Crappie Rampage @ Berlin

[papaperch]

The overnighter started out mighty grim. After getting bait (minnows ) and launching boat motor would not start. Starter problems ( I will never buy another Mercury again ) simple fix but not away from garage.

Determined I would use electric motor but it would limit my range . Found drop off from 11' to 19 ' and proceeded to wait until night. Full moon prevented the minnows from really coming into my light. As moon disappeared behind trees, minnows came into light in full force. So much so they blotted out my fish finders.From 2' to 13' solid minnows. Fish took about another hour to come in. At first mostly small crappie then the bigger ones showed up. Probably caught at least 75 fish but I only kept 27 crappies and 1 walleye. Also caught 1 huge carp ( why me lately ) several channel cats and bullheads , 7 white bass , 1 smallmouth. They kept me extremely busy between 3-5 AM. Walleye was only 15-1/2 inch only reason I kept him he was hooked deep and bleeding bad.

Bulk of what I kept were 11 to 12 inch crappies. Best lure of the night was crushed ice swedish pimple with 3inch dropper line with a beaded hook.. Crappie suspended at 9' in 19' of water.
Found this out my hit and miss as my fishfinders were useless trying to read thru all the minners.

 

[Ron Don]

Sounded like the odds were against you but you hung in there and wore em out! Great job.

Crushed ice Swedish pimple???

 

[Radtexan]

Nice mess PP...

dont get much better than night fishing this time of year..

 

[Fatman]

Nice mess of fish

 

[Jig Man]

Congratulations... Nice mess of slabs...

 

[AtticaFish]

Sounds like a successfull multi-species outing - congrats! Let me know if you want to change that name to papacarp.

Ronny - The sweedish pimple is a spoon - Bay de Noc Lure Co. - that is very popular with ice fishermen... lake trout too. Often for ice fishing and panfishing, the orig. factory treble hook is removed and replaced with a short length (2"-3") of mono tied to a single hook to make a 'spoon dropper' bait rig. I think this is over-looked by many panfishermen - i found out last ice season that it is a killer for bluegill and perch! Yet to try it on soft water..... i may have to give it a try.

 

[SaltyBuckster]

Who needs an outboard when you can use your electric and have a great night like that.Congrats to you and all the fish that wanted to be cooked,lol.

 

[Ron Don]

Oh thanks for the info Russ! Havent heard that name down here but I figured with a name like that it must be a good one!

 

[papaperch]

Size 4 black ice and gold ice to be more specific. Wife told me to go get some more fish tonight. Storms are forecast for the next 10 days. So I think I will do as the wife says for once. She thinks that this may be the first time I listened to her in 30 years.

By the way I use size 3 and 4 on pimples during open water season. For ice fishing I go to smaller sizes and smaller dropper hook.. Will post results of tonnights outing tommorow. Smallest pimple with a # 10 light wire hook and 1 waxie or maggot can be a " killer rig " thru the ice.

 

[papaperch]

OK motor worked perfect this time. Fish followed pattern same as first night BUT. I dropped a lot of fish off for some reason. Ended up 15 keepers but fishing slower tonight than 1st night. Probably only caught 40 total fish. Did catch two under size walleye. Really disappointed on slow action but was real nice night to be out.

Minnows were there even heavier . You could tell when fish were coming as shad spooked all over the place.

THis is what my 997 looked like as the fish started to come in.

 

[SaltyBuckster]

Nice graphics,Only 20,lol.You ought to be ashamed of yourself,Ha.

 

[Lost Pole]

Beautiful catch and excellent report. Almost like I was there.
That Ff image is amazing.

Adam

 

[Jig Man]

You must be spoiled... wait wife tells ya to go fishing and ya catch fish, I do believe you are. Nice catch!

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

That is a lot of shad,where I fish 40 would be considered a great day most of the time.

 

[StumpHunter]

Great shot of your DF. Those green lights work great for me also, sometime too good at pulling in the bait fish. Congrats on your catch.