Amazing day! Prespawn crappie schools galore!

[Spoonminnow]

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:

CM tail attached to a different body:


Slider Worms reduced in length were slammed!:


...as did this hand poured worm"



Spike tails also worked:


*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!

[SKs Crappie Catching Adventures]

Sound like a very busy trip... Nice Catchn....

[Crestliner08]

Very nice!

[Ketchn]

gots to love the spring fling , nice ketch spoon ...KABOOM

[franklin fisher]

That sounds like a nice outing. Good post.

[skeetbum]

Gotta love a day fishin when you're that busy.

[Spoonminnow]

Gotta love a day fishin when you're that busy.

Even more than that is hearing my partner howling and, dang this & dang that!, after catching fish after fish! It's not as if I haven't got us into school crappie before this year, but this time he finally learned the value of light lures and small plastics with particular actions, which is why we caught different species working flats and shorelines. Even though his old Stren line gave him problems, the 6# test fluorocarbon allowed the best lure action and strike detection. (He was so impressed with the casting distance of a 1/32 oz jig and plastic, when we got home I spooled a casting distance of 8lb test braid over the mono.)

For me it was testing different soft plastic lure designs and modifications I had discovered last winter, finding most did great with all species. It's like a scientist testing a theory and in practice finding that it has practical value. Variety truly is the spice of fishing.