Is It Too Early For Crappie Fishing???

[Solocam Hunter]

I live around the St. Paul area and noticed that most of the lakes around here have little to no ice left in them. I was just wondering if it is still too early to try pan fishing? I've heard stories of people catching crappies already, but then again some people like to play games with eager fishermen like me.

Has anyone gone out yet? Has anyone seen people catching fishes in any local lakes??? Any pointers would be great...

[waterbound]

I might try a couple spots tomorrow and let you know if I have any luck. Last time I went ice fishing (about a week and a half ago) the pannies were in 8 feet (no flasher that time, but it's a guess) but they should be coming in shallower if not in some of the same spots. Depending on how far the ice is out and how well you can toss a jig you might be successful. And it's never too early for fishing...catching is a different story

[half-dutch]

No, its not too early for crappies, since they really never actually stop, but you will need to find where their movements and water open enough to be fishable come together. Look for areas adjacent to where you catch them other times of the year, but likely shallower now than at any other time except actual spawn and sometimes now even shallower than that. They will be moving shallower for two reasons the lesser of which is comfort. The more important reason is that the warmer waters are already providing extra forage and they are feeding up in newly re-oxygenated water preparing for spawn in about a month and a half to two months from now.

[palisade1kid]

Targeting

Pre Spawn

Pan Fish

The year’s ice out is going to be sooner than later this year. From the signs I’d have to say maybe by as much as 2 weeks earlier. So with these 2 extra weeks of open water prior to our openers of walleye and pike there is a chance to really get in some fantastic

crappie and bluegill fishing.

This phase is known as pre spawn.

Understanding these fishes movements will aide in locating them. During the pre spawn crappies for example are nomadic in their movements.

Yet they are easy to target, but it does take a bunch of moving around in the boat and covering a ton of water and structure to find them.

Here’s the plan…wait until 3-4 days after the ice leaves your favorite pan fish lake. You need some good sun to warm the water a few degrees before you start to look for them.

The north and west sides of a lake are typically what will hold fish the fastest due to the sun getting more exposure time. Also bays and coves that have muddy or silty bottoms are prone to warming up faster than sandy and rocky bottoms.

The next key is locating these bays next to or adjacent to deep water.

These crappies will stage out in the deeper water overnight and into the morning. Once the sun is up for a few hours these crappies will start to slide into these warmer bays to feed. Then as the sunsets they slide back out into that deeper water to suspend until the next day where they will slide back in again.

This process of moving in and out will occur until the water temperature hits about 55 degrees. At this point the males will start to make the nesting beds. Once the water hits 58-62 degrees the females will come to the beds to lay their eggs and the males will fertilize the roe .

The females head back to deeper water while the males stand guard at the nests until the eggs hatch.

Bluegills go through the same type of activity only the water needs to be a bit warmer so they come in a bit later as the crappies will come 1st.

OK so back to how to catch them…

I am using very small bait under a small bobber. These fish are very spooky at this time of year. Banging an anchor in the boat or dropping it to splash in the water will blow fish away from you. The key here is stealth.

I’ll do what they call float-n-fly only I’m using a small hair jig. Small plastics work too like the ones Lil Atom makes that you can find at Gander Mountain in Brainerd.

Mount your bobber 2-3 foot above your bait depending on the depth of water your working. Then make long casts to cover maximum amounts of water. The idea is to give your reel a few cranks and pause a few cranks and then pause. Turning that reel handle slowly a few cranks and pause. Watching that bobber as you turn it a few cranks and pause. Every time you crank your bait raises and when you pause it falls. These fish will hit that bait if they are there. You’ll need to study that bobber…if it makes a twitch, sets a bit deeper, lays over sideways, moves to one side or does anything different than just float normally you’ll want to set that hook!

You may laugh, but I run into all sorts of guys that do not know how to read a bobber.

I kept asking one guy last year…you going to set that hook yet! He just did not see that subtle tick of a hit and the cork would set a touch lower in the water.

Those slabs were hanging on to the bait and he could not read the strike. Working this time of year with the water still being super cold will have these fish pretty finicky and finesse fishing is the trick to drilling many fish in an outing.

Rarely will a bobber go all of the way under.

Using 4 test line is a distance killer in your casting.2 test would be much better .I can’t tell you how many guys have too thick of line. I’ll find these fish on a reed edge or over an old cabbage bed some distance away. Now they can’t cast that far to get to them.

So after lifting the anchors and moving closer to them we spook them.

Game over! Now we have to go looking again.

As to structure…downed trees, reeds or anything along the shoreline can hold crappies.

Move, move, move…cover water. Once you find them it’s game on.

Please practice catch and release with these breeders!

Failing to release the bigger ones will deplete your lake ,they are too easy this time of year!!!!!

[NCLaker]

So with crappies still biting very light, anyone use ice fishing spring bobbers and their flashers (vex/marcum/etc) in their boats for these early season crappie fishing?

[waterbound]

I tried three different spots on three different lakes today and didn't catch anything. The ice was still on and the water was cold so I think the fish are a little too deep to get from shore yet. It won't be long though!

[boilerup]

Went to Wayzata yesterday to a small park on the lake that had some open water. Froze myself half to death and didnt catch a thing. Supposedly a couple guys caught some but the two hours I was there I never saw them set a hook. Still a touch to early from what I've seen.

[Roosterslayer05]

Iv caught crappies in traditionally ice out spots days before the lake ice's out...It just depends on the lake. Like crappie keith said, stealth is key. There have been many times where im catching fish after fish, while other guys around me cant catch 1! They just arnt detecting the bites.

[ndshafer]

I was out last night at Coon Lake and the shallower side is 100% ice free by the access and the deeper side should be 100% today. Went out to take the oldest shore fishing and caught several crappies biggest one was 9 inches though. maybe later this week once the back waters warm up a little more the big boys will swim on in..

[Tisch]

They are definitlely catchable right now, but like everyone is saying stealth and finesse is key. You want to use the smallest bobber you can. Use an ice fishing bobber if you can. I have had good luck with ice bobbers in early open water. However the still fishing bobber technique is not always the best. A very underutilized technique is slowly swimming a two inch curly tail grub on a 1/16 oz. jighead. One of the issues with triggering cold water crappies is that they have a tendency to meticulously inspect of bait for an extended period of time only to decide not to bite it. Swimming the grub gets you around this issue because the crappie can't overinvestigate a moving bait. The fish has to make a quick decision. Not just any grub will do though. You have to find a grub that has a tail that is soft enough to keep its action at slow speeds. Swimming a grub also allows you to cover water and locate fish.

In order to locate these fish you want to fish the warmest areas that are least disturbed by big waves. Good bets are the north side of small coves or channels between lakes. If these areas have dingy water and/or dark bottom it is a plus. However, the north side of a cove or channel is not always the best. You almost always want to be fishing the wind blown shore within a cove for early crappies because the wind will blow plankton (which baitfish will follow) and warm water into that shoreline.

Good luck

[muskiedreams]

Good post crappie keith,, he pretty much covered the whole thing!!!

[Thomas]

Find a warm bay on the lake...I had no problem with limiting on 9-11"Crappie, 7-9" sunfish, and almost limit of jumbo perch. I didn't want to clean that many, so only kept a dozen. I used 1/64 oz jig with hair,and pink gulp with tiny float.

[ROOOOSTERFISH]

Could not say it any better Keith!! Was out today on some westmetro lakes. Found some action on one lake finaly, probably due to one of keiths main points, just around noon. Caught craps and sunnies till little front rolled in and left. Sure was fun to get out and get the line wet again and can not wait to do it again soon.

[CatholicConis]

OK, dudes, I need some help. I had a beautiful day on Minnetonka today, but I haven't fished crappie since I was a kid, and I had only one strike, which I missed. In the morning I was trying arificials next to shore where other guys were catching: flu-flu, hair jig, even a crappie spinner bait. Not sure if I was too shallow or too deep, but I wasn't getting squat. One guy was kind enough to donate some minnows to me, and I had the one bite on a small jig with the minnow, under a bobber. I was swimming it a little. Guys all around me were limiting out. Perhaps I wasn't in the zone they were, but I think something was wrong with my presentation. Is it best to let the bait sit, or so you swim it? I'd also love advice on artificials because I hate buying live bait, however one guy said it might be too early for plastics.

Great day, but frustrated! Thanks in advance.

[Pherris]

OK, dudes, I need some help. I had a beautiful day on Minnetonka today, but I haven't fished crappie since I was a kid, and I had only one strike, which I missed. In the morning I was trying arificials next to shore where other guys were catching: flu-flu, hair jig, even a crappie spinner bait. Not sure if I was too shallow or too deep, but I wasn't getting squat. One guy was kind enough to donate some minnows to me, and I had the one bite on a small jig with the minnow, under a bobber. I was swimming it a little. Guys all around me were limiting out. Perhaps I wasn't in the zone they were, but I think something was wrong with my presentation. Is it best to let the bait sit, or so you swim it? I'd also love advice on artificials because I hate buying live bait, however one guy said it might be too early for plastics.

Great day, but frustrated! Thanks in advance.

There is a thread in the crappie/sunfish forum that covers this topic in detail. here is the link.

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2210295/2

Good Fishing

[Lipriper84]

I Fished a small metro lake this weekend and had good luck on a black and green tube on a 1/8oz white jig head. I was just casting it out and jiging it from the bottom to the surface. Most strikes came right before the jig got to the surface. the fish were anywhere from 8-12 inches and had a nice one on that was probably 14+ but got off at the side of the boat. My buddy was using a small beetle spin, green tipped with a small crappie minnow and did about equal to the tube. 6 feet of water, the key was finding some weeds and working the edge of them.

[waterbound]

I caught some crappies and a perch today at a lake that recieves some pretty heavy pressure this time of year. The fish were willing to bite on 1/64 oz hair jigs but not so much on spinners (they would tap it, but wouldn't get hooked).