Night crappie, Cold

It got down to 3 degrees last night. Slip bobber and 3 inch gary yamamoto crappie baits and mr.crappie jokers bright colours in 4 to 6 feet of water. Only caught 18 and kept only 2 because the freezer still has lots. All crappie were between 11 and 13 inches. Left before the sun came up to get some sleep working tonight. No Osprey at night LOL.

What a crappie lunch. One 12 inch one 11.5 inch.

👍always on them eh?

It has been a weird spring to say the least. I have liked the pictures that some of you guys have posted so far. The spot I was fishing was very similar to where you caught yours. The crappie fishing should be good this weekend, day or night. Too bad I will be at work.

Nice meal caught! Thanks for report. You like night fishing, I tried a few times, but loosing interes in couple hours, prefer day time fishing.

Yes night fishing can be boring sometimes, and not the safest time to fish. But it is always peaceful unless it is mosquito season. I forgot to say if anyone is fishing Balsam for crappie or pike this weekend stay on the east side of the lake and fish in 4 to 6 feet of water right where the east wind line starts to move the water. Watch out for the rocks on the east side. Good luck and stay safe.

Wonderful night fishing report, great tips

Thanks for another report and some of the best eating right there. Congrats

Those filets look great! I may have to get out in the canoe and try to find some.

Just got home from work, good luck to you guys fishing today. 5 degrees right now and the sun will be out all day. Steady 15kph wind from the NE today and temperature going up to 15 degrees. The pike on Balsam should be right where I said earlier in this post and the crappie will be in a bit less shallow water. Good luck, catch them all and stay safe.

Good to see you back in action..

Nice slabs! Well done..

Thanks for the report.

Got em dialed crappeeeman nicely done and good eats , I too work nights which sucks when the weathers this nice !

you know your crappie.......nicely done

I used to really like night fishing, but suddenly my internal clock says goodnight at 2 am...can't fight it anymore

Hey Crappeeeman, I think I owe you a big thank you - today I tried catching crappie for the first time, I followed your instructions and it was pretty good and we had lot of fun

Here is the story:

I mostly fish for musky, and until it is open I go for pike. Balsam or Canal mostly. Never fished for crappie.

And then, I've been reading about crappies here on this forum. So much good information and instruction, so I though, why don't I try it?

I put up a slip bobber rig the best I could, found some mr. crappie joker in my tackle box that I rarely use and was ready.

But the thing is, I didn't know where exactly to look for them. I know, in this post it says 4-6ft, but there are many places in the lake with 4-6 feet of water, not not all of them hold crappies.

So, I decided to try this strategy: The weather was nice and my wife was willing to join me for the afternoon trip to Canal Lake. She is not much of an angler, just enjoys being on the boat. I decided to set on rig for crappie and let it drift behind the boat. I would target pike, and my wife and me will keep an eye on a bobber and if we catch crappie, we will continue targeting them in that area.

And exactly this happen. We fished for about 2 hours for pike and bobber behind the boat was mostly quiet. We entered a bay that was gradually going from 8 till 3 feet and when we were in about 5-6ft, I noticed my bobber going too much to the right. I took it out and yes there was a crappie! Not a big one though, but hey I just got a crappie!

I took it off the hook quickly and trow lure back to the same spot. Bobber disappeared after 4-5 seconds and I had a decent fish on. I thought it might be bass as it was fighting pretty good, but actually it was a crappie, 14" one.

We continued for another 2 hours and got maybe 10 of them. Mostly they were small, but we were able to bring 4 home.

Also, before switching to crappie, we got a small oos tiger musky, oos largemouth and 4lb pike.

This was a great day on the water and I would like to thank one more time all of the people who post useful information on this forum, like CM.

All the best,
Peja

This post has been edited by pjfishing on May 08, 2022 - 10:24 pm

Thank you for the comments from everyone. Glad to see we have another crappie enthusiast now with PJ catching crappie now. You might just get addicted to it if your not careful. When you run into a school of big crappie and you are casting and catching them for hours on a light rod it can be amazing. Especially at night, I never get tired of watching my bobber glowing on the water at night, and then it's just gone with no warning. Monster crappie come out at night and they can pull the rod right out of your hand if you start to get sleepy.