Finding the slabs

I’m not sure which or what back channel you are referring to. What pool? I probably can’t help you, but then maybe I can. {John}

Sorry about that. I’m fishing the upper end of Pool 4.

Hey Slab

I’m familiar with the bite you’re looking for and so far this summer I’ve found very few crappies in the areas you mentioned. Some gills but no craps. Typically this time of year the back channel is thick with the dandies but it sounds like the lake has been the place to be down from Maple Springs south to Lacupolis. Lots of nice fish coming from this area, both crappies and gills.

I was up on the rip rap on the upper end of pool 4 casting ring worms and I caught a 10″ or so crappie…I’d bet if you were to run a slip bobber and a minnow below it, drift along the rip rap and the inside ends of the wing dams you’d pick up some dandy crappie slabs !!Give it a try and let me know how you do. !!

Dave makes a good point… when the levels are low, we alwasy run into some huge incidental crappies on the upper end around the wingies below the dam and on lock side… even right through the winter. We’ve viewed some pretty impressive schools through the underwater cameras in the winter when we got the lens close to the fallen timber. Craps galore! One of these days we’ll take off our walleye hats and be crappie fishermen for the day but at that time of year, with the walleye bite running hard and the big fish being so common, it’s tough to tear ourselves away.

Hey Slab Hunter,
The Crappies are all over the main channel down here at the lower end of Pool 4..
Today for me they were running smaller than last weekend.
last weekend I had 5 fish over 12 inches..the rest were 10 inches.
Today my best three ran 11 inches and the rest between 8 and 10 inches.
Look for the rip rap and any turns in the rocks, any cuts leading to back water areas and fish the deeper water.
Most of my fish are coming from 8 to 15 feet of water.
I’m using 1/4 oz bucktails..when I use 1/8 oz I get the smaller fish.
Well I hope that helps..
Good luck hope you get a pan full…
Greg

Those crappies are showing up in the WI Channel now. I ran into a handful fishing for walleyes and so did Stewart. If you haven’t gone back to re-check for them, I’m sure you’ll find what you were looking for if you do.