Time for Tonka Crappie

[pipesmoker]

I've never fished for crappie on Tonka. Seems too big for me. No wheeler or snowmobile. I did quite well for walleye but I'm ready for crappie. Can anyone give me some general locations. I have an H2O and maps. I'll punch the holes, I just need some starting points. If you want e-mail me at [email protected], I won't tell anyone your spots. Heck, I'll tag alone and drop a few lines with you. I WANT CRAPPIE!!!!

Thanks,

Steve

[blackdog1101]

Steve, seems we share two interests, pipe smoking and crappies. I prefer Danish pipes and latakia blends, and jigs with plastics.

If you care to, email me at [email protected]

Warren

[CALVINIST]

Warren,

I don't smoke pipes (Well, over 25 years ago I did, but that's a different story ) But I do like a fine cigar We'll have to get out again before the year is out a chase some more craps.

[Carp-fisher]

You might have to count me in on that--the crappie fishing, that is.

[markkstanley]

Crappies are still holding in the basins - look for 30ft depths close to breaklines. Take a look at Phelps bay for examples of what to to look for. Both deep basins are holding crappies and gills. Was out last night and we caught a mess of crappies - some nice ones and a lot of Tonka's infamous 6 to 7 inchers. Ratso glow head red body produced fish for me.

[pipesmoker]

That's me Warren. Just e-mailed you. The guy we need to follow is that Mark Stanley character He's been catching them all year.

Steve

[blackdog1101]

Steve, I was out tonight for a couple hours on Phelps in 30 FOW, the spot I emailed to you. Tough bite tonight. They were neutral to negative. I tried 1/64 oz jigs with plastic, 1/64 oz hair jigs, size 10 tear drop jigs tipped with a waxie, and a Moxy jig tipped with a nuggie. All caught fish, but nothing much. Then I tried a 1/80 oz white glow jig tipped with a Gulp maggot. I used my head lamp to illuminate the glow jig. This got the best attention from the fish. Real light bites though, but more interest from the fish. Ended up the night catching about 15 crappies and one sunny, kept a few for dinner tomorrow. Nothing big though. Probably my toughest night so far this season for crappies.

[farmfishing]

The bite was pretty much the same in the north arm last night. They just did not want to be aggresive what so ever. I guess there is always tomorrow.

[Waylon&Willy]

Would it be worth heading to North Arm this afternoon and evening or have the fish gotten too much pressure now? I did decent out there a few weeks back, but noticed the houses continued to role in. Would it be better for me to try and locate a new spot that is not being fished with the chance of up empty, or is the top of North Arm still a good enough bite to head back?

Thanks

[Scott M]

Brought the camera with and headed out to Phelps. First hole cut had crappies stacked up in it. It is nice with the snow almost all melted to be able to drive a car anywhere you want to go.

Fished the first hour with a small horizontally laying jig and plastic trailer and was doing really well on crappies. Kind of figured I could do even better with the camera. Sure enough, I could reel them up even faster, with a few gills mixed in. Not much for size but sure was a blast catching them. Kamikaze crappies would fly in and nail the bait.

Lots of people out there. Once I got sick of it, I packed up and left. A little under 30 FOW. It will be interesting to see where these fish move to in time.

[chberry]

Fished North Arm on Saturday from about 3 until 6. Took out my dad and my 4 year old son, who caught his first 4 crappies before I could even get my rod out of the bucket. Fished in 28 ft of water, away from the crowds (closest house was 30 ft away). We had 12-15 ft of solid fish on the graph the entire time. A green and glow Demon tipped with a minnow produced the most fish (of course my son had my only one tied on!) I jigged a silver fat boy tipped with euros and picked up a few sunnies as well as some crappies. biggest we caught was probably 10 inches, but lots of 7-9 inchers.

[markkstanley]

I call tell you exactly where they go in spring and early summer. Have this area patterned.

[Lip'em]

 Originally Posted By: da_chise31

Kamikaze crappies would fly in and nail the bait.

You and your "kamikaze" crappies. You were giggling like a little school girl reeling up those 8" crappies after watching them take your bait on the camera!

[anchor man]

Anybody finding any crappies in the 10-15ft range lately, or should I focus my efforts in 25-30 tomorrow? This will be my last metro outing until the open water season.

I tried Grays Bay last weekend in about 14ft and marked some fish but only got a few small sunnies.

Thanks

[iFishMN.YT]

Im not the best one to answer, but I would say if you want good numbers try the deeper basin areas, but expect 7-10" fish the whole time, but if are looking for some slabs, try the 5-15fow areas.

[Scott M]

Caught a mixed bag of gills and crappies in North Arm this afternoon. A few filletable sunfish. It was fun to see them stacked up on the whole graph. 17 feet of water.

Went to move to the main lake and ran into some car troubles so the evening ended prematurely.

[walleyeJoe]

fished in phelps bay tonight. from 4 till about 10:30 for about 3 hour starting at about 7:30 i had a boober and a jigging line hoping to get the sunfish off my tail.... then right when the sun went down bam crappie time!! kept five all 10-11 inches.... really had to work for the bigger ones.... but it was litterally non stop action... i didnt even have time to bait hooks..... it was crazy...

[anchor man]

I tried Wayzata bay Friday morning, I was the only one out there and tried from 10-30ft, with only some perch and small sunnies. The sunnies were buried in the weeds in about 10ft, the perch were 14-30. Didn't see any crappies and I tried several different areas.