No pics because I never think of it, but we really hammered the crappies last night. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen, but they were surface feeding on baitfish ala silver bass. Casting a slip bobber with a minnow on a ice jig (my perpetual panfish rig, really) down about 2′ would result in almost instant bites. The only real problem is these schools would move and we had to move the boat to stay in range of them at times.
The best fish of the night was probably about 8″, so they weren’t much for keepers, but they did provide a great deal of entertainment. My 2-year-old daughter got a lesson on lip-holding caught fish and returning them to the water… she really hates having dirty hands and fish slime didn’t make her too happy. She did manage to kiss one tho… “Daddy, fishie! Tiss? Tyoot fishie!”
All in all, it was a fun time, especially considering that it was the first time we’ve really had many fish in the boat since we got it a couple weeks ago and the first time my wife and I fished together in about 2 years!
I heard from a couple other fishermen that the crappies were biting in 9′ of water, I was catching them on the surface in another part of the lake… it looks like it’s a good year for small crappies on Medicine Lake.
PS – French Regional Park requires a boat launch fee of $5 and the 3 Rivers PD PD (park district police department) will issue tickets if you don’t pay up… even tho there’s no drop box, no notice posted, no way to know that you need to give them money or get fined. Total crap.