Lake Wisconsin Early Fall Crappie Fishing

I spent a few hours chasing crappies on Lake Wisconsin both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend.
Saturday was such a nice day that we made it a family outing with my wife and our yellow lab Kayla joining me for 3-1/2 hours in the boat before we called it quits with 10 nice crappies and another half dozen decent size bluegills.
Yes, we could have kept a lot more but we had more than enough for a good fish fry already and I don’t like keeping more than I need or cleaning a pile of fish.
Numerous sheapshead and white bass, plus a couple of smallies also found themselves attached to the end of our lines. It’s always like that when chasing crappies in the fall. You really never know what you’re going to catch this time of the year.
3-1/2 hours was more than enough time to successfully scout and access the fall crappie bite. Not a whole lot has changed over the years really. The crappies we caught are not the monsters we used to catch 4 or 5 years ago but fat 11 to 12-1/2” average size crappies are still a lot of fun to catch and they make mighty fine table fare.

On Sunday, the scouting done the day before really paid off as pretty much every spot I took my clients to held at least a couple of nice crappies along with those other species.
Hats off to Kurt & Max Vogel by the way for also taking only what would make a good meal plus a package in the freezer for another day. Legally they could have kept 50 between the two of them. Granted, they didn’t catch 50 but they certainly could have kept more than 15 crappies (of the same size I might add). They elected to stop at 15 and release the rest for others to catch someday.
I love when clients with youngsters set a limit for the number of fished they plan on keeping. And when that number is reached, they release the rest despite the fact that they could legally keep many, many more.
Hats off to you two Kurt & Max!

As for what we used to catch the crappies, pretty much the same stuff I’ve been using every since I started guiding.
The minnow rigs we use are very simple and consist of a plain thin wire hook running lightly thru both lips of a fathead minnow. Ten inches above the minnow we pinch on a 1/8oz split shot.
We do not cast this out or fish it below slip bobbers. Simply lower it down to the bottom and reel it up one to three turns off the bottom. Let the fish tell you how far off the bottom to fish. If one person is catching fish at two turns off the bottom while the others catch none, then it’s time for the other people in the boat to fish two turns off the bottom as well! Be sure to try different depths when moving into new area’s.
The boat is used to put the minnows right over the crappies which tend to suspend very close to the first major break out from shore. This is generally right around 10 feet but could also be 8′, 12′ or even 15′ in some places. It’s not critically important that the break be at one particular depth.
Most of the time I will cast a small jig & plastic combo into the shallows while the minnow rod sits in a rod holder. But not always. If the fish are fairly deep, then another good way to fish a tiny jig/plastic combo is exactly the same way as you would the minnow rig. Simply clamp on a 1/8oz split shot 10″ above a 1/64 or 1/32oz jig and drop it right over the side of the boat. I like to tip it with a waxworm before sending it down. You’ll catch everything in the lake with this rig. Crappies, bluegills, white bass, smallies, largemouth bass, sheepshead, walleyes and saugers will all take this rig in a heartbeat and my clients do catch them all. You never know what you’ll pull up for sure. On many occasions, I’ve found that the tiny jig & plastic tipped with a waxworm will out fish the minnow rod when fished right below the boat.

There are a ton of plastics out there to choose from and many of them will work very well. Tube jigs are always a good bet and you don’t always need a big one. Small tubes will take big crappies weather you tip them with a waxworm, minnow or nothing at all.
Cubby-Mites and Mini-Mites are both tiny jig/plastic combo’s that take a bunch of big crappies for us. Nail Tails, Ikes and other straight tailed plastics can work very well also. Tiny Shad by Bass Assassin is another good bet and Tiny Worm by Southern Pro is one of my favorites.
Fish them all on tiny jigs from 1/64 to 1/16oz on the large end. Some days it pays to change things up a bit by fishing those plastics on a Blakemoore Road Runner jig. The tiny blade on the bottom of these jigs can really pull in the fish on certain days.
In early fall here on Lake Wisconsin, walleyes and saugers can be hard to consistently catch due to all the food that’s available to them, catching nice size panfish is a great back up plan to be able to fall back on.