Lake Menomin Crappie Report, 9-30-09

Finally some cold weather! And it’s about darn time

With the drastic change in air temps and the water temp down 6-8 degrees from just days prior, I wasn’t sure what kind of bite to expect when hitting the water this afternoon. Not having been out much since returning from Rainy Lake, I didn’t have a steady bite dialed in. My last few trips out have been spent targeting BlueGill’s but I’ve made a point to keep tabs on the crappies and walleyes as well. I figured with the dropped water temps and cooler weather in place, today would be a great time to key in and focus my attention on those paper-mouths and see if I could dial in a bite.

Mainly focusing attention on shoreline areas with downed trees in 8-12fow fit the bill, fishing shallower resulted in a few white bass and smallmouth, while deeper water resulted in… well…nothing

Casting small 3/32 to 1/8oz B-Fish H20 Jig’s tipped with a crappie minnow worked great and easily out produced my bobber rod today. From what I found, jig color didn’t matter much; however my best colors were both bright, sour apple and orange/chartreuse. Pitching the shoreline and returning the jig with a slow retrieve, periodically checking in with the bottom as you go seemed to trigger these crappies. And while the bite wasn’t a swift ‘crack’ on the line, a solid ‘thud’ was typical, making it relatively easy to detect a bite from a snag

Another tactic that was incredibly helpful (and I thank Dean Marshall for mentioning this a year or so ago), was pitching and slowly dragging a 1/16oz Draggin’ Jig tipped with a crappie minnow. That jig made those narley shorelines and jig stealing cribs seem smooth and forgiving, while at the same time allowing me to get my bait down through the snags and in front of more fish.

After crappie fishing, I did spend a little time checking out the fall walleye haunts and was pleased to find a few active fish were present. The 3 walleyes I did catch were all less than 15” but I did have several other hits and bites as well.

While were not quite into the Crappie Madness fall feeding frenzy, this was a definite reminder that were not far away. This string of cool weather is sure to kick off not only the crappies but the walleye bite as well. After a slow bite this summer here on the lake, today was real encouraging and I’m excited for yet another fantastic fall walleye and crappie bite here on Lake Menomin!

We’ll see ya out there