South Center/Big Carnelian

I fished Big Carnelian on saturday with poor results. I caught one good sized crappie and some small sunfish. It seemed like the fish were moving around as I would catch a few and then none for about 20 minutes. I drilled about 20 holes in depths of 5 to 15 feet and found most of my fish in shallow. It appeared a lot of the weeds are starting to die in shallow. Ice was in good shape and around 8-9 inches everywhere I drilled.

On sunday I hit South Center lake for the afternoon and caught a bunch of decent sized sunfish in 7-8 feet of water. I caught all sunfish during the day and as the witching hour came around I picked up some decent crappies and more good sized sunfish. The ice was in good shape here as well. There was at least 9 inches of ice most places I fished. It did seem the bite was better after 2 pm, but maybe it was just the spot I was fishing too. I didn’t try Mike Finke’s deep water spot, but there were a few shacks out there.

Thanks FTA! I want to get out there soon…hopefully this week. I’m guessing no cars just mobils and wheelers on the ice?

Brian, there were a bunch of cars that parked on the edge of the ice by sunset point, but none went in the drink. The ice is plenty thick for atvs and sleds.

Thanks! It’s not looking good for this week. Fingers are crossed for next week!

Glad to hear you had some good action on SC! It is typical for the crappies to bite early and late in the shallower water from late Dec until mid Feb. Early in Dec we were getting the sunfish and crappies all day long. I think it is a combination of fishing pressure and noise in the shallows and the weeds dying off. That’s why I like to go looking for them suspended out deep. The neighbor went there Mon and did real well. They were 19′ down over 44′. They fished from 10am-4pm and all brought home a limit for dinner. Do you get any walleyes shallow towards evening? Last year we had better luck on them than we have this year.

No walleyes for me, but I heard another report that said they were getting a few in 13 feet of water on deadsticks and jigging spoons away from the crowds.