Bucket List Trip, summertime crappies
For those of you in Saskatchewan and Alberta if you want to try catching some different species come to Manitoba. Crappie, smallmouth bass and channel catfish come to mind. I love to catch them all, but I really enjoy the challenge of tracking down summertime crappie. We have plenty of lakes in the southeast part of the province that have excellent populations of these tasty gamefish.
Over the last few summers, I have spent some time during July and August fishing for them with good results. Just like any other fish species you must understand where to look based on time of year. Depending on the summer and the body of water crappies will move to certain areas post spawn.
This includes cover, like weed growth or deeper water to find a bit cooler temperatures. This also depends on the time of the day. Early and late they really like to relate to weed edges because during the day they get under the heavy cover or suspend. In really hot weather, they tend to move out, especially if there is a thermocline in the lake you are fishing. This could be at the 20 to 30 foot mark and you can find that by turning up the gain on your depth finder. It will then appear as red band about two feet thick.
Black crappies will school just below the thermocline and move shallow early and late as well. You can still catch them during the day but you have to get your lure in the zone. I love trolling a finesse bottom bouncer rig to trigger bites and cover water. On the back, I love to use a finesse spinner rig tipped with a piece of crawler or finesse plastic.
SCATTERED FISH ON COLD FRONT DAYS
On cold front days, crappies scatter and become tougher to catch. Overall school size and activity level drop.
Light rods in the 6’6” to 7 foot range fit the bill for pitching 1/16-1/8 oz jigs. We use 8 pound braid mainline with a 6 pound fluorocarbon leader. White marabou hair jigs and small 2 inch plastics work well.
You can also upsize the presentation and try moping. This simple method means hanging a minnow style bait in the face of suspended crappies. Drifting with different presentations can also be effective, especially if you don’t have Forward Facing Sonar. Good electronics though is a key to finding scattered schools of fish.
All of the lakes in the Whiteshell fish a little bit differently. We have shallow, mid-depth, and deep water crappie fisheries. Some fish will suspend exclusively in the basin, some will roam on mud flats, and some will hang around submerged structure like trees. Keep an open mind while looking for fish. Have fun crappie hunting.
