Well Guy’s, it’s sure getting close as all heck to the crappies jumping in the boat! With water temps ranging from 54-56 degrees, everything is setting up for yet another knock-out spring crappie bite. The last couple weeks I’ve been making it out daily or every other day to keep the bite in check and stay on fish. As of late these specks are finally making it up into the shallow water (2-3ft) during the day and slightly deeper as it gets closer to dusk. Most fish were caught using a minnow and jig or small treble hook under a float about 3ft under the surface.
Depending on who you talk to, it’s either feast or famine. Some folks are getting out there and hitting a limit in no time and others spend all day without a fish. I have a couple tips that have definitely helped me put more crappies in the boat.
1- Don’t be afraid to drift around dragging bobbers. Sometimes anchoring up can be an extremely effective method while targeting these crappies but I’ve had much better success during the day slowly dragging the bobbers around. During the evening it’s been a different story. Later in the day it seems the fish have been schooling up and if you can find one, more than likely they are stacked up there.
2- If you choose to anchor up (such as this afternoon due to the wind), move your bobbers. I cannot emphasize how much this improves the catching productivity. Today I was fishing 2 rods, 1 of which just sat out there and the other I was constantly casted and kept ‘popping’ the bobber and working it back to the boat. The rod/bobber that was moving caught over 3/4 of the fish boated today.
3- Don’t be afraid to stray away from a plain hook. While dragging the bobbers around I prefer to have a small jig with a minnow hooked though the mouth on the business end (Pic1). If you are having issues hooking up with fish, put on a small treble hook (Pic2). The hook in picture 2 was pulled off of a small rap I had laying in the boat and really helped increase hookups.
4- Hook-set’s are very important to be sure you’re not ripping the hooks clear out of their mouth. I watched several people tonight go hand over hand, white knuckling the rod, and thrusting it over their head. While this is fun to watch, it’s really not necessary for a 3/4lb crappie 
Hopefully this report will help the guy’s having a tough spring crappie fishing on Menomin (or any lake for that matter). The fish are around and willing to take baits, it’s just finding the right combo of bait and movement to hit them steady.
I was fishing solo on the water today from 3:30-6pm today playing catch n’ release and boated 21 crappies, smallest being 10.5” and the largest at a hair under 12”. Currently the bite is steady, but will only improve over the next week, so get out there and test the boat for opener this weekend, but don’t forget the panfish rods
See ya out there 
Pete
thats a good one! I just told Lienieman I was picking Pete up at 3AM on Sat.
