We headed out to the shallow, protected area where the guys from yesterday did the best for crappies. Surface water temperatures ran at about 58 degrees here and quite a few other crappie fisherman and women were already fishing at this location. Dick and Pam did pull one or two crappies from this first spot, but I really wanted to try a some different areas than yesterday.
The bay we pulled into has deep water available in the middle and shallow spawning areas around the edges. We started by working the water in the 15' depth range first. Lines with minnows and jig/plastic combo's with waxworms went right over the side of the boat and the electric trolling motor was used to keep the wind from sending us flying back out into the middle of the lake. This produced a couple of nice crappies over the next hour or two. By then, the sun was starting to get down right hot and I was actually thankfull for the strong winds.
Surface waters in the bay were beginning to creep over the 60 degree mark, so I started to work closer and closer to the shorelines. This allowed us to keep our deep lines running right below the boat and at the same time, Dick and Pam could cast a minnow below a bobber into the shallower water.
Dick is a repeat customer, and he definitely has a knack for catching fish. He used his experience to make some very nice, long cast into and around the piers and other shoreline areas where he caught several nice crappies. Pam struggled a bit with the open face spinning reels but did pretty good overall. The lines hanging directly over the side of the boat still produced a fish here and there and for the most part, those seemed to run a little larger than the shallow fish. We had to work to get them again today, but by the end of the afternoon, the lack of numbers was more than made up for with quality fish.
As always, it was pleasure fishing with you Dick! And it was a pleasure to meet and fish with you also Pam. It should be fun fishing with you again in a few weeks.
To me, it looks like the spring crappie run is really just starting here on Lake Wisconsin. If the weather holds out, the best should still be ahead of us.
Good luck!
Boog
