Here is a quick up date from east central mn from over the weekend. Made it out on three different lakes in the area over the weekend chasing crappies and sunnies.
Ice/snow conditions on these lakes where pretty good. Getting off the beaten paths with vehicles can be done but make sure and have a shovel and tow rope with just in case you find deeper snow or slush.
After the cold weather last week I was a little worried the pan fish bite may be off. This is not true. If anything it has gotten better. There where plenty of feeding crappies and sunnies on all three lakes we fished. What we have found them biting on hasn’t changed much over the last few weeks. Gill Pills and Diamond jigs with Euro larvae caught the majority of our crappies and sunfish. A few where also coaxed in on Shrimpos but the numbers still went to the first two jigs mentioned. The fish seemed to be in 2 different modes and either wanted a aggressively jigged lure to chase or a slight jig and sit motion to the lures. One trick I have been using to coax in some of the finicky biters is to hold the rod in one hand and with the other hand tap the reel. That slightest light jigging action sure can turn a fish around.
Getting away from the crowds still seems to be key for finding active fish. Saturday was the closest we had set up to a community hole and we where still a good 100 yards away from the nearest house. Starting in a area with a good half dozen holes I keep hole hopping and drilling new holes to locate active fish. A key sign to this is seeing suspended fish on the Marcum or seeing several returns in one hole. Many times inactive fish show up as 1 or 2 returns near the bottom and show very little activity towards a lure. We tend to move right past these guys.
Even thou fish numbers where up the last few days I would have to say the size was down. At least for the crappies anyways. Sunfish size may have been up a little and it was differently up on Pokegama this afternoon. That bite was nuts for numbers.
Anyone else been getting in on some decent fishing over the weekend? The milder weather sure made for some nice days out on the lakes. Ill try to get some photos up in a little while.
