Burning the Midnight Oil for Big Crappies
by Rick Olson

They say timing is everything and that certainly holds true when it comes to icing late season crappies.

If your timing is on you can fill a pail full of big slabs in no time flat, but if you’re off you may completely miss out. Missing out isn’t much fun and is an occurrence that can be avoided if you apply some basic late season principles.

The first and most important is location and will depend on the body of water you happen to be fishing, but there are a few rules of thumb that can help you get pointed in the right direction. For one, late season crappies are often found holding in deeper basin areas where they can be easy to find. Another important key is the fact that a lot of the action is likely to take place long after the sun goes down, and you better be prepared to burn the midnight oil if you’re going to get your share.

The answer to the location question can often be found around deeper flats near shallower structure where the break bottoms out. It could be twenty feet or more, depending on what’s available.

Rick Olson stayed out late to nail these slab crappies

Bigger lakes with larger basin areas are going to take a lot more work to find schools of crappies roaming through open water. For example: Upper Red Lake in Northern Minnesota is chock full of giant crappies which are most likely to be found miles off shore out in the middle of nowhere. They can be just about anywhere and there isn’t anything that really seems to hold them. If you’re on them you can have a field day, if not you’re going home empty handed. The key there is getting as much info as you can from bait shops and resorts before you hit the ice and networking with other anglers.

Smaller lakes have a lot fewer spots for crappies to hide out but they also usually have a lot less information available. In that case you’re going to have to do the job yourself, which is part of the challenge.

You can start by scanning the aforementioned areas with an electronic depth finder and see if you can mark something holding off the bottom. With a flasher you can shoot through the ice and actually see fish if the ice isn’t too busted up. The key is clearing off the hard pack snow and getting down to good ice before you try to get a reading. Then you can pour a little water on the ice and hold the transducer tight and take a look to see what’s down there. If you’re seeing fish up off the bottom you might be in luck and is time todrill a hole or two and get a bait in front of their face. If you’re not, keeping moving until you see some form of life.

The stop look fish and move technique is the key to finding the proverbial mother load and demands being portable. A portable house like the Eskimo Quip Flip III that can set up in seconds is the way to go, especially if you pull it with an ATV or SkiDoo. Being portable doesn’t mean giving up comfort as the Quick Flip can give you both as it has an extremely comfortable bench style seat that will allow you to sit on all day long without fatigue.

The search is the hardest part of the job but something that must be done if you’re going to get your sure of the fun. Most of the time you’ll be looking for what seems like a needle in a hay stack and it could be ten feet that way or a hundred feet over there, so buckle down and start looking. When you do find what you’re looking for all the hard work suddenly becomes worthwhile.

Standard crappie fare includes using tiny jigs tipped with crappie minnows and super light line like two pound test monofilament. Light jigs in the 1/32oz to 1/64 ounce range are the ticket, and make sure the hooks are good and sharp. Sharp hooks cause less stress on your minnows which will keep them alive and kicking a lot longer.

To handle the light line you’ll need a light action rod like the Rapala model IR4024UL ultra light rod, which has a soft but extremely sensitive action that will let you feel the lightest of bites and light is about all you’ll get most of the time.

If you’re marking fish and not getting any takers you can’t right the spot off immediately, especially if you’re working the daytime bite. Instead you’ll probably have to stay late ( until the sun goes down and beyond ) before you can officially take it off the hit list. The hottest action may not occur for a couple of hours or more after dark, so don’t head home too soon.

Burning the midnight oil may require an adjustment in the usual offerings like using glow in the dark jigs and specialized lights that can charge a jig quickly and keep it glowing longer. If you’re going to use a glow jig you might as well keep it lit and will require recharging every five to ten minutes. Another technique that has produced big results is using a gold Aberdeen hook instead of a jig and a larger crappie minnow. I’m not sure why it works but it could be the extra vibration that a larger thrashing minnow can make that helps crappies hone in on the bait.

Rick Olson