Friday my wife and I made a trip to South Center for a little crappie action. With the whether forecast calling for a drop in temps and an increase in winds, we thought we would take advantage of the nice day. We made it to the lake at about noon and right away noticed many more houses on the lake than the past couple years. Obviously the fish had been biting. Since I had not been out lately, we parked the truck on the shore and took out the ATV even though there were vehicles all over the place. The first decision was to go deep or shallow. We opted for the deep water.
We started by drilling 20 or so holes. I like to get all the noise done first, and then follow up with the flasher looking for fish. The crappies suspend over the deep water and have a tendency to roam from day to day, sometimes hour to hour. After checking most of the holes with nothing showing up we hit the mother load. We were in 48’ of water with fish solid from 18’ to 40’. I started by dropping a small silver jigging spoon tipped with euro larvae, the usual bait of choice, but nothing would hit. We tried different lures and nothing. Finally I dropped a minnow on a small glow and green jig and bingo. For the next 3 hours it was tough to keep one line going. Most of the crappies were about 8” with enough around 10” to make a nice meal. The first picture is of the big fish that was just shy of 12”.
From talking to others it sounds like the bite in shallows is pretty good for bluegills with an occasional crappie during the day. As night draws near, the crappies pick up as well a decent walleye bite. From the fish I saw, most of the walleyes were small, under 15”. There are a lot of people fishing the hole on the south end of Whispering Bay getting in on this bite.
The ice was about 15” where we drilled. The biggest thing that helped us catch fish time out I think was the Fireline Crystal we used. I had 2lb on 1 rod, which is 1/2lb diameter, and 2 lb mono on another, and the Crystal out performed 4 to 1. The fish also preferred the smallest minnows in the bucket.
Thanks for the report and pics Mike. I always like reading reports from that area. There are some really nice lakes in that imediate area that are fun to fish. This would be a great area for a small ARM Evert sometime.
Thanks, Bill
Mike~
Thanks for the report and the added knowledge of line selections.
Great report man..I was on South center this weekend as well ansd never in my life up there seen so many fish houses on that lake ever!! did the whispering bay thing saturday night and nothing over 15″ but lots of guys keeping 12 and 13″ inch fish
the lake is going to be a hurting unit this summer i think 
Great report Mike. Thanks for the info. I was thinking of hitting South center this weekend. Love2Fish
Thanks for the report Mike! Good to hear the crappie bite is going strong!
Thanks for the report. I might have to slide over there one of these days.
I went to south center today. was cold. We went into the bay just near the top of sunset point. about 8 feet of water. Seemed they did like the smallest jig and smallest minnow. we got 16 crappies between my friend and I. And a real nice northern on a tip up. didnt get a measurement but I would say near 5 lbs. not too bad. it was a decent day in the wind and cold
good ol’ southie
