I’ve been having a good time on metro area lakes lately fishing for crappie and I thought I’d share my process in hopes that it helps someone out.
Pre-Trip:
– use the MN Lakefinder Tool to find a body of water that has above average quantity and above average size for a metro lake.
– pull up the navionics app to get a sense of the lake and to pick a starting point, I’ve been targeting basin crappie so I’m looking for water from 25-35 feet and virtually no depth change, or if it’s a shallower lake I’m looking for the deepest basin water.
– rig rods with baits that target fish with differing aggression levels. This trip I had 6 rods ready to go.
Rod 1 – small tungsten fly (least aggressive)
Rod 2 – 1/32oz jig and plastic
Rod 3 – 1/16oz flutter style spoon
Rod 4 – small slab rap
Rod 5 – small ripping rap
Rod 6 – small jigging rap (most aggressive)
Fishing Trip:
– walk out to my predetermined starting point.
– drill a series of 10 holes in a straight line, each hole 20-30 feet from the previous hole.
– walk back to the sled, pull the sled while checking each hole for fish with the flasher, swinging the transducer in each hole to determine if there are fish off to the sides and in which direction.
– repeat the 10 hole process until you find them, in the last 3 trips I’ve found them in my 2nd hole, my 15th hole and today it took me 43 holes.
– after finding them drill several holes around the perimeter of your hot hole
– start dropping down baits from the most aggressive bait you have to the least, make sure to fish above your targets so that you don’t spook the school by pulling a fish through it, by starting with the most aggressive bait I can catch the super charged up fish right away and because the baits get down quickly I can keep the school interested, as soon as I raise a fish and it rejects my bait I move down to the next bait, it’s common for me to catch a few on the ripping rap and slab rap, the flutter style spoon has been the most effective so far, but I’ve caught a few on the jig and plastic and fly jig as well, I just added the jigging rap to the arsenal and because of how quickly it sinks I consider it my most aggressive, I haven’t caught anything on it yet but I did get two bites with it today.
– often times the hole will reload with new fish as you are fishing so I’ll rotate back to the aggressive baits and start the process over again.
– if your hole dries up try swinging your transducer in the hole to see if you find where they went, if not start hopping around in your perimeter holes until you get back on them.
I hope that helps someone and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.
