IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Crappies => Topic started by: potatoe on Dec 21, 2016, 08:03 PM
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Fishing a familiar lake that we only ice fish, fishing in same location where we caught both bluegill and crappie. This year we have only caught a few crappie and mostly bluegill.
Fishing in 13 ft water, using same line and basically same jigs with waxworms. We are still new to the sport but find it interesting that the crappie are not there like last year.
It is early fishing this year vs last year - so wondering if they are deeper or just in a new location.
will take any advice
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during the day, crappie can move around in small schools. this early in the season, you should focus on weed patches, the weeds will still be green which attracts plankton; this in turn attracts small fish, which attracts and holds crappie.
first thing you should do is move around. any time you're not catching crappies for more than 15 minutes, you need to pack up and find another spot, namely a weed patch or hump/sand bar. stick to 15 foot of water or shallower, as crappies don't generally go deeper than that this early in the season. (that said, be prepared to shake it up if you're not finding anything.)
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Its times like that when a camera comes in real handy. If ya dont have one. You have to go on the hunt. panfisherman13 nailed it.
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If your fairly confident in your location, drill your holes & wait till after dark. Try a small 1/16 or 1/8 oz glow jig tipped with what you like to use, dont make noise on the ice. Night time is crappie time
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Thanks guys, never thought of a camera or fishing at night.
We probably need to move more also, we are not the most portable unit out there.
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if its a small lake it might be that it has gotten to much fishing pressure from the following year. allot of people think that a small body's of water will produce lots of fish year after year, but if it is heavily fished you might have to look for new spots or fish allot of holes to find them.
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We found a few Friday, fished the exact same spot and almost the same bait. I put on a Maki plastic for something new but my son had the same jig. Crappie were coming in and out and we landed a few nice ones. Not sure how to explain the difference but weather and time maybe.