Esquagamah or Rat lake

[wildbill]

Has anybody been on Esquagamah or Rat lake? How is the ice? How is the Crappie bite? I hope to get up to Red during the next warm up, if not I will try to get out on Esquagamah or Rat. How does Rat lake Crappies compare in size to Esquagamah Crappies? I know the Crappies run small in Esquagamah but there are great numbers of them.

Thanks

Bill

[iland99]

I was on "Squag" last week. One day I fished for about 3 hours and caught maybe 5 crappies the whole time. The next day 2 of us caught and released probably 50 crappies in about two hours, kept 10 for the frying pan. None were very big. I haven't fished Rat lake since I was a little kid, so I can't help you there.

[Mike Smith]

rat has better size. and going good.

[JVinny]

I will be up to rat tomorrow. are the sunnies biting and are the crappies in the deep hole? Any help will due. I fish rat pretty hard in the spring, but never in the winter.

[JVinny]

I will be on rat tomorrow. Are the sunnies biting? Are the crappies in the deep hole? Ifish rat pretty hard in the spring. Any help would be good.

[JVinny]

I just got back . Fished all day and only a few small crappies. The size was the most disappointing thing . I also heard of reports of people catching overlimits. This use to be a great panfish lake but with the publicity this lake gets, it will soon be a lake that people drive by and tell stories about. Please practice catch and release and throw the 9 or 10 inch crappies back and we all will see the results.

[kalapoika]

Has anyone been on Esquagamah recently? I haven't been up there this year and was wondering if there was any plowed roads and if extensions were needed for augers. Might make a trip up from the cities this weekend if a person can get around.

Thanks!

[iland99]

As of last weekend extensions were not needed. There is a road plowed out to the biggest cluster of houses. If you have 4WD you won't have to worry about getting stuck even off the plowed road. I was in a dakota 4X4 and had no problems.