Crappie ???

I don’t do a lot of ice fishing , just mess around on my families farm pond. The pond has some very big crappies in it . I caught 3 fish over 16 inches this year during open water season. What should I be doing to catch these big slabs through the ice. We can pull gills out as fast as you can get it down the hole. We are also catching lots of very small crappies. We just can’t seem to find the big ones . I am fishing submerged tree tops in the deepest part of the lake, late in the fall we were pulling big slabs out of this area. We have tried minnows with zero success, the crappies we are getting are on small tear drops and waxworms. The lake has standing timber in one end with a creek channel running through it, this is were we get most of the fish in the fall . The creek channel is were the gills hang out also. Is there a better presentation than tear drop and wax worm , that I should be trying? Any help would be very welcome. Thanks.

Try a minnow under a deadstick higher in the water column Or a minnow head on a Slender Spoon Maybe that will do the trick Good luck and let us know what you learn

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I caught 3 fish over 16 inches this year during open water season.

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Dude…you have a slice of heaven

I have not spent much time fishing pounds and I’m sure the ones that get the opportunity more often will chime in.

My questions would be, how big of a pond, is there a deeper basin, what size is the forage?

A 16inch crappie can inhale bass baits. Not that a jig and wax worm won’t take slabs of this size at times but, have you bumped up the size of your bait to light Spoons or heavier jigging spoons tipped with minnows or plastics. Try matching size and color of what ever swimming critter them big paper moths might be feeding on

And most importantly….if you need help finding out don’t be scared to give me a shout

Any of these with a plastic that comes to a point should do just fine. Gill Pill, Diamond jigs, the whip r knocker jig is one of my personal favorites. Work the the jig right above or along vegetation, if it is a pond that has decent depth I usually start high and work down. High meaning 1 or 2 feet below the ice. Break up the water depths into columns and work it for 5 to 10 minutes and as always stay mobile if you are seeing or picking up fish. Drill plenty of hole in different locations. Good luck and lets see some pics

Great call Brett don’t over look the spoons tip with a head or a finesse tail on a single or treble hook

Give us directions. I think there are several of us that would come down to help figure them out.

The lake is 12 to 14 ft deep in the channel. There is a big open area in front of the dam, we catch fish during spawn on the dam . After the spawn they seem to head for the timber. What they eat I would guess young of the year gills and baby bass. The pond is about 5 acres.

dont be afraid to try plastics… look to see what the baitfish size is and try to match the hatch….14″+ crappies can eat a very big offering. I have noticed the last few years that my bigger panfish come off of artificals or plastics…..goodluck and post pics when you get into them…that truly sounds like a gem

Charles Schmidtbauer

I’d try in this order, 1. Little Cecil, pink colored. 2.Rembrandt in orange or pink. 3.Purist in same colors. 4 Swedish Pimple. I’d also use no bait to stay away from little ones. Use a Vexilar or Marcum to find out what depth the slabs are at. Good luck.

Also you might want to try some Tip Downs with Crappie Minnows. You can spread them out and have a blast. Here is a link to pictures of the ones we build, if you would like instructions on how to build them with a parts list and also tips on using them send me an email and I will get right back to you.

They are very easy to make and a lot of fun especially for kids! If you have little kids they have a blast chasing Tip Downs and just backing up with the pole to pull the fish out. They may loose a few doing it that way but they sure have fun!!!

I also sell the frames or a complete ready to fish package including the rod.

[email protected]

http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad317/cmherrmann/Tip%20downs/

Here is a link to a video of my son catching a crappie on a Tip Down.

http://s947.photobucket.com/albums/ad317/cmherrmann/?action=view&current=fishing032.mp4

If you can get your hands on a Marcum under water camera, you will be able to see everything that’s happening down under
The better the clarity the better distance you can get with the new HDII Sony cameras Marcum has…

Some fantastic ideas above as well !!

Have Fun

Do you have a flasher? a camera? Electronics will help you a lot to determine your best choices to catch them. Big crappie are like big walleye they have eyes that are very light sensitive, your best chances to find them would be areas they would be feeding early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Other areas would be deep close to cover or transition areas. Since you are catching gills and smaller crappie in one area, the bigger crappie are possibly using these same areas during lower light.

You already know that they are there you just need to be there when they are feeding and hit them with a presentation they cannot resist. Good luck

Is the lake clear? There is a local gin clear lake in s. Wisc. that produces 8 in. paper mouths by day but monster slabs at night. Mabe try setting up after the sun goes down

You may want to consider trying tip ups with medium shiners as these bigger fish tend to eat more fish than inects. It is not uncommon for us to catch a few big crappies through the winter while targeting northerns and bass. Suspend the shiners at various depths then if one depth starts producing put the rest around that same depth. If nothing else you might have fun catching bass on the tipups.

Well , I made it out for a few hours this afternoon. I tried spoon fishing for the first time. The only spoon I had for ice fishing was a 1/4 ounce buck shot spoon. I could not get bite with just a bare spoon so I started putting a waxie on 1 hook . I ended up with 2 mid-size crappies and several nice gills. I’m going to give it a try in the evening this week with minnow heads on the hook. I didn’t have any minnows today. I’m going to get some smaller spoons also. Thanks to everyone that helped me out.

Try some Jig’N Raps size 4 or 5 and/or Jig’N Shad Raps size 3 or 5. Then try also Chubby Darter size 4 or 5.