posts.

[windstone]

very beautiful country you got up there.... post more pics when your spawn hits. ours bout over, if not over, down here....strange seein you guys with coats and gloves on. was 94 here yesterday and humid as all get out.....