Wilbur back on Houghton Lake!
From now until mid June, Houghton Lake will give up loads of fat crappies - if you know where and how to fish them. Weed bed edges are the key, those that drop quickly into 12 (or more) feet of water. Find the cabbage on those edges, and you'll find the crappies. Just Steve was fishing such a weed bed at last year's camp, but he stayed on top of it instead of focusing on the edges.
I named the 12' rod I won at camp last year the Wilbur rod. Here it is ready to fish. It's got a 1/32 oz. white jig tipped with a new bait, a "meggie" (basically a jumbo mousie), set at 8 feet. I caught about 5 fish on this rig, including a nice 12 inch crappie. So, the Wilbur rod has caught whitefish, steelhead, crappies, and pike in his first year.
First crappie of the year is this little 10" throwback.
Here's a better one, 12". This one went in the well.
All told, I took home 8 and a pike. Biggest crappie is 13". I caught probably 3 dozen, but most were under 11". It will only get better as we get closer to June!