Ice-Era Crappies; Anytime, Anywhere

By Jason Durham • Clam Pro-Staff

Black crappie may be one of the most sought-after species along the ice-belt.  A thick winter slab emerging from the ice-hole evokes memories from days-gone-by and seasons to come.  Keep the fish on, don’t let it get off, swing it onto the ice.

Those crappie schools offer some of the most exciting fishing all ice-season long, yet consistently catching them throughout the year remains a challenge for ice anglers situated upon CLAM portable structures along the common ice fishing territories.

How deep?  What bait?  What time?  
Questions, questions, stop overanalyzing and get out there and fish.

If I were to offer any angler the best, super-top-secret method to catch more crappie, it would be this: Go fishing.

You can’t latch onto a small, eater-sized or trophy-status crappie while watching Sunday afternoon football games in the recliner.  Slip into your IceArmor suit, boots and gloves, grab your gear and change your focus.

When it comes to crappie, a couple of slightly varying technical focuses come to mind:  shallow, mid-depth or deep, weeds or open-water.

If you have the convenience of fishing during the prime-time crappie feed, generally around sunset when the portables begin to flip over and the unoccupied ice suddenly turns into concentrated villages of fish houses, the common target is deep water.  When we say deep, it could be anything from 15-35 feet of water where wandering schools of black and white spotted fish wander in search of a headline—food!  Though wandering concentrations of small minnows may tempt deep-water crappie, the preferred forage is plankton.  As the sun touches the treetops, zooplankton begins to rise and become more active, thus creating a simple biology lesson related to the food chain.
Locating those suspended schools takes some diligence, since locating fish on the ice requires more work than simply turning on the trolling motor throughout the summer months.  Drill my friend, drill.  As you encounter a hole with flashing blips of green on your Vexilar flasher, grab a rod and drop it—quick!  You’re on the right track for landing a bucket-load of crappies and the presence of tasty forage is simply an indicator that schools of suspended crappie might be around.  However, crappies don’t automatically know that plankton is present in one area of the lake if they’re located in another teeming with that particular forage base.  The best cue is green lights flashing with red read-outs intermixed.  Red on the Vexilar means “Stop, there are fish here”.  Drop a line, catch a crappie. Hopefully a pile of ‘em.

Starting out fishing on the open-ice is fine, but once that sun descends beneath the trees, temperatures drop and sub-arctic temperatures claw at your breath.  Single-person CLAM portables are perfect for an individual outing, but the Base Camp and Command Post shelters are perfect for multiple anglers converging on the idea of both conversing and catching fish.  It’s a social set-up. Small jigs like Northland Tackle’s sonar friendly Hexi-Fly tipped with a maggot (or two) or their premier jigging spoon collection including the 1/12th-oz. Macho Minnow are all “go-to” presentations for deep-water relative crappie.  Use your map or GPS to find the perfect bowl, saddle outside of auxiliary bays and protruding underwater points to funnel your success into your photo album.

However, some of us don’t necessarily get the “perfect” opportunity to fish for crappie.  Maybe our work or family schedules don’t allow for the ideal, red sunset as it covers the tree-lined horizon beyond the lakes’ blanket of snow and ice.  It’s a morning trip or mid-day at best. Don’t fret ice-angler, don’t fret. There ARE crappies biting all day long, you simply have to set your compass toward areas other than the deep-water dwellings so consistent at dark.

Get out early if possible, but even if a high-noon trip is all that’s available, don’t hesitate to venture onto the frozen lakes and ponds.  You see, those crappies are definitely catchable, even if the time-frame doesn’t suit the deep-water bite.  
Start shallow, even in 6-10 feet of water over healthy growing weeds like cabbage, coontail and milfoil.  Don’t let it bother you that there may only be a few feet of open water between the bottom of the ice and the vegetation, but rather scrutinize those fish socializing between the weeds, where there’s respite from predators such as bass, northern pike, walleye and toothy muskie. A small portable shelter like CLAM’s Kenai or Kodiak offer premier flexibility and mobility when searching for the weed beds and subsequent crappie.

In these environments a two-fold approach is most productive.  Begin by tying on an aforementioned jigging spoon and then keep a second rod handy with a minute jig.  The crappie might dart in, just above the weeds to engulf your spoon tipped with a gob of maggots.  At other times, they’ll approach because of the flash and vibration of the jigging spoon but remain stationary just inches from the presentation, which is the perfect time to drop the tiny jig on top of the fish to trigger a feeding response versus a reactive reply.

This being said, enjoy your winter; revel in the successes and learn from the mistakes.  Strive to learn increasingly more about fish behavior and know that every outing might not be your best.  But keep at it and when you do solidify the right pattern for the day, the work will prove worthwhile. In other words, if you embark on a crappie centric mission this winter, understand that you can feasibly catch crappies anywhere and anytime.   Get ready.