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Question for those of you in the know, Is it very busy in the crappie areas on the opener. I am trying to stay away from the crowds going for walleyes and am thinking about taking the wife pan fishing and northern fishing in the bays instead. Thoughts?

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muskieswen,

You wil probably have many panfish areas all to yourself on the opener.

Cliff

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the way the weather is shaping up....you may have much fun!!!!....float a good suker for the pike and those crappies love rainbows!!!!!

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A couple of us are coming up for the opener and would like to try our luck for the Crappies on Friday. Could you share some info on where to start looking? You don't have to give exact locations\sweet spots.

Thanks,

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BGP,

I would love to give you some spots, unfourtunatley I do not know of any with exception to black bay which I believe is a community spot. I am going to try bays on the north end of the lakes with hopefully mud bottoms. I am going to look for the warmest bays I can find for the crappies and the weed grown bays for northerns. If I fail at that I will probably chase walleyes.

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I would do exactly what muskieswen is doing if I was after crappies. Walleye opener is often the time the crappies are drawn into the shallow muck-bottom bays because they warm fastest. I'm talking from 1 to 4 FOW, too. I've had my best luck on shallow spring crappies not using minnows, but a tiny 1-inch white Berkley power tube under a slip bobber. Over the last few early crappie bites, that rig has outperformed minnows 4-1. That's especially true if there's just a light ripple on the water, which bounces the bobber just enough to impart a little action on the tube skirt.

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Excellent advice Steve! The North shores of those shallow bays will usually have the warmest water!

Cliff

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Clifford, might see you out there if you're on the East Bay. I'm opening on Saturday for lakers on Burntside with Chunkytrout, but am planning to bring Mrs. Catfish to the Big V on Sunday. We've got a coupla friends who are walleyeholics and have a place on Ely Island, and they've shown us quite a few good spots in the last few years.

We'll be in an older (1990) 16-foot Alumacraft Competitor (blue/gray) with one of the last of the tall black 90 hp mercs. Could be she and I will even boat over the 10-pound 'eye I saw last June in 5 FOW while musky fishing at the western entrance to Bass Bay. grin.gif

What you driving this year? grin.gif

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Steve,

I still have my 1775 ProV, 115 Yamaha with Fishing Minnesota. Com stickers on the boat.

Hope to see you out there. I will be fishing the East end also.

Cliff

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Cool. And at least the weather looks good (knock on Lund). Not like that pisser of a Governor's Opener two years back. Took me six months to warm up after that one. Even the muskies warmed up before I did. frown.gif

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i have some great news for crappie seekers....guess i dont count for much....but they are moving shallow on days that are just like today...a friend of mine got 16 in fairly shallow water today....i will be there tomorrow....hey set the hook!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Any ideas on where we might find some Bass (C&R only)? We will be staying at Muskego point. Thanks!!

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Any body fish in Bystrom at all? Looks to me like that would be a good panfish spot. Another one that looked good was wolf bay. Any one tried these in the past? Gary, how big of rainbows do you use? The ones I used last year for walleyes seems too big for panfish.

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There are panfish in Bystrom Bay and in Wolf Bay also in Fox Bay.

Big crappies like the rainbow minnows up to 3 inches long, but the small to medium sized ones will probably work best.

Cliff

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same as cliff said about the minnows...from what i hear this is going to be a good year for crappies

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