They are not here, lets see, maybe over here?

Bright and early this morning, like 7 AM, I drove out to Chesterwoods for some shore fishing. Paid my $5 daily fee and off I went. What a waste of time. I hit 6 different spots and not ONE single bite, nothing, zero. The water was muddy, except up the the canoe launch which was a bit clearer. Not wanting to give up, decided to try elsewhere, so stopped at Game Haven. The bite was consistant, however, the size was small. When I first got there, it was nothing but crappies, biggest 10 inches, then later the gills picked up, biggest 8 inches. Not many of those 10’s and 8’s, but at least some action. Few other people out there and they too caught small fish. I used Mini Mites in a variety of colors. No need to tip it and fished 3 feet below the bobber. Talked to a couple guys out there and they heard the bite was really hot right now at Willow Creek. They were headed out that way.
It was sure nice to be out today.

Why do they call them crappie minnows? BECAUSE THEY CATCH CRAPPIES!!!!!

Nuff said! [couldn’t resist Bud]

Fishing will get better as the temps warm and the food chain starts moving towards shore which means the fish will follow. The first movement towards shore is for food not the spawn. There are two movements towards shore. First one for food and the second one to spawn. After the spawn is finished look for the first dropoff from the shallows towards deeper water. They could at that time even suspend over deeper water at the same depth as the starting point that the drop off is. In other words, if the drop off is at say 12 feet then they may suspend a ways off that drop off at the 12 foot depth.

Thanks for the report. It points out that in this early stage of the season that if one body of water isn’t producing well then hop to a different body of water. It can make a big difference in the ”catching” that day as Ron proved by changing lakes.

Thanks, Bill

What Bill said is absoulty true. No, they are no where near spawning, rather interested in food. Not only food, but they are also looking for warmth. They come up this time of the year for something to eat and get warm. When handling the fish today, I could not help but notice their body temps were not ice cold like I suspected. No they were not warm by any stretch of imagination, but they just weren’t ice fishing cold. Noticed the crappies were way up high, like only a couple feet below the bobber and the gills were a good six feet below the bobber. As the day progressed and the sun got higher, well the then the gills came up to the crappie level. I suspect looking not only for food but some of that spring time warmth. The bite was aggressive when they did bite, so give them food and the right temp and you got the winning combination.

Yes, the power of the sun. It changes [warms] the fish’s enviroment and gets the food chain going and that gets the fish going and that gets us fisherpeople going. And that makes us feel alive again and we become cunsumed with thoughts and cravings to go fishing. Nothing better than a nice warm day [50-70 degrees] and being on the water and catching fish. I’d even settle for a fishless day if I could just be on the water. Winter is tooooooo long in my book as I love the open water fishing. Something about being out there on Gods great creation [rivers and lakes] and the peacefullness that is felt. Gotta love fishin.
Thanks, Bill