South Center, MN Crappie Action

The crappies continue to keep biting on South Center. In the same depths and locations as I’ve stated in previous reports there has been a lot less fishing pressure and traffic, which has meant even better fishing. We’ve been getting fish now just 4′ below the ice in 60′ of water! And as usaual, these fish have been the nice ones. The rule of thumb is the higher the fish, the bigger the fish. The ones pictured here all fell in the 10"-11" range and all came in the middle of the day. Cloudy days have proven to be better for the high riding fish. The fish high in the water column are still prefering the silver Swedish Pimple with eurolarvae over anything else. The fish from about 25′ on down seem to want a minnow instead on a green & yellow glow jig. This makes for a nice 1-2 punch.

I did try to hit a couple other lakes in the area with minimal success. The size of the crappies and sunfish was pretty small. The lakes in this area are getting pretty slushy with the recent warm up. A 4×4 is a must, but keep an eye on the accesses, as there is a lot of water on some of them. The access to South Center off highway 8 had about a foot of water. The best place to get on the lake was Sunset Point. An ATV was the best way to get around, and I was glad I had chains on.

On a final note, I just wanted to thank all those that either went out on a guide trip this winter, or read the reports, say me out there, and said "Hi". I don’t think a weekend went by that someone didn’t come up to me and said they saw the reports, and decided to give it a try.