1st open water crappie limit of the season.

[crappie todd]

The son and I were on two lakes this saturday morning. One lake gave up a crappie in 24 feet of water. After going deep and shallow and fighting the wind, we swithed over to Be bee lake as the The second lake and hit the crappies in 4 feet of water. the sunnies going nuts. We took two limits of crappies and threw back 5 times as many. It Would have been an excellent day for the young kids. Got a sun burn/ wind burn to boot..

Water temp was 46 Dg in 4ft of water.

CT.

[Glenn_S]

We got into them as well on Tonka.

We found 48 and 54 degree water. The fish were up shallow-2-5 ft. We caught over 2 limits, but only brought home 1 limit, and all but 2 were females.

The wind was a bear, but it was good to get the boat in the water, and have something tugging on yer string!

Glenn

[Slyster]

Wow! Nice job... What were you using for lures? Were you using live bait.. etc.. I have such rotten luck each year with panfish.

[united jigsticker]

I was the son in the above mentioned post.

We used flu-flus, 1/32 oz in size, and rat finkies, coupled with minnows or Berkley Gulp worms.

Coincidentally, all but 2 of the Crappies I cleaned were Males.

Can't wait to get out again.

[Glenn_S]

We were using hand tied 1/32oz white jig-heads with crappie minnows. Fishing them about 18-24 inches down.

Glenn

[Kab Dreamin]

We were on Minnetonka on Sunday afternoon back in the Black and Seton Lakes area. The crappies were scattered but were biting when you found them. No huge slabbers but decent enough to keep. The sunnies were biting like crazy but nothing with any size, just some eaters. We kept enough for a meal. It sure was nice to feel a fish at the end of the line again. We used 1/32nd oz flu-flu's and either a minnow or wax worm under a slip bobber. We also tried the new Gulp earthworms. The sunnies love them and you can catch 25-30 sunnies on one before its gone and you only need to use about 1/3 of one on the jig. Good stuff. We probably caught 150-175 fish total for day. Can't wait for next weekend.

[CALVINIST]

Kab,

I was on Tonka in the same area last evening also. Sunnies were going nuts everywhere, but only managed to find one crappie in Black .

[markkstanley]

What depth were you guys fishing?? I gave Black a shot Friday evening but was in 12 to 15 ft at entrance channel to Seaton - nothing wanted to bite. They were on the sonar and would come up the the jig but then swim away.

[Kab Dreamin]

We were fishing in the channel that leads into West Arm. They are putting in a retaining wall there and we were anchored right up next to the orange construction fence. The depth there is about 6-7' max. It seemed like a small pod of them would come in and you would catch 2 or 3 and then nothing for awhile. We'd move 20 or 30 yards and catch a couple more. I think that with a little more warm weather this week, they will be thick enough to walk on in there next weekend.

My partner tied into a pretty good sized Northern or Muskie but we never got a look at it. With 4lb line, the fish just headed west like we weren't even there.

[montanagriz]

Just got back from a great day on the water. I took the day off from work and was able to put a few more hours on the new boat. Fished a NW metro lake with my dad and caught a crappie on nearly every cast. The majority were small, but it was a lot of fun. Didn't even need live bait, caught every fish on a white flu-flu with the same white power grub. If anybody knows a better jig for spring crappies than a white flu-flu, I sure would like to know about it, because that jig outfishes everything I have ever thrown. Also caught a couple "bull" sunnies, a big whisker-bass (aka bullhead), and a nice healthy 2 lb largemouth. I thought I had another 2lb + bass on until I got it to the boat and realized it was a crappie. It was by far the biggest crappie I had ever seen and was easily 2 lbs. I luckily had my camera phone with, (I knew there was a reason I needed that feature on my new phone) snapped a picture, and put her back in the lake. Overall it was a great day, the crappie bite is definately on!