Greetings All;
Well, the backwater areas of Pools 11-12 & 13 are producing some great crappie catches through the ice. Was out this morning in Pool-13 and caught many nice sized crappie. Keep in mind that with the year classes of fish available you will most likely have to cull your catch of the smaller fish to get some keepers for the frying pan. Make sure you release those smaller fish back into the hole so they can continue to grow. Don't do like some ice anglers and toss them out on the ice to die. That is a waste of a valuable resource for the future.
Best baits have been small minnows followed by wax worms. I like to set one "Dead" rod and slowly jig another. Doing this will many times get two fish on at the same time and what a blast that is. Small gold rocker style jigs, Rat Finkie jigs and also small ant imitation jigs tipped with bait doing the best. If you find the minnow bite slows, try switching to the wax worms. You can usually catch a few more fish by doing this.
One last thing. Start your search for the crappie in the deepest water you can locate in the backwaters and move as necessary from there. Also, these fish will suspend so make sure you check out all depths. You will find the crappie using different depths at different times so adjust as necessary.
Dress warm, wear that PFD and have a ball catching some backwater crappie on the Mississippi River.
Regards: Lastcast Mike Cyze lastcast13@yahoo.com
In cold months, the best baits used are the minnows which are actually small fishes coming from the Carp family of fishes. Bait minnows can usually be found in any bait shop, especially ones near a body of water, but many anglers prefer to capture their own. :)
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