crappies????????????????

If you don’t know where the crappies are hangin’ and you don’t know where the green weeds are but you do know where the deepest part of the lake is and where there is a steep drop-off into the deep and you have a vex do you just keep on drilling holes from shallow to deep until you see fish on the flasher? Do you fish for a while in each hole you drill? How deep is too deep? What is a good searching bait? Minnow, jigging spoon, rapala? I want to catch a big crappie so bad I can taste it. Most of all I want to find some on my own if I can because I’m tired of following the crowds.
Do the bigger crappie and blue gills hang in deeper water than the smaller guys?
If your on a fairly steep slope where there are little perch might there be walleyes there eating the perch at some point in the day or night? Do crappies school in different size groups?

tks,
w.

Welcome. Great to have you with us. Please feel free to share and post all you want.

Do you have a map of the body of water that you want to fish? If not please try get one. Looking at the map find where there are some weeds on the lake. Try drilling some holes to see if the weeds look green. Chances are the fish may still be there on the weed edges like they were in the late fall before the lake froze. Both bluegills and crappies could be in this area. If you have a locator and know how deep the weed edge goes to then pour some water from a squirt bottle onto the ice and put your fish locator transducers on the ice in the wet area to read the depth. Doing this will help you to find the right depth that the weed edge should be. Drill a bunch of holes around that area along with a few out deeper and even a few alittle shallower too. Using your locator you can walk from hole to hole to see if you see any fish. On the holes that you locate fish in sweep away the ice/snow that was made from drilling the hole so that hole is marked as having fish and continue checking and marking different holes that hold fish. Then fish those holes. If the fish you catch are only smaller ones then check the deeper holes again. If still no luck then drill holes where the drop off edge is and try the deeper water. Also checking the deep basin if you need to for suspended crappies may be needed if you haven’t located them already with some size to them. The deeper basin ice takes longer to make so you need to be carefull this early. Again when checking different areas squirting some water on the ice and reading the depth and even searching quickly for fish before drilling holes can help save time. Mobility is the key here. Keep moving to find the fish. A good flasher such as a Vexilar or Marcum is a big help when searching for fish. When you find them the flasher will show you the bottom, will show you the depth of your fish, and also show you your jig being lowered down to just above the fish. It will show you when the fish takes your lure too. Its really a neat experience using one of these flashers and watching your jig and the fish and when the fish hits the lure.

Walleyes like to eat perch. At night the perch are on the bottom, sometines in weeds hiding as their eye sight is not good at night. Walleyes see very well at night and take advance of that and will serch for the perch. When you find perch theres a good chance the walleyes may be near. Good search lures can be jigging raps or spoons. The action and vibrating sent from these lures attract fish. Sometimes you won’t need any bait attached to them and other times a minnow head is needed. Smaller jigging raps or spoons work well for crappies too. These lures work very well on edges, humps, and rock piles.

I have found that fish tend to group together in size but also smaller fish can be in the area. If you catch one decent size fish chances are that there are more there too. Since at times you will find different size fish in say one big area and this explains why we sometimes have to sort through the fish caught to get enough decent size ones for a meal if you want to keep some fish. This especially applies to panfish. The bigger size panfish are the ones that are needed in the lake to produce good spawns each year so unless its one for the wall putting the real big panfish back helps the fishery.

Good luck on your quest for the big crappies. We all learn by sharing so I look forward to hearing about yours and everyone elses fish outtings this winter.

Thanks, Bill

chuck, bill posted some great tips. I usually never drill a hole until i have found fish with my FL-18 first.

Also is this lake in Mn? If so, check the lake on the MN DNR website for creel info to get an idea of the crappie population if you haven’t caught any in the lake before.

As far as location of the fish in the lake. They could be anywhere there is an abundance of food and oxygen. I look for distinct holes meaning a hole that isn’t too large in diameter. Maybe 50 yards at the most. These holes are usually the deepest part of the lake. They usually have a soft bottom making it ideal for plankton to grow and the hole could be holding the most oxygen content if there is alot of snow cover on the lake making the weeds less attractive. Crappies do prefer the open water v.s shallow weed beds like Bluegills. Most of the time you will find your bigger Bluegills in deeper water.

Let me know if the lake is in Mn. Send me a PM and I will check it on the DNR website and try to pinpoint were I would fish..

Derek,

Sent you a message but I got a ‘no delivery’ return.

The lake is Sand Lake in Wisconsin. It is relatively small and only 1 deep section that is itself not real big. The depth is approx. 50 ft. I hadn’t thought the FL -18 would shoot through the ice but I will try it after scooping away the snow. How do you tell weeds from fish on the flasher display. Do the fish appear as bigger targets that come and go? Thanks for the help. There are a fair number of crappies in the lake and some walleye. No real secret.

Woody

Bill – thanks for the tips. That’s a lot of stuff only learned through experience. I appreciate the help!!!

Saturday i was catching crappies in 22′ in an area with little or no weeds, sandy rolling bottom. The lx3 was lit up like a christmas tree. I have always done good going deep for crappies in the south metro.

AWESOME post Bill!

I looked up a very old map of the lake but saw three good areas I would try. Just north of the west side access looks to be a nice point with a steep edge dropping into deep water. Try that edge before dark. Next there looks to be a nice under water point on the northend of the lake that drops into deep water. Check on top and the deep side of that under water point. Next I see a sunken island ( 15 feet on top) straight out from the access towards the east side of the lake. There should definately be fish holding there, the deepest part of the lake is adjacent to that hump. I couldnt find water clarity info but generally if the water is stained it could be a day bite and night bite if the water is clear but this is only a general rule. Some of the best bites come at sun up and sun down regardless of water clarity.

Bring along some water and pour a small amount on the ice, then place your flasher transducer in the water and turn your gain up until you get a bottom reading. If your seeing red marks and alot of clutter, back off the gain until only the bottom and red targets are showing. In deeper water, fish may only show as green marks when shooting through the ice. Weeds will show as green or orange. You’ll see what looks like clutter from the bottom up to whatever depth the weeds top out at. You can also sometimes see red (fish) mixed in with the weeds.

Once you find fish, and this can sometimes be very important, I know the heart gets pumpin when we see fish on the flasher, but it can be important not to bait up and sail your bait down the hole. This can sometimes spook the fish off. Once you think you have located a good school of fish, drill lots of holes in the area so you can keep in contact with the school and slowly lower your bait. Start with a small jig like a Fatboy or Rat Finke tipped with a few maggots. Over time you will learn how the fish will react.

Derek, we might be looking at different Sand Lakes. Polk County is where I’m at. My map looks different than what you are describing but I think I am getting the picture. You guys on this site are great for sharing information w/ beginners. Didn’t think that happened much anymore!!!
I was out last night on a bucket at 0 degrees. Didn’t want to mess with the portable for just an hour or so of fishing. The crappies and panfish went banannas and I was so cold I couldn’t feel the line and shaking so bad (half from excitement) that I couldn’t see the rod tip move. Caught a dozen or so reasonable fish and released a bunch of little guys and had to quit because I forgot my headlamp. The flasher was lit up like a christmas tree and the whole thing was a kick in the pants. Think I’ll take the portable next time it’s that cold. Planning on doing some exploring this weekend and I can’t wait to check out the bottom of the main lake. Let me know if you find a map of the other Sand Lake. Thanks again to you and to everybody on the site!!!!

woody