John Carlson
03-09-2012, 12:53 PM
The game fish season has ended in Northern Wisconsin so most of the fishing attention is aimed and catching Crappie. As the ice softens and open water nears Crappie seem to go on a feeding frenzy. Water starts pouring into the lakes from runoff and the O2 levels skyrocket in the lakes making fish very active. This time of year has started with the warm temps and the heavy late snowfall starting to melt in our area, The lakes are still covered with 20 plus inches of ice. Use of electronics are important right now as the fish can be pretty high in the water column. We have been doing well using tip-downs, a rod balanced on a pvc pipe that allows the fish to pull the rod down with little resistance to alert the fisherman of the strike. I like to bait the tip down with a small minnow and set it so it's a foot or two above where I have been seeing the fish on my electronics. Spoons jigged are also a great way to catch crappie at this time of the year, the heavier spoon has a lot of flash and gets to the fish quickly, most of the time active fish will come up and hit the fluttering spoon as it falls. So the game is on if your a Crappie fisherman, get out on the lakes for some great late season catches!!!