Crappie Night

NumenOn the Water

Date:  1-24-15

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, ice fishing

With:  Alone

Target:  Crappies and pike

Time:  1:45 PM - 7:45 PM

Conditions:  Mild (37 +/- F) with decreasing S wind; about 7 inches of slush covered ice.  Fished a couple of hours into dark to assess the quality of the crappie bite.

With a work-free weekend for the first time in quite a while, I had some flexibility in my schedule.  While I'm not really a pan-fisher, I was intrigued by the size of a couple of crappies I caught on Thursday night.  I also wondered whether we'd left too early to capitalize on their activity.  So I dug out my portable shelter, rehabilitated a gas lantern, grabbed some J&S bait (suckers, shiners, and spec minnows) and was on the ice by 1:45 PM or so.  The plan: scout for suspended crappies while running a couple of tip-ups in shallower for predators; and be fully set up for the evening crappie bite by dark.

There were quite a few groups on the ice when I got there, but it looked like slow going.  Fortunately my area of choice was open, and I had the first speck on the ice from 36 feet of water in just a couple of minutes.  This hole became my base camp while I set the tip-ups and punched a variety of other holes in the vicinity.

I had two flags in the next 3 hours or so; a drive-by on a shiner suspended 7 down over 11 feet; and a small (sub-legal) pike on a sucker, 15 down over 19 feet of water.  Pretty slow predator fishing; I pulled these tip-ups before full dark.

The first flag of 2015 was an undersized pike.  It ate a sizable sucker suspended over 19 feet of water.

A typical McEwen Lake pike; at least in my experience.

Meanwhile, I bounced around in 32 to 40 feet of water. I was over marked fish most of the afternoon and evening, but they were generally reluctant biters.  Occasionally one would decide to go, and every so often I could get two or three in sequence.  But for the most part, it was a slow pick; and usually the biters were the highest fish in the column.  A jigging Rap (tipped with minnow), a pimple (tipped with a Gulp! maggot), and the slab spoon (tipped with live maggots) were all about equally effective; a dead-sticked minnow on a tear-drop only took one fish.  So while they were reluctant to bite, the best approach to catching them were more aggressive tactics.

I ended the evening with 16 specks (+/- 1), and these provided a nice set of meals for friends.  These were decent-to-good quality; all were 9 to 12 inches, with the majority "bigger" as opposed to "smaller."

I think I only took a couple after dark; while the sonar screen was lit up with activity, cruising/biting fish were less common.  Most bites probably came from about 18 to 21 feet down, regardless of depth. 

A pile of specks from 9 to 12 inches; not giant, but not bad.

Tools of This Trade; multiple holes, a trusty sonar and a lantern.  But in all honesty, fishing in the dark wasn't so great!

What do I have to say about this?

I am not much of a pan-fisher, but good pan-fishermen have always impressed me.  This was probably my best targeted catch of pan-fish in many years.  With the sonar maintaining my confidence, and comfortable conditions (I never did close up the shelter), it was pretty pleasant, at least by current standards.