Park Rapids Minnesota Fishing Report

Spawning crappies and children are a great way to spend a week on vacation. My family, along with about six other families, head up north to the Park Rapids area every year for some fun tubing, golfing, fishing, and enjoying the great outdoors. We could not have hit the crappie fishing much better as they just started to spawn in the shallow clear water of the lake that we were staying on.

I got out for the first time on Sunday afternoon and my first stop was a beaver lodge that has always been a great spot. I eased the boat into casting range, hooked on a minnow and fired a cast to the deep water edge of the woodpile. The bobber and jig hit with a kerplunk and as soon as the bobber settled it twitched upward and then slowly sank. A crappie bite if I ever saw one, crappies have a more of a tendency to rise upward to feed than move down in the water column to feed. One reason to set your jig slightly higher than what you think the fish are. A quick snap of the wrist and after a short yet fun fight the first crappie of the vacation was landed, a 13 inch beauty. With the first bite being so aggressive I decided to throw a 1.5 inch white paddletail and forgo the jig and bobber for a little while. A wise choice if I must say so as I caught 20 crappies on 22 cast with most being in the 11-12 inch range. With the knowledge of those fish being there it was time for me to find other spots. Next stop I hit was a small point that has held crappies in the past. Same results, bobber barely settles and once again see I small movement upward with the bobber and then straight down. I set the hook on another slab crappie, now that I have a decent feel for where some fish are I head back in the grab my kids. I dock the boat and set out to find Katie and Jonathan, who to no surprise to me where at the pool and wanted nothing to do with fishing at the present time. My next choice was a 13 year old boy named Spencer. Spencer reminds me of myself when I was that age, nothing but fishing on the mind and eager to learn as much as possible about our great sport. We get the OK from his parents, grabbed his fishing equipment and head back out for an hour of fishing. The bite slowed a little for us but we still caught some wonderful black crappies. I eventually got out fishing with my kids and Spencer. We had a blast sight fishing crappies later in the week as the water temps climbed from 60.8 to 71.3 and the fish moved even shallower in effort to spawn.

The thing that surprised me was how behind the fish were from their normal routine, I saw largemouth that were still courting, some just starting to fan nests, while others were guarding with a vengeance. Never in my eight years of going to this resort have I ever seen largemouth on beds. While on the subject of largemouth, I gave the crappies a break a few times as I chased some green bass. I wanted to try a new to me topwater frog, Sizmic Toad, rigged on a 5/0 wide gap hook. The strikes that I got on this setup were astonishing. I would buzz it along the reeds, lily pads, and even out over open water but the meanest most aggressive were when I would buzz it and stop it over a bedded bass. The lure would slowly sink and you could see the bass get irritated by the intruder and absolutely crush the toad. I am glad that I spent some time learning a new lure as I can think of many other lakes that this will work on this summer.

The techniques and equipment that I was using the most for the week were Thrill Sly Bite floats, some of the most sensitive bobbers around. I was using 1/16 ounce quiver jigs in combinations of Pink/White, White/White, White/Chartreuse, Chartreuse/ Chartreuse, and Black/ Black, changing colors when the bite slowed. Other colors catch fish but those are the ones that I have confidence with. Most days having confidence in what you are using means the difference between catching and fishing.

Remember to have some patience when fishing with young anglers as you will get your share of blunders, knots, broken rods, getting hit with bobbers as they cast and set the hook, flying fish, but you will also get your share of memories as they laugh and giggle with you.

Remember to practice catch and release, the future of fishing depends on it.

Until next time,

Ron