With Less than a month expected until Ice up, honestly, I’m quite surprised that there hasn’t been much talk in this forum with anticipation of the sport we all love..
That said, the itch to be on the ice is no different for Justin P. and I than it was last year…
Relieving the itch is pretty easy..all you need is:
-Bucket
-Ice poles
-Jigging spoons (sweedish pimples, forage minnows, lightning spoons, etc.)
-surface to sit on (boat or boat harbor)
-flasher (optional)
With these ingredients, you can create an experience that can be relatively similar to ice fishing 
Yesterday afternoon Justin and I took off to an area to see if there was any crappie action going on. I located some very nice fish in this area on the weekend, and we were anxious to get out and see how the bite was holding up. I’ve found that the crappies use this area in the fall before moving to very close by wintering areas, and some fish actually stay in this area through the winter. Using forage minnows, sweedish pimples, and lightning spoons, we “power fished” these fish with ease. Even though there is a cold front that pushed through recently, it seemed to have little effect on these fish. If anything, all it did was make the larger fish a little more tight lipped, but not impossible to catch, as you will see from the pictures.
All in all, we had a good time. We each caught 10-15 “keeper” crappies which for me are in the range of 10 to 12″ long. These fish were relating to some structure, but their range was pretty large..Anywhere from the bottom to 5 feet down was fair game for crappie catching in 11-15 feet of water. The largest of the crappies we caught were suspended over some brush in 13 fow.
As you will see in the one picture below, these crappies were absolutely inhaling our baits- which were no tiny offerings for these agressive and hungry fish..The biggest fish of the day was also the only white crappie, pictured below at 12″.
Its the time of year again, and all of my ice equipment is ready to go. Just add ice. Enjoy the season guys 
