With the recent reports of crappies coming in on Upper Red Lake, I thought it might be helpful to gather up the tricks I have learned over the years fishing there and put them here in a nutshell so that every body would be able to employ them or disregard them at their liesure.
I am hoping that you can take advantage of these hard earned tips and reel in the fish that alot of people considered merely a memory of the past eight years of crappie hayday.
Some of us have hauled in more than our fair share of these magnificent specimens of the panfish family.
The Pomoxis Nigromaculatus or black crappie has been table fair and the game fish of choice for many outdoorsman for decades here in the northland.
some prefer the walleye and I rarely pass on the opportunity to get on a hot walleye bite, but having my druthers, I will search for the crappie.
The crappie boom on upper red lake has brought many things. First off it brought people back to an area which was brought to its knees by the crash of the walleye population forcing the D.N.R.'s hand to close walleye fishing on Upper Red Lake.
The discovery of the giant crappies was a god send and with the people once again came prosperity to a community that for so long revolved around the sport of fishing as an economic mainstay.
It also brought to us, you and I who do not reside near the lake an opportunity to meet some of the areas fine residents and partake in their hospitality.
The crappies in red seem to be hungrier on average than most crappies you run into.
Watching them charge upward on the flasher, to your falling bait, to greet that bait with a smack and the steady downward pull on the bobber is something I haven't seen any where else quite like that.
Getting over an aggressive school of crappies on big red is something I wish every person could experience. There is nothing like it.
With the numbers down, getting them is going to be tougher, only because finding them isn't going to be as easy as it once was. Find them and you have most of your task complete.
To find fish, you are going to have to cover some ground.
The area I have had the most consistant luck in is the area along the north shore. This is the area I believe to have the biggest concentration of fish still.
When we first started going out to catch fish, we went out of hudecs resort located along the north shore. Following their road, we went from 5 to 6 1/2 miles out onto the lake, maybe a mile off shore maybe a little more maybe a little less.
This area had fifteen and a half feet of water and was the deepest water I have found to date. Times of low water would of course reflect on the depth as well and there were times I could not find fifteen feet of water.
the area remains the same. Hilmans store maintains a road out to that area for the last few years and I believe Agassiz road goes out there too.
That is the area I would start in.
Then, one of the things I have learned on my own and I have caught alot of heat for telling this secret is that the fish seemed to favor areas of rough ice.
These are the areas of ice that broke up during the period of strong winds when the ice was just forming.
I have seen jagged pieces of ice jutting out of the main ice sheet up to six inches thick in fields bigger than a football field.
In and around these areas are where I start my search.
I am not sure exactly why they are there, but I have found them there more times than not. some think it's the jagged ice sticking below the surface that holds bait fish which in turn attracts the crappies.
Some say and I tend to hedge my bets that the jagged thicker ice creates shade or some how refracts the light beams, which tends to keep the crappies hovering in these areas. You will not get an argument from me either way.
Now with fewer fish, they will not be under every area of rough ice and I hear tell that there are alot of areas of rough ice this season.
You will appreciate this tip though when standing in the middle of the lake looking around and wondering where to start looking.
You will really appreciate it when you haul up a couple hog slabs.
This rough ice theory is a good one, but that does not mean they will not be in other areas as well.
So if you find fish in an open area and not in the rough ice, all I can offer you is a "nicely done".
The day bite seems tougher to get on but it happens, so if crappies is what your after, don't stop looking. keep drilling and searching until you see those marks on the graph. solid lines just off the bottom, to suspended two to three feet off the bottom.
As I said earlier, once the fish are located, you have most of your work done.
now comes the fun part, ...catching them.
The tackle I like to use are bright chrome or gold maybe even yellow jigs during the day. I believe they can see these colors better and visibility is the key to catching them.
In the evening or into and during night, I switch everything over to glow.
Glow red has been my favorite color over all, but in the last few years they have come up with blue glow and that is going to be on at least one of my lines now.
The reason I believe they like the red is simple. they can see it. it glows bright for good period of time.
The blue glow does not glow as bright to you and me, but it glows for alot longer than the other colors seem to stay lit up. I am talking hours on the blue glow. This means you don't have to keep bringing up the jig to reglow it every fifteen minutes.
Reglowing a hook does two things. First and most obvious, it brightens up your presentation, making it easier for a fish out of range to spot, giving you a chance to catch a fish that might otherwise pass you by without even knowing your bait is there.
Secondly, when you bring it up to glow it up, you have to drop it back down.
This is the falling bait situation that crappies are sometimes triggered by.
I believe a crappie swimming a foot off of bottom can see a bait that is farther off the bottom from a greater distance away than a bait that is set at a foot off of the bottom.
For example, red lake water clarity is often poor. It gets better as the season progresses, but usually it is murky. Last season I could see a bait swimming in 11 feet of water most years I loose track of it after 4 feet down.
Say a crappie is swimming by a foot off the bottom, ten feet away.
Now this fish will probably not see your bait a foot off the bottom, but if your bait is falling or suspended higher off of the bottom, that same fish ten feet away will probably be able to see your bait, thus putting more fish in your zone.
If you are on them, a falling bait, if they are close enough to see it is sometimes all it takes to trigger them to bite.
There is nothing more frustrating than watching them come up to your jig and stare at it, not biting, but slowly drifting away.
we can not make them bite, but there is a trick I have learned over the years that might do just that.
If the overall mood of the fish isn't one of feeding frenzy but they still seem interested, see if they react to raising the bait.
If they follow it up, you have a good chance at getting them to bite.
When the come in, if they don't readily bite,see how they react to the bait when you jig it a little bit.
If they don't bite, but don't leave either, try jigging them up. If they follow, keep lifting the bait. If they keep following, chances are they will hit it.
I call it the chase.
not every finicky fish will fall for this, but alot of them will.
I've had my rod nearly to the ceiling sometimes before they hit that bait. barely enough room to set the hook!
Usually it is within three or four feet up though that they will smack it.
It is something within the fish that makes them fall for this. Maybe they think it is going to get away and they better act fast. I don't know, but I do know that it has put many crappies in my bucket.
That should get you in the ball park.
If there are crappies being had you will have as good of a chance as anyone now, to catch them.
All of the resorts have good accesses and they are very helpful.
They spend the entire winter on the lake and there is no better way to know where the fish are than to stay on top of the current bite.
Talk to Paul, Marty, Tim or Mark at West Wind Resort, Jeff at Agassiz lodge, Buddy or shorty at hilmans Jerry at Rogers resort or Todd(mort) at Morts Dock.
I am not sure if Hudecs Resort is going to be open or not, but if Donnie is there he will let you know if they're catching fish out from his place as well.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If I can help you out I will gladly do so.
good luck and may the crappie gods smile on you!
JIGGLESTICK
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Topic: catching crappies on upper red (Read 4910 times)
