Deep Water Crappies on Small Lake?

Hey All, I’m headed a couple hours north of the twin cities this weekend and am fishing a lake that has some big crappies. Last year we went up there and had some success around the same time of year but the numbers weren’t what we hoped they were. On the map below, the circle is where we were last year and where a family friend who lives on the lake told us to go. Like I said, caught some nice ones but it was very intermittent. Long story longer, on small lakes for crappies, would trying the deepest part of the lake be a good idea this time of year or do deep basins not hold crappies on small lakes?

Thanks!

PS: I normally would never block out the lake name but I was invited to this lake by a family friend and don’t want to be that guy.

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This seems like the perfect scenario to go and check out the excerpt from last weeks episode of IDO about basin Crappies. I would imagine everything James talked about would hold true on this lake.

drill some holes deep some mid some shallow drop the flasher if you aren’t getting them in short time start moving. if you have a group and the lakes not big guessing you have it to yourself I’d drill and spread out until someone has the hot spot

404 ERROR wrote:

This seems like the perfect scenario to go and check out the excerpt from last weeks episode of IDO about basin Crappies. I would imagine everything James talked about would hold true on this lake.

This was my thought exactly. He discussed this very scenario. You may find larger numbers deeper but the size might not be there. Seems like the lake James was on had both the size and the numbers!

404 ERROR wrote:

This seems like the perfect scenario to go and check out the excerpt from last weeks episode of IDO about basin Crappies. I would imagine everything James talked about would hold true on this lake.

Yeah I saw that and my only thought was the lake he was referring to was probably double the size and had much more deep water as well.

Near our family property we have a handful of small lakes less than 30 acres. I’ve commonly found winter crappies in the basins. The main one we fish has 30′-35′ of water. One of the other lakes we had a chance to fish had suspended crappies in 50+ feet of water. It was a simple matter of moving around until we found them. For crappies, I wouldn’t hesitate to search the basin on a small lake.

Crazy, took me a minute to find the lake! Lol, I swear I zoomed in roughly two hours north of the cities and it was the first lake I zoomed into! Wow, still amazes me.

Your secret is safe with me!

Mr Big Eves wrote:

Crazy, took me a minute to find the lake! Lol, I swear I zoomed in roughly two hours north of the cities and it was the first lake I zoomed into! Wow, still amazes me.

Your secret is safe with me!

Hahaha that’s awesome. I don’t even know if it’s much of a secret up that way at all but I figured I should be safe since I hardly fish it ever.

Such a small lake to figure out, why not just handle it yourself?

I think I’d take up residence close to that very steep gradient along the west [?] side or far left in the picture where those dark lines get real stacked. Call it the sw corner. I’d find the deepest water off that steep drop and drill holes from the towards shore in several locations along the steep drop. Pass on a shack for this and get outside. You’ll want to keep moving from deep to shore. If you bump into active fish they’ll likely be working a fairly tight band of water depth so I’d plan to work parallel to shore at that depth.

I little to the right of the pin in the basin.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

I little to the right of the pin in the basin.

Keep in mind that chronologically we are coming into the coldest part of the year. That will push crappies into the deepest and most steep bottomed part of a smaller lake. To the right of that pin can start getting good around the end of Feb in this part of the world. I’d look to that nubbin further to the right of the pin and fish it the same way as that left side as a secondary site, but the stretch of very steep shoreline on the left is way more fishy looking to me given the time of year.

nhamm wrote:

Such a small lake to figure out, why not just handle it yourself?

Im there for 1 day so I wanted to get a few more opinions before going out.

I used to fish a small lake very similar that had very large crappies, bass, and pike. Most were caught in or near the weeds. Very few if anything was caught in the deep water.

I would fish the area of the inside turn that is on the lower left part of the red circle, especially toward evening when the Crappies will move shallow.

Tegg suspended over 50? wow was it a clear or dark lake?