First good action on crappies this season for me today. Fished thru a bunch of small fish, and ended up with 10 fish 11+ inches. 13 foot of water, top 6 feet of water held the bigger fish. Water temperature 58-63, bigger fish were in the warmer water. Slip bobber and minnow. With warming air, and water temperatures the next two weeks should be very good for the crappie angler.
were you fishing a slough?
I also had good luck Saturday and kept 20 crappie and all were over 12 inches and were all caught on pink and white plastic grub fished below bobber at three foot in 10 ft plus water! Tried minnows but only taker was a northern about 5 lbs so stuck with just plain plastic grub no minnows!
Where do you guys find the Crapps this time of year? Moving water, still water, snags, open water, backwaters, channel edges, sloughs, lakes? Not looking for specific spots or even pools or anything, just the types of places to try for spring crappies. My parents love crappie fishing, would like to try and find some for my mom for mother’s day.
Hey im not really familiar with the Lacrosse area but I do know in the past I have had really good luck with both crapps and bulls. in the Petabone Park area right on the otherside to the west of the fishing pier. There is/was a downed tree in there and it had some fast action sometimes. Caught fish both from shore and from the boat there. Hope this might help ya.. 
I would try the Pettibone Lagoon too. They put some new fish cribs in just north of the concrete bridge at the south end of the lagoon. Should be worth a try. I have fished for panfish in there in the past and done well. On a bright sunny day you can see those big gills cruising the banks. Good Luck!
Hey boys:
Thanks for the quick tips!! Man, you guys are fast!
But my parents are up in Fountain City, so I will likely be trying up there, just looking for the kinds of habitat to check out. We used to catch alot of them in the summer/early fall suspended right in the middle of back sloughs, but those spots don’t seem to hold fish anymore, though I admit I haven’t tried much. Never did seem to catch manby in the early spring though.
Pettibone Park sounds like a good after work trip to try and get a little fish fry food though!!
Where is this famed “Pettibone Park”
Its just on the west side of the Lacrosse bridege on the north side right across rom the old holiday and and a marina and the FAMED BIKINI YACHT CLUB 
Look for bays opening south. Fish suspend over deep water, in water 5-`10 degrees warmer than the main channel. Fish ultralight suspended minnows or light tube jigs. They
‘ll be schooled up tight right now so if you don’t get action soon, move to anothr spot. I’ve not found them to orient to sunken logs or stucture yet.
What happened? Last weekend had marginal success with some crappies, this weekend a few small fish, mixed in with several large fish. Same areas, many different presentations, very few fish. The water temp. was lower than last week, in the high 50’s, that may have put the bite off for a while. Spent Sunday morning early, 530am, fishing for smallmouth, at several wingdams in the area. Used “mad toms”, imitation willowcats, and caught 3 nice smallmouth, 2 over 17 inches. Was done by 9am. Short weekend of fishing.
with the high water get in your back waters,and find an area with square grass and fish in the vicinity of the edge.
i went out thursday and picked up 18 between 4pm and 7:30pm.
and a few other days in the past week or so i usually picked up a dozen or so ranging from 9″to12″,look for the least amount of current also.and minnows also.
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