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seen some sun in the morning so thought I'd run down to Willard for a look. casting marabou jigs hoping the crappie might be there no luck. did get little bites on the bait rod fished on the bottom with night crawlers. started around the northeast corner and worked my way around to the beach on the south. lake is open seen two boats launch. got a bit breezy which made it cold. did manage to land one catfish.
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There's Always Time For One More Cast
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[#0000FF]Good to see you are taking advantage of the newly opened water. I'll be up soon. Try to turn the heat up a bit before I get there...okay?
It's not too early for crappies, but if you can find them they are usually hitting very small jigs...fished under a bobber. Almost like ice fishing. In fact using a single wax worm on an ice fly is a good tactic. They won't get active enough to start hitting bigger stuff until the water warms a bit.
Looks like a decent kitty. Probably lots more where that one came from. Hope there will be some wipers and walleyes soon too.
Have you got your motor rigged up yet?
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Thanks TD I did think of that and tried a ice jig tipped with a meal worm (my waxies were all tuning black) no luck with that nether. Its just to early.
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[#0000FF]Even in a "good" year it is tough to find crappie except when they are gathered for the spawn. They tend to roam around in singles or small loose groups rather than the big schools you see in some other crappie waters.
I suspect that crappie numbers are down. I couldn't find any in the fall and don't know of any that were caught through the ice. DWR nettings were down too. The large year class of larger crappies we caught last year are probably all gone...caught or died off. There were a few smaller ones last year and they will be the 12 to 13 inch fish we catch this year...if we can find them.
I catch a lot of Willard crappies on small size 6 and 8 "bait bugs"...little jigs made with short tails...made for fishing with a little piece of bait. In cold water the chartreuse with a red eye works well. But the white with a red eye almost always works...even under the ice. See the pics of the jigs and the results.
By the way, a small piece of crawler works just fine for Willard crappies. They also like the small Gulp Minnows. They will eat the Crappie Niblets and maggots too...but the Gulp Alive minnows work better. And you can use only a half one on a small jig. It is the flavor that gets them.
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