March 9th Report

[Rob Manthei]

Gamefish season ended this past Sunday. What a rollercoaster winter season??!!! Kinda glad that it is over.

The best panfish bite is yet to come.....the next 4 weeks will provide some awesome fishing for bluegills, crappies, and perch.

Crappies can be found right now in both deep and shallow water....some days they are suspended 4 to 8 feet off the bottom and some days right on bottom in very shallow water.....until they move closer to staging areas, these guys will make their locations from day to day a guessing game. Look for deep holes and thick cabbage areas right now.

Bluegills are somewhat mixed in with the crappies right now...however, I have found some good schools just outside weededges in 10 to 12 feet. Early morning and right before dark has been best.

Perch are cruising mud flats, sand bars, and rock edges looking for wigglers and red worms. Drilling lots of holes and moving around is the key for the next couple of weeks. Small Jigging Rapalas, Marmooska's tipped with waxies, and tip downs with minnows are the best approach.

The biggest mistake I see made is fishing where there is no fish....use your electronics to find the depth the fish are at and target that depth...if you have an underwater camera, use it to check to see if there are any fish around prior to drilling more holes...Use the lightest line you can get away with and keep your rigs clean of unwanted hardware.

Good Luck!!

[Mark Benson]

Rob:

The last two Sundays I have been able to get out to explore the lake that my brother bought on... It seems to be a fertile fishery, but haven't gotten very close to finding anything yet.

However both last Sunday and yesterday I pulled off to a little lake close by known for producing some mega crappies and tried two different spots other than the community spots and was rewarded both times with some quality fish. Looking for areas on the basin sides close to spawning areas is starting to show fish just off the weed lines in 15' - 20'.

Both nights I was able to pull marks off the bottom and get them to chase the Lil' Cecil I was fishing with so fast I had to reel the bait up at the same time or there was no room to set the hook as the bait was so high above my head!!! Playing cat and mouse in this fashion has been a blast to say the least.

Last Sunday I was able to get 7 'tween 9" and 11", while being a little earlier this week allowed me to get in the hour long bite before dark started setting. Yesterday, I was able to find some fish on the first lake and then catch an additional 17 crappies 'tween 8" and 12".

The spot I was on last Sunday started to show just before dark a chironomid hatch, where your vex screen (hues of green & orange) starts to show all sorts of life at the bottom and the fishing just slowed down. I tried this past Friday after work and was too late and the hatch had already started. This second spot had a fair amount of tannic water and I was not able to detect the "hatch", but the bite slowed considerable just before 6 p.m.

The next time I get to fish this lake, I will be practicing selective harvest of fish less than the 10" mark as I have plenty of bigger fish cleaned and ready to dine on. All fish cleaned were of the female variety showing the need for selective harvest to maintain the size distribution by keeping the great genes in the population.

Mark

[Mark Benson]

Got a chance to get out and hook up with a couple of friends last night on the same lake at the first spot that produced for me. Wasn't able to get out there until 5:20, but did manage to lay the wood to a couple of fish right off the bat, but even in the storm, the fish were not nearly as aggressive as last Sunday.

Mark

P.S. Can't wait for day light savings this weekend!!!