Blue Lake Report 3-10-07

Just got back from Ohio on a work trip. Took the morning off today to relax a bit… and then got the offer from some freinds to join them in some crappie fishing out on Blue lake. Decided to take them up on the offer.

After enjoying Elk steak that had just been freshly grilled on charcoal and burnt applewood, we headed off in search of a few slabs for the pan. There is still some vehicle traffic on the lake, but the snow cover makes traveling especially difficult. We were traveling by a 4 wheeler with a trailer pulled behind. Due to the trailer, we were severly limited in the areas we could search. Lucky for us, the area we wanted to focus on was reachable. We were in 17 FOW near a sunken island. After popping a few holes, we quickly found some perch action. It was non-stop. The perch were not of any great size, but for the first half hour/hour… I couldn’t get more than 1 line down. After getting one rod wet, there was so much action I never got to touch the other pole.

Well, at about 6:00, the perch let off. I was able to get my other line in the water and prepare for some late evening crappie action. We were in 17 FOW near a sunken island. I had the Marcum LX5 close by and quickly saw the schools come in. From 7pm to 9pm, the Marcum looked like a christmas tree. Very few times did the lights ever go dim. The crappie’s hunger, on the other hand, did not seem so charged. For those 2 hours, we did manage 10 keepers all around 8-12 inches as well as a few large sunnies. We had countless perch throwbacks as well as another half dozen or so crappies that we threw back to fight another day.

Our presentations for the day varied by angler. We had a mix of ants, mini-merts, and other assorted small jigs. It seemed that the larger crappies seemed to target the crappie minnows… though a few did come off of the euro larvae. I don’t think we caught anything off of waxies.

It was a nice day to get out and get a line wet. The tops of the lakes around this area appear to be getting fairly dangerous for travel.. meaning abount 10 inches of snow and slush making it difficult for travel.

No pic’s for the day as I was just too dang tired to be lugging around all my normal gear after being out of town for the week. Might have to try again tomorrow.

Good Fishing!!!

thanks Dave,
I’ve got some nice memories of some deeper water LM a number of Falls ago.
Nice quiet lake.
Jack..
keep us posted thru the Spring..

I was out there for the first time 3 weeks ago. Some friends of mine told me they were getting some nice crappies, so I figured I’d give it a try. I caught a ton of small fish. I probably had 50 perch, 20 crappies, and 20 bluegills that were all small. I did however get into about 20 7-9″ gills that I caught and released. I started catching them after I increased the size of my jig to a 1/4 oz jigging spoon. My goal was to scare off the smaller perch and hopefully get some slab crappies. I never marked a fish near the sunken island so I never bothered fishing there. I found the fish stacked up on a steep edge in 12-25 fow. I had to be home by dark, but from what I hear the bigger ones start hitting after dark.