Lake Menomin Crappie Report, 10-19-09

Not having been out on Lake Menomin for over a week, I wasn’t sure how far along the bite was. My last trip out was a complete flop and the motivation today was simply this beautiful weather. As we all know, weather wise, it’s been a weird year and has made for a very unpredictable bite, Menomin no exception. A little over two weeks ago I had water temps in the low 70’s and we now here we sit at 48 degrees.

The crappies are schooling up and if one is found, more than likely there are more to come. I am however surprised to see them still relating to main lake structure and cribs, with only a few showing up in the bay’s. Most of my fish tonight came in 12-14 fow, focusing special attention to areas with visible sticks and structure above the water. Moving from spot to spot was important as the fish seemed to bite almost immediately once you found them. That being said, once one fish was found more never seemed far behind.

While a bobber and minnow combo was effective, the sticks and underwater structure made it an absolute nightmare setting the depth and keeping my bait in the strike zone. Constantly breaking off and snagging up made it an easy choice to stick with one rod and start pitching jig’s. A simple 1/8oz orange/chartreuse precision jig or gold 1/16oz Draggin’ jig tipped with a fathead took almost all the fish tonight. When I would snag up pitching, going vertical over the structure helped ‘feel’ the sticks and prevent snag’s.

Overall I would say the crappie bite is strong, but very different from years past. With these consistent air temps in the forecast I can only assume that the bite will only improve and would guess that those fish will finally start to move into the bays and off the main lake structure.

The weather tonight was fantastic and the lack of boats was surprising. Get out there and enjoy this weather while it lasts, it won’t be long and we’ll be dreaming of day’s like this.

We’ll see ya out there

Pete