bottom for potential biggies. Now, here’s the other deal on deep fall crappies. The fish are often heavily clu tered and vulnerable to overfishing if anglers harvest too many. Catch a few, but don’t overdo it. Observe posted possession limits, and don’t come back day after day to fill your freezer. Remember that fish in your freezer count toward your limit. So take a few to eat if you wish, and toss the rest back for the future. As you do, note if the fish are quick to recover, or have difficulty swimming back to the bottom. If crappies are caught too deeply —say 30-feet plus — their air bladders may swell due to pressure change, and they may quickly become unable to swim back down. Tossing fish back immediately often alleviates this problem, whereas waiting too long before releasing them aggravates it. If you see any indication that released fish are struggling near the surface, stop fishing for them. It doesn’t make sense to catch and release a bunch of crappies if they aren’t going to survive. Nearly all lakes in the Brainerd lakes area host decent crappie populations. From larger lakes like Gull, Pelican, North Long and Whitefish, to midsized waters like
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Edward and Hubert, right on down to small lakes that escape most angling attention, other than from a few locals. Rice Lake on the Mississippi has nice crappies that leave the main river current in fall to winter in smaller attached lakes like Little Rabbit, where jigging the 20foot basin produces loads of fish come October. The deep crappie pattern in our area begins once fall turnover occurs—generally mid-September--the water grows cold, and crappies drop deep and begin acting like walleyes. You’ll find the fish at first ice in the same places as well. Which begs the question, if crappies act like walleyes in fall, what do walleyes do at this time of year? The simple answer is, they often drop even deeper. But that’s another tale for another day.
D A V E C S A N D A works with Lind-
ner Media Productions in Baxter, Minnesota and is a veteran outdoor writer, seminar speaker and co-host of Angling Edge TV.
Photo provided by Dave Csanda