Serpent Lake and other nearby lakes with Kids from Chicago

Staying at a house on Serpent Lake(which I have never fished) Have 3 fishing obsessed girls(ages 11-13) coming from Chicago that want to catch a fish they can eat. Last summer they caught rock bass off the dock and wanted to return this summer. As a surprise, I volunteered for a long weekend of taking them out. All lass fall sent them mystery packages(crosswords, fish id puzzles, before hand tied jigs and lures arrived in time for Christmas) Looking to hopefully find some sunfish or crappies to give both action and a meal of fish. Any ideas would be helpful!! Private message if desired. Thanks

What serpent lake?? Only one I know of is in Crosby Ironton. I’ve walked out on the dock, looked from shore and see alot of little sunfish. Guess there are walleyes in it too as well as crappie but never fished it

I am assuming you are by Crosby, do you have a boat?

I have fished the mine pits both winter and summer. A couple of the pits have drivable public accesses. Stay about 50 to 60 ft from the shore and slip bobber fish about 35 ft down. This should keep you out of the submerged pine forests that you can see in your side imaging.

My bait of choice would be crawlers.

You will more than likely be all alone. The pits are stocked with assorted Trout and naturally have Pike, Bass, Sunfish, ….

Since the shoreline is steep and undeveloped, it is like fishing the north woods.

Yep – Crosby/Deerwood Serpent Lake. I have an 18 foot Lund Alaskan. Thanks for responses and if anyone has other suggestions that would be great!!

Drop a bobber with a chunk of night crawler or panfish leach on the weed edges that will keep them busy.

If they had fun with rock bass then you’re in luck because there are tons of them in Serpent. As bigcrappie said, fish a weed edge and you should be able to find some fish. Serpent is a really clear lake so the weed edge is a good 14′ or so. Try to find some cabbage weeds rather than the stringy stuff and you should probably have better luck. Word of caution, the lake can get really busy with recreational boaters.

Not sure how much of a bass fishermen you are, but if so you will know what a jigworm setup is. Often when I had people who I wanted to get on a good panfish bite, I’d often go out a little early and fish a jigworm on the weededge. Not only will you catch a few bass in the process but its a great way to locate panfish. Everywhere I would get tons of taps on the jigworm I’d drop a waypoint. When you are ready to go after the panfish just go to the waypoints you marked earlier. Set everyone up with a slip bobber and fish a panfish leech or a chunk of crawler and everyone should have plenty of action. Good luck, hope you can get the young ladies into a hot bite and catch a meal or two.

Buddie has a place on serpent. He catches nice crappies but that is usually in the spring. He is more of a bass guy and concentrates on smallies. There are some good smallies in serpent.

bigcrappie wrote:

Drop a bobber with a chunk of night crawler or panfish leach on the weed edges that will keep them busy.

X2 once you locate them you won’t be able to keep them off. Finding sizable ones to filet might be the challenge.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Buddie has a place on serpent. He catches nice <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappies but that is usually in the spring. He is more of a bass guy and concentrates on smallies. There are some good smallies in serpent.

Yes, there are some real nice smallies in there. Not always the easiest to find as there aren’t large numbers of them, but the size is usually quite respectable.

How did fishing on Serpent Lake go? I always think it’s fair if you get advise, you give a report back.