After reading all the great reports around the area lately, I figured it was high time to get in on some of the great action myeself. With a little tip from a fellow IDA member, we made plans today to meet and try to entice the crappie to a free meal. It turned out to be my best bite of the year so far. Read on to see how the day turned out.
I met “eyebuster” on a little backwater pool off of Pool 7 this morning around 9:30. He had been to this area previously and had both good and bad luck. We decided to give it a try today and see what we could find. Brandon and myself started off in 13 fow with very little action, so we both punched holes at different depths until we found fish. Here is eyebuster with a few keeper crappie.
It wasn’t until we moved into the deeper water that we started to see a lot of suspended fish. I was using a variety of jigs while trying to find what would trigger a bite. Throughout the day I used the Lil’ Cecil, Forage Minnow, and assorted plastics. For me I had more bites while using plain jigs. For some reason, they were not interested in meat. Mccrty_ryn joined us later and was able to start icing a few crappie and some nice gills. Here is a pic of Ryan and a few fish as well.
While Brandon and myself were busy trying to get fish to bite, we had to endure some pure torture for a few hours. There was a couple of guys out there basically putting on a clinic on the art of catching crappie. These guys were putting crappie on the ice faster than a speeding bullet. When the had their limit and were packing up, I went over and asked them if I could fish their holes. Of course they didn’t mind since they were leaving. As soon as I put my jig down the hole, BAM, I was met halfway down by a nice crappie. They were situated on a hump that was 14 fow surrounded by water in the 20 foot range. The action stayed pretty consistant on this spot all day. I iced all but 2 of the fish I kept in this spot. All of Brandon and Ryan’s fish also came off this hump. Electronics were a near must today since these fish were all suspended in varying depths. Some schools were really agressive while others had to be worked in order to get a bite.
Here is another shot of eyebuster watching his electronics while trying to entice the crappie.
Here is a closer shot of the few crappie I decided to bring home for a quick snack for the kids.
Nice report Mike, good to see you guys got in to them!!!
Ed
Wow looks like you guy’s had a great day, and some nice weather to boot
.Those crappies sure look good 
.Nice fish guy’s. 
Thanks for a great post Mike, Ya make me want to travel.
Good Fishin Doug
The weather was great today. The wind was the only bad thing, but the temps were awesome. It seems like forever since we have been able to fish without a heater
Nice slabs :
I’m willing to bet that “THE HUMP” will be hit again. Nice report 
Looks like a great day out on the ice Mike thanks for the report
Nice Fish Wats!!
Well that certainly looks like fun.
I no longer have to guess why you didn’t answer your phone today… 
Great report Mike!!!
Mike did you get a pic of me jumping in the hole?
After you left I caught 8 more and had to jump in the hole to save another. Ryan also caught the biggest shad I have ever seen was a good day with good people.
I didn’t get a pic of that, but I did get a laugh out of it
Sometimes it is just better to let the fish go 
Great news to hear you guys landed some more fish 
We will have to get together again soon 
Great report Mike. Thanks for sharing and for all the pics too. Sounds like you guys had a hay day of fun.
I bet I know where you will be fishing for awhile. 
Thanks, Bill
Great looking crappies Mike!!
Good report Mike!
Those are some nice slabs. 
It is very apparent that I take a much better picture that you do.
I was thinking about that as well
Awesome report Mike
Now that looks like fun
Nice bunch of fish guys. Nothing is more fun than finding that one hole that consistantly produces fish.
Hit the same general area today, but in a different spot. The hump was already taken so we had to change plans, which turned out for the better. We set up in deeper water this morning and was immediately rewarded. My best jig today was a Lil’ Cecil in purple glitter. Today was a prime example of just how important a flasher is when fishing suspended fish. Ryan landed 1 fish early on, but I had 12 nice crappies on the ice in the meantime. We used the flasher and set the depth for him, but he was still not catching fish. The jig had to be at 11 feet before you could get hit. But, without seeing the fish and their reaction, you couldn’t get a bite. The bite was pretty much non-stop from the time we got there until the time we left. We kept a dozen for Ryan and released the rest. I could have kept a limit, but I just couldn’t bring myself to keep more than I needed even if the area is stacked with crappie and gills right now. here are a few pics of the biggest fish of the day.
Here is one more shot for now. Ryan is going to get some measurements and a shot of the fish we kept and we will post them later.
Looks like I lost my spot
I will be back there on Friday
It seems like it has a great supply of fatties!!
I am done there until I get a flasher. Which will be here hopefully next week.
but I accepted a job offer today 
So I probably wont get to use it until next weekend. It was nice to learn a new spot. Thanks Eyebuster and Wats
Here is the pic of what we kept today. The size was a little smaller than I thought. The biggest was 12.5″ and there were 5 between 12″ and 12.5″ Still good sized for a fish fry
Very nice crappies Mike. You sure are having a blast ice fishing this year. You have em dialed in alright.
Thanks, Bill
Nice slabs Wats