T'was Cold, But There Were Fish!

[EC1]

Its been Three weeks into the softwater season, and I still haven't gotten into any good experiences out on the water with the fish!

So today, Frozenfire and I head off to go find some with the canoe, only to come up completely blank with the fish. And to salvage our fishing trip, we decide to haul everything back and head off to another lake.

 

The winds were howling, and by the time we got back to the launch we were completely frozen, but we ended up with 35 keepers, and released a bunch of fish to be caught another day. None were huge slabs, but boy were they fighting hard today!

 

 

 

[Syn]

Smart move you guys and it really paid off. Good eating size fish.

[bushart]

looks great

[Jer]

Way to go.

 

We had trouble finding crappie this weekend, a few on Saturday and none yesterday.

 

Were you fishing deeper with the colder temps?

 

Enjoy your crappie feast!

[limeyangler]

Great stuff Ec1, i had reall difficulty trying to find tcrappie on the ice in a lake i know this winter, hopefully i can find them like you guys did when i get in there after walleye season closes here. Good move finding the will to haul your gear and try again.

 

ENJOY SUPPER!

[EC1]

Jer, the fish pretty much were exactly where they should be, but may have been stacked about 50m further from shore.

The fish weren't really sluggish, and were ready to take baits.

 

Although the area consisted of 6-10FOW in most parts, the fish were readily taking baits 2.5 to 3 foot down.

 

And Thanks for the comments guys!

Edited April 12, 2010 by EC1

[MJL]

Well done guys! One day I'll have to join you to get into some - I'd be tempted to try getting them on my ice rods from a canoe.LOL

 

They a pain to clean up? They do look quite tasty

[frozen-fire]

Well done guys! One day I'll have to join you to get into some - I'd be tempted to try getting them on my ice rods from a canoe.LOL

 

They a pain to clean up? They do look quite tasty

 

Yeah Mike, we definitely have to go get you into some crappie!

They are easy to clean...just make sure your filet knife is sharp. The bigger slabs will give plenty of meat. I can imagine the smaller crappie will become quite a pain to clean. When I see people keeping 6 inchers, it's weird to me... I don't think it's worth the hassle haha.

[Jet]

I guess you weren't that tired after all! Nice fish man.

[frozen-fire]

Way to go.

 

We had trouble finding crappie this weekend, a few on Saturday and none yesterday.

 

Were you fishing deeper with the colder temps?

 

Enjoy your crappie feast!

 

The first lake we hit is a deeper small lake. Huge drop-offs that go from 5 FOW to 40 FOW in a matter of a few seconds while we drifted around in the canoe. Due to the depth, the lake is still very cold (45F). There were NO fish of any species in the shallow bays that hold crappie usually.

The strong west wind didn't help either.

 

We boogied out of there and decided to make the most of the remainder of the day. We made our way to a lake that is way more shallow and should be warmer. The lake itself was about 49F... still too cold in my opinion. We hit some shallower inlets that eventually showed readings of 52F. Still cold, but better than what we've seen so far. Depth we fished was about 5-10ft with our presentation only a couple feet under the surface. The fish are suspended and very scattered.

For some odd reason, I thought that since the water was so cold, the fish would be sluggish... man was I wrong. Some of the hardest fighting crappie I've ever had the pleasure of catching! I kept thinking I had OOS bass on! Some of them even launched themselves out of the water! Great fun on light mono and 5 ft ultralight setup.

[ehg]

Some nice crappies there!

Thanks for the details on locating and catching these fish in tougher conditions.

Maybe i will give it try next weekend