It does not take long after the ice is gone for the open water anglers to start trying to satisfy their itch to go fishing.
The weather has been totally awful, but I still see people out fishing. The game fish season in Minnesota is currently closed, and all you can legally target are panfish right now. These include crappies, perch and bluegills. You cannot target walleyes or other game fish this time of year even if you let them all go.
Crappies are the fish that seem to be the most cooperative this time of year, and they are not biting very aggressively, at least not this year, as water temperatures are still very low. On my local lake a week ago, the water temperature was 42 degrees. Walleyes around here get active and start to spawn when the temperatures reach the high 40s.
Crappies can be targeted in the shallows and caught with either minnows or imitation plastics. Everybody thinks crappies move to shallow water because it is the warmest. This is not exactly why they move shallow. What attracts them to warmer water is that it’s the first place the food chain starts to become active in the spring.
Insects and other aquatic bugs start to show up, and the crappies are there looking for food, not to warm up. I see it all the time that folks will dunk bait off the shoreline in 3 to 5 feet of water looking for these fish. You would do better on most days fishing way shallower than that.
A great fisherman that taught me more than I could have ever learned by myself would target crappies in about 12-16 inches of water. When everybody else was catching one or two, he would catch a limit and then go home.
You do need to be stealthy when pursuing super shallow crappies. I creep slowly along a rocky bank with a long light action rod and just dip my offerings ahead of me along the shore.
If there are kids running up and down the bank, the fish can actually feel the vibration of their feet. If you are fishing from a dock, start at the shallow end of the dock, and if you hook a fish, move slowly toward the bank. Fighting the fish where other fish might be present will spook off the others. I slowly work my way to the posts and wheels of the dock and after about 5-10 minutes I will move on to the next spot.
I usually take two rods with different offerings. If I work a spot with a yellow crappie jig, after I’ve made a pass or two, I will then toss in a jig of a different color and manage to hook up maybe one or two more. When I catch a fish on a yellow jig, everyone that sees it will change to that same color. This will be about the same time I am changing to a different one.
If fish are going to bite on a certain color, they will most likely do so right away. Different fish that won’t bite on yellow might bite on a different color. Either jump from dock to dock or work your way slowly down the shoreline to show your offering to as many fish as possible.
On certain lakes with lots of trees or brush, I will don a pair of chest waders and actually fish from the lake side toward the shore. I tie a floating minnow bucket to my wader belt and take along one of the skinny yellow rope stringers. I work about 200 yards of shoreline, dropping my bait into less than 12 inches of water. Feeling the stretch on my line is sure some sort of therapy.
You can work you way back to where you started and then that spot has probably had it for the day. We don’t get the opportunity in southwest Minnesota, but in shallow clear water lakes you can oftentimes actually see the fish and use a really long crappie cane to drop the offering right in from of their noses.
My neighbor lady used to take me fishing when I was quite young. She was a very special sort of gal and we must have gone about 75 times over a 5-year period. I miss her and the stories she told.
We used old-fashioned cane poles and all we fished for were crappies. No reels and no fancy line to tangle. Just sitting on a rock waiting for the bobber to go under. I believe you can still buy those old-fashioned cane poles today.
Consider being my neighbor lady. A small investment in equipment and your valuable time might just endear your little neighbor kid to stroll down memory lane when they are 61 years old.
Giving the gift of your time is the greatest gift. Every child is born with a curiosity of the outdoor world. It is so sad that many of them are gifted some electronics and left to their own devices in the video room in someone’s basement.
Be my neighbor lady. Take a kid fishing. You will get far greater than you give.
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com. or on Twitter @habitat champion.