Best crappie lake in ND

[BowHunter1527]

Hey guys just wondering if any can let me know what is the best crappie lake here in ND. I would love to get on some before we lose the hard water. Any info would be great.

[SeisMec]

The best is the Devils Lake/ Stump Lake area. The game and fish people have been pumping 100's of thousand of fingerling into those lake every year for the last 15 years. It's now paying off with world class fishing for jumbo perch and decent size walleye. There are dozens of other smaller lake that produce quality perch but you need to be someones best buddy to know which ones those are. The ND Game and Fish puts out a lake report that is updated every time they do a creel count on a lake, a person just needs to take the time to read. One report looks like this.

Mud and Pearl Lakes (Stutsman County): 8 miles north, 3 miles west, 2 miles north, .3 miles east of Medina. 6- to
15-inch perch potentially available. (No ramp)

And another:

Rice Lake (Emmons County): 8 miles south of Strasburg. An outstanding walleye, northern pike and perch fishery.

[BowHunter1527]

I know about DL for eyes and Perch, I actually think Darling is petty good in the perch department. Im talking crappies though and I have never really heard DL being talked about for those. Maybe a few here and there but its nothing like lake Nelson. Im just looking for a good hardwater lake to crappie fish. Ive got all the perch I really need right now and am planning to hit DL in 2 weeks for a couple of days for eyes.

[SeisMec]

Sorry, misread the title.

I only know of about 5 or 6 lakes in the south central section of the state. Some are good, some better. I asked a friend of mine and he says Sweet Briar Lake, Crown Butte Dam, Fish Creek Dam  in Morton County use to be pretty good although Sweet Briar isn't as good as it use to be. Nelson Lake and East & West Arroda Dam in Oliver County had some pretty nice fish last year. I think the east side of the state may have a few better ones.

[BowHunter1527]

Seismec thanks for the info I had heard they were SE but not sure where to go. Ive fished Nelson several times but with the lake temp we cant do much on it right now. I might make a trip to Sweet Briar one of these days before the ice is gone. We have been doing pretty well up at Darling so no reason to go anywhere else but I got an itch for something else and my school break is coming up as well. Also thinking about heading to DL for a couple of days.

[bowcarp]

It's been many many many many  years since the last time I was there , but didn't spillway pond hold a good number of crappies ? or did the flood flush everything out ? just a thought

[paperboy05]

Nelson is good, but is open almost all year round with the warm water outlet. Have to weed through little ones to get bigs ones, but can catch a lot.

Crown Butte is great, lots of 10 - 12" if you can find the schools, with perch and sunnies mixed in too. Haven't heard anything recently about Sweet Briar, caught some 4+ years back, but nothing consistent and no size to them. Heard West and East lake Arroda (highway 200, west of Washburn) dams have crappie in them, but haven't fished there and haven't heard any solid reports of catching them.

Otherwise, flat out I would say that the Jamestown Res/Pipestem Dam is/are the best lakes in ND for them. State record (well tied) was caught there last winter.

[paperboy05]

It's been many many many many  years since the last time I was there , but didn't spillway pond hold a good number of crappies ? or did the flood flush everything out ? just a thought

I'm guessing the flood probably took care of any major numbers in the spillway. People still catch them on the river south of the dam, but nothing crazy; would be hard to target them at least.

[JIMC_ND]

For best crappie lake in North Dakota, I'd have to go with the Jamestown Reservoir or the Pipestem.

There are some really nice crappie in Devils Lake too but they are tough to target.  Here's one...

Jim Carroll  NPAA #13

[SeisMec]

Nice fish! Thank for the report!