crappie chronicles

[gophish]

This is my new thing for this year. everytime i get done fishing this year i'm going to come here and put up a post on my successes and failures and things i learned.

the first one will be a little long as i have two days to post on.

sat. dec. 11. alberta clipper on its way in. conditions otherwise good 25 degrees and a mild wind with overcast.

sat in 17 feet of water at edge of 14 foot hump/sunk. island.

caught only a few crappie and had good luck with eyes. 30" plus a few other assorted fish of different species.

other people fishing with us were in 19 feet of water as the islands flattens out into the basin and caught more towards 7-10 crappies but no eyes. fish active right around sundown.

tuesday december 14. fished on a large and steep dropping slope. found a place where the slope tabled off a little bit before continuing to drop. sat in 20 feet with 15" about ten yards away and 25 feet about 75 yards away. only caught a few small crappies.

authors note. first lake is a good lake and the luck was about as expected with a few less crappies than desired.

lake two is a small lake known more for big walleyes and second year where i havent caught a crappie worth keeping. we go there for the eyes.

end of post

feel free to reply with comments or questions.

gophish.

one more thing. jigs/colors used.

white fatboy with fatheads for lake one and crappies minnows for lake two. along with a couple rattle eye jigs blue and orange and pink teardrop. fat boy produced best followed by orange rattlin eye.

[gophish]

last thing to add to this. i'm only fishing lakes withing a one hour drive of fargo and will probably be fishing some lakes frequently. because some of my spots are off private property and/or shared my me and some buddies. i'm not going to give lake names.

also if you are looking for a fishin' partner. me and gonefishin11 go several times a week around our class schedule.

gophish

[gophish]

thursday december 16,

went to same lake as lake one. today seemed to be more productive. weather was clear, sunny and windy and cold 14 degrees.

i sat in the same 18 feet off of the 15 foot hump while gf11's dad sat in 18 feet about 25 yards away on the basin flat and gf 11 sat in 19 feet another 20 yards away from him in the basin.

i was using a white fatboy and orange teardrop, both glow.

caught about ten crappie and a mild assortment of other panfish. the dads shack of two people landed only a few crappies plus a 30 inch walleye. another beauty from this same spot. gf11 and his girlfriend land about fifteen crappie. all totalled we kept 14 crappie and 7 of them were over 11" with some reaching 13.

other shacks were using mainly rattlin eye jigs.

we are looking to start using new jigs. let me know which ones you suggest.

[Dano2]

I'll tell ya if you take me with, heh, heh.

I have had fairley decent luck useing shrimpos

[fishlakeman]

Gophish,

Do you happen to go to one Fargo area colleges? I'm a freshman at NDSU and have a good knowledge of the Ottertail Lakes area because I have a cabin on Ottertail. Maybe we could compare notes? Anyway, good fishin.

Nick

[gonefishin11]

fishlakeman

both gophish and I are sophmores at NDSU, I am from moorhead so I also have some good knowledge about the lakes in this area. We went out to the same lake again last night. I sat 5 yards from where I sat the previous day and only caught 6 crappies. My dad and his buddy sat about ten yards from me, caught 8 crappies and a walleye that was 27.5".

[ivegottabite]

gonefishin-

when are you going out this week? i dropped gophish a line but haven't heard from him. drop me a line: [email protected]

[gonefishin11]

ivegottabite,

Due to weather, I probably won't be out until after xmas.

[gophish]

gf11.

i could just call you but i'm on here and so will just speak my mind here....

ANOTHER HOG WALLEYE GOT LANDED OUT OF THERE.. HOLY CRAP..i'm thinking of cancelling the rest of my plans for xmas break and going and trying to add some h'eye'lights to my break and crappie chronicles.

matt and i shot muley does on the last day out west.. so much fun...

good luck fishing dude.

gophish.

[gonefishin11]

gophish

same lake, same spot with 2 different houses and we only caught 2 crappies. Tons of houses and people driving. Fish were biting right away at 3:30 so i think we were late. And then people started driving around. Might need to find a new lake.

[gophish]

gf11,

yeah, it is indeed time for a new lake. i think we can find any number of them too. you should go to the dnr website and start looking at stocking reports. also. lets go halfs on one of those books of lake maps. they are like twenty bucks at scheels and hvae all the lakes in the D.L. pelican rapids area.

[gonefishin11]

Same lake again tonight.... caught 3 small crappies. Had to take a rookie out and wanted a short walk or else I would have gone somewhere else. We were the last off the lake and it was only 7:10 so I dont think anyone was catching fish. Last time on that lake. Fishing a new one tomorrow but looking for eyes rather than crappies.

[fisheye]

Why are you two using this forum for exchanging personal emails? Why not go direct? We are looking for fishing information - not what you are doing on Xmas break.

[gonefishin11]

Fisheye,

We arent talking back and forth. If I would have done decent I would have let everyone know what jigs, what depth and what time of day. Im just reporting what I caught, sorry if you got offended by that.

[ScottND]

Fisheye, sorry you are having a bad day!....Some of us enjoy reading what they have to say and would like them to continue. Nothing worse than wanting to read some fishing forums just to find no one is saying anything. Thanks Guys...POST ON!

[gophish]

sunday january 2, 2005

today was the first time out "this year". basically had nothing to do around home so i tried out alocal reservoir. this is no where near D.L. but it was a trip so i thought i'd add it in my posts.

this is a newer res. built proly 8-10 years ago in s.e minn. there is a ton of flooded timber and it is stocked with panfish and bass mainly. i was hoping to find some crappies but settled for some nice blue and what i like to call "bull gills" the big ones, over nine inches.

after some searching i finally found a spot where the timber ended at the bottom of the hill that slopped into the water. we were right near the last tree that was sticking out of the water, 25' deep. There was a huge slope that went inland and we were right on the edge of that and the 28-30 foot flat at the bottom of the reservoir. considering we were right next to the big tree, it turned out to be ideal and we did well, caught many fish with good size.

dad had never been out with me since i got serious about ice fishing so he was impressed with how usefull the vexilar is. used just the basic small teardrop style jigs for the most part. when the fish rolled through, they ate anything tipped with a waxie. had good luck on a genz worm though, i really like those.

good fishing..

heading back early and will be fishing D.L. area again starting the middle of this week.

gophish.

[gophish]

tues. jan. 4, 2005

today was the first day back in the swing of things in this area.

me and the boys decided to hit a small lake that we had heard was a stock pond for walleyes and had seen on the dnr website that they had put like a million and some fry in there a few years ago.

there was a fair number of permanents on there and people said they were going for walleys but...we couldnt find a lake map, and in the process of exploring determined that the entire lake bottoms out at like ten feet, so we were sorta skeptical.

we ended up sitting right where it turns into ten feet and gave it hell.

of the two shacks and a wide array of jigs we landed one walleye...23" so who knows what to think of it all, but it was a nice h'eye'light. there were several fish on the vex. and i wish i had an aqua view to know if they were finicky walleyes.

tommorow i think is a crappie day cus everybody says that the fish arent biting well and i'm bound and determined to prove them wrong.

one day at a time...

gophish.

[Dahitman44]

I think I know what lake you were on. At least it sounds like a couple of lakes in our area.

Is it a a lake within 15 miles of Hawley? Just checking. I hit a few stocking ponds early in the year and did not have the best luck.

I'm glad somebody is getting something.

[gophish]

i hope you all dont mind that i dont share lake names.

its not that i'm trying to save all the spots for myself and am being selfish.

mainly its this.. i dont really think the lake itself is that important as far as what i'm trying to accomplish as far as finding patterns. i'm more thinking about locations within the lakes. and presentation etc.

also... many spots are those that my friends no of and we are accessing the lake from their friends lake cabins. and what not. they would get a little mad if a dozen permanent houses all of the sudden appeared in their favorite spots.

when i find a killer lake good enough for out d.l. get together i'll let everyone know.

gophish.

going fishing again today.

[Dano2]

Was going to head again today too, but figured the heck with it, and wait until next week (as I work the next few days) I really do think this cold front has slowed things down quite abit. Was out Monday, and should have had the little boy with, as the perch were go nuts, but that gets old in a hurry. I figured if there were alot of perch around, that perhaps it would attract some wallys later on when it got darker , but I left as I was abit tired, I was exploring the lake since 7 in the morning, and was tird of cathing perch. I was in an area were last year we had caught alot of very nice blue gills and some crappies, but just haven't been able to get on them the last 3 times out.

[gophish]

wednesday jan. 5th.

a very bad day on the ice..

brand new auger still isnt working right. a jiffy model 30. i have a hard time keeping it running and it has a tendency to bog down, i have to pamper it through the bottom ice.

then, i couldnt find the spot i was looking for. it was a 20'hole in the middle of a ten foot flat but i just couldnt find the deepest part. so i settled for a 15 foot spot that was sort of a weedline because the sun was starting to set and i wanted to fish.

as i'm getting the heater going it does something funky and a two foot flame shoots from it. (Contact US Regarding This Word) near burned down the entire lake but luckily nothing caught fire. so i throw it out on the ice expecting it to explode at any time and then i bury it in snow. needless to say it hasnt lit since then.

i managed to catch one small walleye and had three others hit in the same way this one did, very finicky small taps.

i like the lake though, i'll tell cus anybody who fishes there fishes the neighboring lake anyways, it was lake melissa. the maps make it look like it has potential. i'll go back when i have a buddy along to help explore it. let meknow if you fished it.

today tommorow and the weekend...will post on how i do

gophish.

[Dahitman44]

Wow. A bit testy aren't we goldfish? I was just trying to make coversation. I didn't think that a lake near Hawley 15 miles would give it away. I can think of a lot of lakes that fall into that description.

Just thought I had an idea where you were. I didn't ask you about a crecret spot or if you were using WD-40.

DaHitman44

[jas]

Did I miss something?? If not, I think you may be the one who's a little touchy. All he did is tell you why he doesn't list the lake name.

[gophish]

sorry if theres any discrepency, i mean no indecency to anybody.

thursday jan 6 2004.

today we fished one of the cormorants where i've had really good luck with crappies in the past and have usually been able to get a mixed bag of fish.

today we fished where there was a large underwater point that stemmed out from this island. the points hump crested at about 8 feet and we sat on the side of it in 17 feet where it started to settle down and table off. i wanted to sit on the very tip of the point but it was more subtle than it appeared on the map and didnt look very good. the side had a steeper slope.

the walleyes rolled through quick right at dusk and we landed two of them. 23" and 14". we didnt see any crappies come through suspended and taht was the only action that any of the two houses saw. we were pleasantly suprised by the walleyes and mildly disappointed by the absence of crappies.

it was the first time i had hit this spot and i think i will stick with the sunken islands and humps that i had hit last year to get the crappies.

tommorw is a walleye day back to the stock pond for the morning bite and then move to a neighbor lake for crappies in the afternoon and walleyes a night.

gophish

[Dragonfisherman]

Hey gophish I go to school at moorhead state and me and a couple of my buddies fish quite a bit around your area, If you ever want to meet up some time, I am sure that we all can show each other a new spot or two.

[ivegottabite]

hey gophish-

what's the word on the crappies? haven't posted for a week so either they're biting hard or hardly biting?

drop me a line if you could make it out next week sometime.

[gophish]

yeah dragon dudes we can make that work, i'd love to sit around and fish with you guys and brag about how awesome ndsu is.

that being said.

friday..

we went out to a local lake that had reports of having a hot crappie bite.. well after waiting for the third guy to show up we didnt leave until like four oclock. by the time we got there we dindt have time to explore to much and decided to pretty much just set up and start fishing.

we set up in 20 feet of water and actuall found that tehre was fifteen feet of water not any more than ten yards away. two different shacks set up. i was able to ice only one crappie but caught probably close to twenty bluegills with many if not most of them over 8". the other shack caught two crappies and no gills cus they didnt have waxies. and also caught a 26" walleye.

a couple things to note. we have had a hard time finding crappies in spots where we typically have good luck.

we have iced more big walleyes than ever this year and addtionally many of them have come through and just hammered jigs that are floating still under a bobber three feet off the bottom.

tonights walleye was full of some weird fungus/growth. just disgusting looking lesions on it behind the gill and then a few other farther back. stunk something fierce to..anybody seen this before?

gophish

[gophish]

last sat..

today was a day i thought i'd go out and try just for walleyes. went to a lake that i got a tip was good for big walleys as it had all the baitfish and is pretty big water.

the lake also gets very deep, like 140 feet in a spot or two.

well i couldt find the exact spot i was looking for. there was a seven foot table that came up about 200 yards off shore and had a nice little pocket that dropped down to thirty feet and back up to a fiftten foot flat before turning into shoreline. figured it'd be great in that thirty feet. welli couldnt find that (Contact US Regarding This Word) spot right away and settled for a slow slope that dropped into twenty feet cus the sun was getting down and i wanted to fish.

after fishing and hour or two i went and found was i was looking for and moved. had several fish come through and would rise a foot or so but never bite and then moved on.

here is my question i want people to reply to...

what have you had success with in getting fish to seal the deal and bite once you get them interested and rising up to follow your lure.

things arent going as good as planned this year and i wondering if i need to be moving to deeper water around structure or fish the top of the structure..

comments welcome.

gophish.

[fisherdog19]

Those fish could have been something other than walleyes that looked but decided the offering was to large. I've had that happen alot to only downsize and find out they were nice crappies or bluegills. Gophish, would like to get together some night next week, shoot me an email and we'll hammer down a day.

Fisherdog

[gophish]

fisherdog, i guess what i might need is an aqua view to bring along then. does scheels still rent them out, i heard they used to for like twenty bucks a day or something. that would be fun to try.

anyways...weekend of jan. 15,16. 2005.

got asked to go to LOTW with my roomate, his uncle and three cousins. was a pretty laid back fishing trip as it was more a matter of simply haveing something to do when it was thirty below outside. they have a nice shanty up there and i had never been there so it all worked out nice. SAt. we slaughtered fish taking six limits of walleys and two limits of saugers. sadly though. the size just isnt there and i started to feel bad keeping the fish of the size they do..if it fits across the pail its a keeper..kinda sad. anyways. the vexilar produced fish all day long and even the idle lines where rattlin. pink and gold where of preferecne to them.

sunday was slower but still a good day of fishing, kept 15 fish. but the vex was by far the key to success as i think i bucketed over half of them for sure ifnot closer to 10 plus released about another dozen or so. todays ticket was definately gold. the gold jigs below the rattle reels were the only ones to produce except for the one i dropped down with just a plain hook and minnow. i switched from a jig to a gold jigging spoon. I've nver liked those things but changed my impression of them this weekend as i could really get the fish to react to them and hooked a lot of fish when nothing else seemed to work. maybe i'll try them again.

house was set up in about 21 feet of water off zipple bay. it was fun to catch a lot of fish for a weekend after DL had been so slow but i'm in no hurry to go back. i'll stick with the few big walleyes i've been catching around here and try to keep icing some slab crappies.

gophish.