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I'm in the same boat as TO, my daughter (4yrs old) suggest we should maybe go by the "other people" after not seeing anything in our first 2 spots. Ran into big sunnies and medium perch in 21' of water in some weeds. Maybe I should listen to her more often, shows how much I know!!!

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Females have a natural instinct for fish location. When my wife speaks up in the boat and has a recommendation, you can bet I have the motor started before she's done talking.

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T.O. I am heading over to Faribault area this Sat. and I have not fished there all year what lake do you think I should hit and what area on the lake. This is my last time out this year and would like to make it a good one

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It appears as though they are still deep. I caught some crappies in 28' feet, most were suspended 5' or so off the bottom. Then I decided to move to 21' and found quite a few sunnies hugging the bottom but biting well. I was going to make my next move to about 15' when I decided to bury my truck in a snowdrift. Luckily an older feller that had been watching me from his house for 15-20 min get nowhere digging myself out with a hockey stick (they don't work well) drove out and gave me a shovel to make it a little easier, that was embarrassing!!! Good day overall though.

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I've been finding similar results on my outings, but have been getting 'gills in 28' too.

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You guys think with the rain we're suposed to be getting and the warm temps that a guy will be able to find them in the shallows by this weekend?

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Last weekend I caught my gills in 7-10 fow. On most lake they have been deep, but I did find some shallow - and they were much more aggressive.

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On some lakes they've been in shallow for quite some time, especially the 'gills. Other lakes, they're deep yet. All depends on the lake you want to target. Only personal observation I can offer...the murkier lakes, they've been in shallower. Clearer lakes, deeper.

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Run-off certainly helps but I wouldn't look for the "big boom" in shallow to happen for at least another 10 days. Lots of ice out there yet which means the oxygen levels are not readily available in shallow water in most cases...

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Since I have been dealing with sick kids today, I am headed out for a solid day on the ice tomorrow. Did anyone have any luck today? I am not looking for lake names. I was just curious if the fish have become more active and if there has been any recent movements shallower?

I was out for a few hours Thursday and found the fish to be in a negative mood. The fish that I found were 12 fow to 6 fow. They would come up for the bait and then stop. They would even chase, but very few would take it. Hoping to find a few fish willing to bite. I may to put the new auger to the test tomorrow and seek out some active fish. They have to be out there.

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I would say it's more lake dependent, the fish I have been on this last week have been very active, crappies are still roaming the deep basins but are suspended anywhere from 5 feet below the ice to three feet above the bottem in 30 fow, I would expect that with that sort of spread in the water column it's just a matter of days if not know that I would start to look a little shallower, more of a night bite on those though, last sunday I fished deep and found crappies that were 12"+ with the biggest coming in at 15". Man was that thing a beast, targeted the same area again last wednesday and the bigger ones moved out already, maybe shallower, I didn't try as I had a very active bite of 9-11 inchers going. Couldn't even keep up with two rods once darkness came about,

The sunfish bite is excellent all day long in shallow and away from the crowds, right know there are two different bays that people are catching sunnies, I fished one of them last sunday afternoon, but was a little disgusted with the size, too many little dinks to sort out, like one in five was 8" plus, so I put a plan together last thursday and hit an area of untapped ice, started in 12 fow and kept moving shallower, eventually ended up in 6 fow and wammo, consistent steady action and size, the biggest gill went 10" and the majority aabout 70% averaged 8-9. I fished for an hour and half and managed to keep 10 gills for dinner, and released another 10 for the future, I did have a few to sort but the ratio was 3 decent gills to 1 dink, much better and no one around. Everyone was fishing the groups across the lake, the gills were a little pickier in this area but once I found that majic color and hook it was all over for them. A green Marmooska tipped with a waxie caught all my fish that day. I have photos of some of the fish but I havent uploaded them yet, maybe this week I'll post them.

I'd say this, have aplan ready to go, expect to drill quite a few holes, I always start deep and keep going shallower, or shallow and go deeper, but I only run one rod until I hook up with some consistency, then I'll drill a c pattern or x and hole hop that specific depth.

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