Rainy Lake Crappies

With yesterday’s bright sun and calm winds I suggested to our customers that we check out a few spots for spawning Crappies. The move turned out to be a good one as our first spot had angrly “Donks” destroying our Flu-Flu’s from custom Jigs and Spins!! We ended up with 5 slabs that measured 14 inches and pictures simply don’t do them justice. The brilliant “Jet Black” coloration makes these Crappies some of the best looking slabs in the entire world!! I will admit locating the big slabs presents a dilemna for today’s target species. Still we’ll try deal with the complicate issue of the day trying to decide whether to tangle with Big Walleyes, Pike and Smallies or Pop monster Slabs. A guides daily decisions truly don’t receive due respect.

Just to put the overall size of these slabs into perspective here is the hand of my customer next to the fish in an attempt to put the true massive size of Rainy lake Crappies into perspective. Now these were just 14 inchers and NOT the biggies we can encounter into the 15 and 16 inch plus range.

The Flu-Flu from Custom Jigs and Spins is my personal favorite jig for targeting these monster slabs. Yesterday we laced up 1/32 and 1/64 oz jigs in multiple colors. Depending on the mood of the fish you can tip the jigs with a crappie minnow or fish naked (Talking about the jigs here) http://www.customjigsandspins.com/icefishing/fluflu.html

When fishing thse smaller jigs like the Flu-Flu I like to open up the shank of the hook slightly to increase the gap of the hook which in turn increases my overall hooking efficiency. Remember these slabs want to shake the hook, so after hook set keep that rod low in the water and attempt to keep the fish from breaking the surface of the water until it hits your landing net.

Pictured here is our catch of 17 Crappies. It is important to remember keeping enough for a meal is great, but NEEDING to keep a limit is realy “OLD SCHOOL” thinking. Crappies of this magnitude are rare in most fisheries and can be quite vulnerable to hook and line angling. Though Rainy lake is noted for producing some of the states most massive slabs; I believe it remains important that we as conservation minded anglers take some for a nice fish fry and then practice restraint while allowing other fish to finish the spawn cycle.

I experienced this “old school” fishing mentality the last time I was crappie fishing when I over heard a couple of older gentlemen talking about how I was throwing back all of these nice crappies that had not finished spawning. And why I was not keeping my limit since I was catching so many.

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I experienced this “old school” fishing mentality the last time I was crappie fishing when I over heard a couple of older gentlemen talking about how I was throwing back all of these nice crappies that had not finished spawning. And why I was not keeping my limit since I was catching so many.

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Each angler has the option to do waht they feel is right. State guidelines clearly allow us as fisherman to keep a limit of fish. I won’t reprimand a fisherman for ever keeping a legal limit of fish. However IMHO Crappies of this magnitude are worth more to a fishery like Rainy Lake as well as countless anglers who enjoy the encounter than simply one more meal. Again….no right or wrong here, but just my opinion. I will admit a fresh meal of fish is at my fingertips daily and I never need to freeze fish. I clearly understand this is not the case for many other anglers not afforded the daily fishing in which I am.

Nice fish

Those are some giant slabs! Makes me think of ripping a mini-mite jig past the brush and watching them inhale it! It needs to be the weekend!