Putting Slabs on the Ice

Putting Slabs on the Ice

By Steve Weisman

When ice fishing season rolls around, bluegills and crappies are two of the most sought after fish. Many anglers, myself including, find that if we target bluegills we will also run into crappies. So, on early ice we will start in the shallows, in bays where there are still good standing weeds. Look for any depression (it might only be a few inches) that might provide a pocket in the weedbed. With weeds all around, this depression might be only a few feet but can be the opening that the crappies frequent.

Another area to look at is the break just off the weed edge. You might find crappies both suspended and on the bottom. Finally, look for a deeper channel near these weeds or maybe where deeper water comes up to the entrance of a bay that then becomes a large flat with a weedline. It actually becomes the best of both worlds.

However, there are anglers that specifically seek out crappies, and they often have a much different approach. Such an angler is Rod Woten, an Ice Team Pro and Clam Powerstick. Although he specializes in the frozen lakes of northwest, northcentral and central Iowa, Woten says with a laugh, “I do consider the Iowa Great Lakes, especially West Okoboji, to be my home waters” even though he lives in Stuart, Iowa nearly three hours away. However, that’s the way it is for Woten, who runs Coldwater Guide Service. Whether it is the trout streams of northeast Iowa or the frozen water on many of Iowa’s lakes, Woten finds them to be his “home” waters. Other good ice fishing crappie waters for Woten include Clear Lake and Brushy Creek.

Certainly, there are other great crappie waters in Iowa. However, when you get to lakes and impoundments from Des Moines south, like Red Rock, Saylorville, Big Creek, Lake Rathbun, 3 Mile and 12 Mile, each winter is different, and the chances to ice fish often come later in the winter if at all. In addition, there are numerous smaller bodies of water and ponds that hold good crappie numbers.

Chasing crappies
When specifically targeting crappies, Woten finds it important to have a game plan. First off, crappies are a school fish and often suspend over deeper water while often relating to nearby structure. “It might be a subtle depression, a rock pile, near a stand of deep ‘still green’ weeds, over a brush pile, standing trees or perhaps a submerged river channel(s). It all depends on the body of water you are fishing.”

For that reason and if it is the first time Woten has been on the body of water in the winter, part of his game plan will be using a good lake map to find those little structure areas that might be holding suspended crappies. Even though he has fished these waters in the past, Woten always turns to the lake map to refresh his memory. By getting those general areas, Woten doesn’t feel like he is literally looking for a needle in a haystack, so to speak. He has at least his game plan in place.

Preparing for the trip
Although you can catch crappies throughout the day, low light conditions are prime time. So, know your best luck will come in the early morning and late afternoon. There are also times when crappies will bite well after dark. For these lower light conditions, Woten will choose spoons and jigs with glow colors. Swedish pimples, forage minnows and smaller jigging raps and chubby darters are traditional choices. Recently, one of Woten’s most successful lures has been Clam’s pinhead jigging mino because it’s a flashy lure that mimics an injured minnow. “I like contrasting glow colors like white and chartreuse, for example.” These spoons/jigs all come with a treble hook, which works fine, according to Woten, when the crappies are aggressive. “When they go neutral or become finicky, I will replace the treble hook with a dropper chain and a single hook. Even when the spoon is sitting still, the chain and hook might still jiggle just a little bit or you can quiver the spoon and make the chain barely move.”

Woten believes in tipping the spoons/jigs with either live bait like silver wigglers or euro larvae, a minnow head or Maki plastics. While live minnows are an option, the chances of spilling the water in the cold can be an issue, so Woten will keep a supply of frozen minnow heads. As for the Maki plastics, there are many choices like the Maki mino in the glow colors. A real key, if you can figure it out, is to match the hatch. So, if you fish a lake that has mayfly hatches, then plastics that mimic that look are a good choice.

Woten will use a 28” or longer medium action rod with three to four-pound test. He will add a spring bobber to detect the tough to see deep water bites. “It is important to match the spring bobber with the spoon/jig you will be using. You don’t want it so light that the spoon/jig makes the bobber bottom out. Plus, many times a crappie will hit a bait and bring it up, and the spring bobber has to show that. If you don’t watch that spring bobber closely, you might not even notice the line going slack and the bobber moving upward ever so slightly. You might think you never had a bite, when you actually did.”

Taking to the ice
Although Woten will fish by himself, for this type of search fishing mode, he will often fish with a partner. “This is one of the fun things about this type of fishing-working as a team. Let’s say we find a spot on a lake map with a rock pile or depression in the middle of a large bay. That’s a lot of water to cover. Unless we know the fish are right on a spot, we won’t just drill one hole and start fishing. Instead, we will find the general area and begin drilling holes every 10-20 yards-say on top of the deep rock pile and work different directions off from the rock pile. After we have drilled a bunch of holes, we will then use our Vexilar to see what is down there. Unlike perch, which are often on the bottom, we use the flasher to begin looking for suspended crappies. We will actually tilt the puck to ‘look’ out all sides of the hole, looking for the telltale blips of suspended crappies. They might be in the middle, near the top or closer to the bottom. It’s a matter of searching. Some anglers will also use a camera to see what is down there.”

Woten and his partner will continue this search until the telltale marks show up on the screen. Once a school is found, Woten will take out his spoon/jig and begin fishing. “Don’t just drop the spoon through the school and all the way to the bottom. I always fish above the school and have found that generally the bigger crappies are at the top of the school with smaller crappies beneath them. So, I drop down and stop above the school. I start with a pretty aggressive jig and aggressively pound the water. Aggressive crappies will come up and hit the spoon/jig. If they are neutral or after catching a few and the rest become neutral, then I will do a subtle jiggle and let the dropper chain just slightly wiggle. The flasher will let me know the mood of the crappies and just how their aggressiveness changes. The key is to adjust to the response of the fish.”

Of course, Woten likes to target those low light conditions, early morning and late afternoon into evening and sometimes after dark. If you have found the fish, it is important to keep them interested, keep them in the area. If you can do this, it can be lights out fishing. That’s why it is so important to find crappies that are relating to structure.

The structure will help keep them around. Often, if you catch that first fish, that can trigger a feeding frenzy. That’s why when fishing alone, it is important to get the crappie off the hook and back down to the remaining fish. Having partners fishing nearby can keep the fish around.

Not a lot of anglers do this type of crappie fishing because it requires research, time and work. Is it worth it? For a crappie angler like Woten, the answer is “Oh my YES!”