Late Ice Season Crappies

Late Ice Season Crappies

By Ben Leal

March is here and anglers are starting to look at their boats, bass and walleye rods, thinking about the open water season. February is the time of year when, in Iowa, most of the outdoor sports and recreation shows take place, giving a reason for thoughts of open water. The reality however soon sets in as they peek out the window and see a boat under a blanket of snow. Ice still dominates lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, and ice fishing is still the mainstay for going after crappie, though open water is not far off. March crappie fishing can be some of the most productive of the ice fishing season. Early ice, you’ll find the crappie shallow and relating to structure, by mid-season these fish have moved off to deeper water and are relating to lake contours and soft bottoms. March rolls around, the sun may be shinning a bit more on the ice and crappie will start staging and moving back into shallow water.

Open Water or Ice… That’s the Question
March is the transition time for many area lakes, early in the month you’ll likely find some decent ice to fish for crappies. March usually indicates the late ice period as far as crappies are concerned. Many of them will still be in their midwinter pattern, suspended over basin areas. There will be a lot of crappies, however, beginning the transition to staging areas in deeper water, very near the shallow bays that they will spawn in. If you draw a line directly between where you were catching them suspended over the basin during midwinter and their spring spawning areas, there’s a pretty good chance, you’ll intercept fish all along that line. During midwinter, you’ll catch more crappies at the deeper end of that line, but as ice out draws near, you’ll start to catch more crappies at the shallower end of that line. Brush piles or stump fields in deeper water, adjacent to their spawning areas can be pure gold during this time of year too, so don’t overlook those.

Electronics and a fast, light auger are ESSENTIAL! It’s not uncommon for to punch 150 holes or more over an average basin area. Go from hole to hole, dropping the transducer in and looking for suspended marks. If you don’t see one, move immediately to the next hole, repeating this process until you do see a mark. Once you find a mark, it’s simply a matter of dropping down your jig and finding out what presentation they want that day.

Late March, at least in Central and Southern Iowa you may be looking at more open water than anything. This time year we’ll still have very cool water temps, your best bet is to look for shallow open water in bays where the suns been shining or a southern breeze has been pushing into the lake. These areas will typically be warmer, attracting both predator and forage fish. Minnows suspended below a bobber next to brush piles, or if you can locate them, creek channels will be your target locations. Small plastic baits and jigs can produce as well. Weather, especially cold fronts will shut down the late March bite rather quickly, forcing fish to move back into deeper water, but they’ll continue stage off creek channels or along them, but in deeper reaches of the lake.

Where to Look
For ice fishing, the short answer is…look for the ice shacks. Anglers that fish a lake frequently have already patterned the fish, or historically will know where to look. So that’s a quick way to get into some crappie in March, but what if you’ve never been to out on this body of water, or what if you have very little experience finding crappies through the ice?

One of the best assets an angler can have, whether you are fishing open water or ice, is a lake map that shows the contours, creek channels, and submerged structure. With the advent of mobile technology, there are quite a few mapping apps that can give you that information at your fingertips. Another option is to visit the Iowa Department of Natural Resources website and find downloadable maps you can reference. There are a number of factors that can affect the March crappie bite, but typically some of the things to consider are, water clarity, structure, remaining weed beds, and the topographical lay of the land beneath the ice.

Look for creek channels that come off the main lake that have about two to three-foot drop off from 10-13 feet of water. Follow those creek channels into areas that are marked with structure, or if you’re not sure, start punching holes in the ice and do a bit of sleuthing with your electronics. If you can find both the weed beds or brush piles right off the creek channels, you’ll find the fish. These fish will stage either off the drop or up in the weed beds and brush piles.

Another key component to this time of year is to look for turbid water. And by turbid, I mean areas in the lake where early runoff is flowing in. These areas will attract small baitfish due to the increased oxygen levels as well as the food that comes in with the flow. Crappie are naturally going to be attracted to the fresh inflow and come into these areas following the food source. A great tactic in this instance is using live bait, or by mimicking the bait or insects with plastics.

As we think about targeting crappie for late ice fishing, employing the plastics comes to mind. Plastics work better for crappies than they do for probably any other species caught during the hardwater periods. Crappies will feed on any aquatic insect they can find during the winter. When they’re feeding in this manner, you will usually find them suspending very near the bottom. As ice out approaches, don’t be hesitant to look for them in the “sticky bottom” areas at the base of sharp breaks. If they’ve already begun their transition to their late winter/early spring staging areas, there’s a good chance they could be right there with the bluegills that have been there most of the winter, snacking on all the yummy burrowing insects that inhabit that particular bottom type. For these fish, go with a smaller plastic on a small tungsten jig. Gold seems to be most agreeable to all fish in the largest number of scenarios. With a gold jig tied on, use some variety of plastics to determine what colors the fish want on any given day. If they switch their preferred color any time during the day…which happens a lot, all you have to do is work your way through plastics colors until you find the one they’ve changed to. If you rely on the jig for color, you would have had to re-tie every time you changed colors. The one exception to this is if they really seem to be responding to glow colors, then tie on a glow jig.

March is a transition time, crappie will start moving and feeding in preparation for the coming spawn. Though they may not be as voracious as they would be during the spawn, these fish will be active and hungry. The fishing is awesome during this time because the temperature and the weather are usually pretty nice and the fish are really getting active with the winter runoff.

Safety
As any ice angler knows, safety on the ice is paramount. Early ice anglers are always asking about safe ice, where and how thick. Truth is, there is no “safe ice”. As temperatures warm and lakes start to see runoff flowing into them, ice thickness can vary from one area to another. Also never go alone, take a length of sturdy rope that can be used to help pull your fishing partner to safety. Let someone know where you are fishing and when you are expected to return. It’s always better to err on the side of caution than not.

Open Water
The truth is…take the same information for ice fishing and apply it to open water. These fish will pattern the same, whether you’re standing above them on 6-7 inches of ice or sitting in a boat or offshore. Live bait and plastics are the things you need to keep in mind. You can continue to use wax worms or spikes, (maggot larvae), and if you can find them in red even better. Red or orange is also a great color to use with a small jig under a bobber in open water. Why you ask? Well, quite a few areas have bloodworms that flow into lakes during the influx of water as days warm up and snow and ice begin to melt. Mimicking the bloodworm in your presentation can yield amazing results.

March can be a great time for early open water crappie fishing! And for all those anglers that have been holed up in the house…hopelessly peering out the window at a snow-covered boat, this will bring considerable relief as lines are cast and baits hit the water.

So set your eyes on getting out and sticking some nice crappies for table fare. These fish are a great resource and a renewable one at that. The days will get longer and the sun will shine brighter…tight lines all!