Ice Fishing Crappie

The most popular type of ice fishing is ice fishing crappie.

Crappie are incredibly easy to catch and they also provide a nice fight, which is very entertaining. The problem when fishing for crappie is finding them. Crappie normally stay in groups and they wander around all the lakes they inhabit.

When fishing for crappie, you need to take the following tackle:

- small hook
- small bobber
- small split shot
- light action ice fishing rod
- small shiner / fathead minnow

You should be hooking all your bait just behind the dorsal fin. Then just wait and hang on!

If you're looking for quality places to go ice fishing for crappie, one of the most popular lends tends to be the Upper Red Lake in Minnesota!

Ice Fishing Crappie Tips

Outdoors types like us are usually fond of very big things. We like big boats and trucks. Even the boots we wear are big and many of us even hunt for big animals. Fishing is no different, bigger is better. Well usually anyway. Thats why crappie fishing is such a phenomenon. The one thing crappies definitaly aren't, is big. They actually average around ten inches and they normally weigh under 1 pound.

In fact, when it comes to crappie fishing, a 14-inch crappie is considered a monster catch. Even though they are so small, they tend to eat very well. I'd even go to say that they eat more than perch, bluegill and walleye. Ultimately, our huge appetites have made so many of us love fishing for crappie. Ice fishing for crappie isn't at all difficult, however there are some tips and tricks that will help put you on your way to catching more Crappie this year than ever before.

Crappie fishing is similar to buying real estate in the sense that they're all about one thing: location; location; location. Choosing the right spot to fish at, what time to go, which lake to visit are all critical factors. But how do you choose these things? The natural crappie lake with rocks, weed, sand and quite deep water isn't always your best option. Fishing for crappie in classic crappie lakes tends to be rather spotty. Often you'll find that you won't catch anything for prolonged periods of time. This is due to the year class strength, and the ability of oxygen and forage levels.

Crappie are usually found in 15 to 30 feet of water during winter. But they can and sometimes will go a lot deeper. One popular crappie fishing location for anglers is Sabaskong Bay on Lake of the Woods. The Sabaskong fish tend to suspend around deep water, and therefore can be easily spotted using a flasher, by holding it 4 to 8 feet off the bottom. Once the crappies have been found, anglers just move their ice houses/shelters/shacks right over them, and they stay for many weeks.

In my opinion, there's no type of fish that's better to use electronics with than crappie. Suspended crappies tend to be the biters, so it's really important to have eyes under the water telling you exactly where the fish are. Unfortunately, if you fish under a school of crappie, they will hardly ever bite. However, when you know exactly where the crappie are, you can have fun teasing them into biting by putting the bait right above them and then letting it drop back down. The crappie really doesn't like it when a tasty meal is pulled away from it. Crappie fishing is a game of cat and mouse that is very enjoyable and effective. However, it requires the correct use of a sonar unit to do it properly.

When on the look out for crappies, a 4 color flasher (e.g. Vexilar FL-8) is one of an ice anglers best friends. The Velixar FL-8 can show you fish, depth, bottom composition, your lure, and structure with amazing accuracy. When you become really experienced with one, you will be able to easily anticipate the crappies bite moments before you actually feel it.

Another fish locating tool that every serious crappie angler should own is an underwater camera. Especially for suspended fish, the Aqua Vu DT series is the number one choice. Equipped with depth-tech and direct-tech, the Aqua Vu DT series cameras gives the angler a complete digital assessment of the cameras depth along with the direction it's looking, thus completely pinpointing the exact location of the crappie. Make a few holes with your augur, set up the ice pod and then simply drop the camera down. You can also rotate the lense easily with a little twist of the cable, to ensure you locate the suspended fish. Once that's done, you just drill on top of them, and drop your lure down to their depth.

When the suspended crappies aren't biting, it's often the crappie that dwell at the bottom that bite. When this happens, fishing on the bottom is the way to go. When you're In this situation, use a flasher, and use the bottom zoom feature to reveal the fish lurking at the bottom. We can't recommend the Vexilar’s FL-18 enough.

Dark water rivers and reservoirs normally occupy large crappie populations and in general, they tend to be more consistent than natural lakes. In a flowage, one of the key areas is drowned timber or flooded areas. Also, wood laden spots attract a lot of crappie.

Sometimes in flowages where time has depleted the timber, ice anglers have had to sink old Christmas trees / brush piles to create or recreate a good crappie-holding structure. Crappie holding flowages are not created equally. Smaller crappie-holding flowages have a lot less fish and therefore can easily be "fished down" by very persistent ice anglers. Huge crappie-holding flowages however are a lot more difficult for anglers to crack and can be affected enormously by turbidity, water draw-down periods, as well as shaky ice thickness.

Medium sized flowages of between 1k or 2k acres are ideal for crappie fishing as they generally hold enormous amounts of fish with a decent chance of an occasional slab. More great places for crappie fishing include ponds, sloughs, river backwaters and small lakes, especially at first ice. Sometimes, small waters like these can get safe ice on them as earliar as November, which provides keen anglers with some great ice fishing action whilst the larger lakes are still fluid. A lot of ponds tend to be rich in food and weeds, which provides the possibility of huge fish in a minute area. When fishing in these lakes, start off from the deepest waters. Unfortunately, the downside to fishing in small waters is that they tend to become more difficult to fish in as the heights of winter approaches, due to lack of oxygen.

Like I mentioned earlier on, Crappies are small fish, so it would be a good idea to use light tackle. There are numerous quality light action ice fishing rods available, but the best of the bunch has to be the Berkley Dave Genz Signature Lightning Rods. The light action Genz rod is only 28 inches long, which makes it perfect for fishing crappie. Join your rod with a very small spinning reel like those seen on the Abu-Garcia Agenda. Then spool your rod up with a limp, along with a 3 / 4 lb test monofilament with low visability.

You may want to consider using one of the brand new super-lines such as Berkely’s new Fireline Micro Ice as your main connection if you're going after slabs in deeper / wood-infested waters. If the crappies are being 'blind', tie on a barrel swivel on your main line. Once you've done that, attach a 2 foot section of a 4 - 10 lb test Berkley Vanish. You will increase the number of bites dramatically because the fluorocarbon line is virtually invisible to crappie.

Crappie fishing in winter is basically just a jigging game. The best crappie jigs available on the market are the ones that ride horizontally and imitate minnows. Some top choices are: Fat Boys and Northland’s Fire Eye Minnow, Lindy’s Techni-Glo Genz Worm and Forage Minnow Fry in Super-Glo colors. You should have quite a large jig collection, and your jigs should range from size 2 to size 8. However, you can go as small as size 10 for difficult fish.

For baiting, add a few wax-worms or Euro larvae to the lure. Sometimes, all you need to do the trick is a 1 inch white Power Grub. While we're on the topic of tricks, try this one that I learned from ice fishing buddy Scott; cover the shank of the hook with Crappie Nibbles or Berkley Power Wigglers, then just tail hook a few euro larvae or wax worms for a very tempting presentation. This particular technique works extremely well when using verticle riding lures (e.g. Lindy’s Frostee Jig or Northland’s Jiggle Bug). Crappie also tend to hit noisy jigging spoons like the Northland’s Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon and Lindy Rattl’r Spoon in 1/4 to 1/16 ounce sizes. In addition, if you add a minnow head to the treble, you will increase your number of strikes.

Since it's easy to manage two lines, have a go dead sticking a small minnow using a single hook and fishing with it close to the bottom. Dead sticking requires an extremely 'whippy' rod placed in a holder. You have to then watch for the tip to signal a strike, then wait for the rod to load up slightly. Then set the hook and reel them in. Many of my largest crappie catches have come from dead sticking. Remember that glowing lures really attract the Crappie. So blast your glow jigs and spoons with a Northland Glo Buster or a Lindy Tazer to really get it going.

With Crappie fishing, you shouldn't jig too aggressively; just slightly wiggle your bait gently right in front of the fish. Then to provide a subtle vibration to the jig, tap your index finger on the rod blank. Crappie bites tend to be very soft and are sometimes can go unnoticed. That's why you should use a a slip float. A slip float allows you to suspend a lure in very deep water and even more importantly, it signals even the wimpiest bites.

If you've been lucky and found a school of 'gulpers', then the float will plunge on the strike. However, other times the float will jiggle, dip or even move upwards in the water. All of these actions register a strike. You should lift the rod softly, or just reel up the fish and then continue reeling until the fish is out of the hole.

So is Crappie fishing the all round best winter fishing? The answer is yes in my mind. Crappie bite extremely well all season long and they are by far one of the easiest fish to catch. Because Crappie propagate and replenish themselves quickly, at the end of a long day spent on the ice, you'll be able to keep enough to feed your family well. I suggest frying your crappie until they're crispy, and then serve then with some potatoes along with a side order of beans. The meal is delicious, and I promise you, you'll always be a huge crappie fan!