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I worked the same area I did on Monday night this morning. smirk.gif The shallow pattern continues! blush.gifblush.gif I was set up and fishing by ~4:45 am and fished until ~7:00 am. The bite was still pretty darn good but not what it could have been. I had a lot of fish underneath me from 5:30 am until when I headed in but they were not nearly as aggressive as Monday night or in past outings. There were definitely more "lookers" than "takers" this morning. crazy.gif However, the fish are still there in big numbers! The fish definitely preferred a dead-sticked minnow under a float, which is definitely a sign this front slowed them up a little, but not enough to prevent them from biting. smile.gif In fact, I never got a fish on my jigging rod this morning. I put ~20 crappies on the ice between 10 - 13.5" in a little under 2 hours, with only a few going in the bucket for an afternoon fish sandwich. So, still a decent outing but nothing like it has been. However, as soon as the weather turns back around or stabilizes, look out again.

For those of you that I have an e-mail address for, you've got mail, I mean pictures. grin.gifgrin.gif

Good luck and don't let this weather pattern fool you. There are still fish to be caught!!

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Nice catch.Im giving up on the panfish for a few days and im going to try and work over some eyes this weekend.Next week,back to the shallow pannies.

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Good job, lately i've been the sunfish king! Do you look for anything different to attract crappies versus bluegills, or do you find they coexist?

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Thus far, during the duration of this shallow pattern, I have found that the 'gills and crappies have been traveling together. The only difference is that the 'gills have been tight to the bottom and the crappies have been suspended.

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tims: There are plenty of places where you can find sunfish and not crappies.The area that I have been getting both with the sunnies on the bottom and crappies suspended has been good for about 10 days.The other day when I fished that whole area,only the sunfish were there and no suspended crappies to be found.Best bet is to cut a line of holes and fish and use your locater to check each area for one or the other.If you find the crappies,its nice to have alot of holes so you can keep moving with the fish.Catch a couple out of one hole and then move to the next.Works nice when you can find sunfish on the bottom and crappies suspended in the same hole,but that does not always work out.

Another thing that might help you is to jig your bait 3-4 feet off the bottom if your fishing in 10fow.Sometimes I will jig towards the bottom when I see fish and forget to jig higher to attract the crappies in.Some days it works for me to work the bottom and then move up when I see some crappies move through.But,I believe that if you work the higher water where you are seeing some suspended fish,you then might catch more crappies,but catch less fish on the bottom.This is just something that has worked for me in the past.

Also,doesnt hurt to deadstick one line with a crappie minnow and jig with another.This way you can work 2 different baits and 2 different depths.I hope this makes some sense and helps you out. smile.gif

Another thing Ive tried and at times seems to work is to take crushed, dried egg shells with and drop some of these down the hole.When you have some crappies coming through,it seems like it attrats more.Also,would not hurt to drop some S.O.S. down the holes around your house or in a line to hold those wandering fish in your area.You can buy this product on F.M. and I believe it does help.Its all a bit more work to do,and if I dont get to lazy it all seems to help.

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Good tips, I will try them for sure. I used a tank of auger gas searching for those crappies last time out.

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Anyone have thoughts on how much ice is made in a 24hr day with these kinds of temps....lows around 10 and highs 20-25. Maybe 1/4" - 1/2" per day?

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My guess-1/2 inch at the most,and would be with sub-zero at night and very low during the day.

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Cetainly no more than a 0.5". It takes temperatures much lower than this to really add anything with significance.

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If you don't mind could you let me know which lake you were on. I live toward Rochester so wouldn't be on the lake much if it is toward Mankato. Just courious. If you don't want to post it you can send me an e-mail [email protected]

Went to Clear Lake today ... first time out all season. My son and I got there too late. Wasn't until 9:30 and many folks were already coming off the lake. Lots of folks driving on the ice. I wasn't that brave. We got a few in three hours. You could see the fish coming up to the bait. Then you would get a bump or two but no real takers. I'm sure the folks who started early did ok. Shacks are spread all over the lake so I'm not sure if there is a hot spot or not.

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we hit clear late yesterday (on ice about 4:30) and there is about 15 inches (4 is white) some guys did drive (to near to me, for my sake) but lots of cracks and all full milky looking. When the guy in the red blazer left, a big crack came just past my house as he drove off, wasn't real comfy after that.

we had lots of lookers but only a few to show for it, after dark, it got really slow.

we went in off the SE corner

Bitz

will hit those other places next weekend TO. Just got to late of a start.

Bitz

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