Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Much like people, crappies have their ups and downs. However, crappies don't have those highs and lows on a daily or even weekly basis. Crappie populations in a given body of water rise and fall on a year-to-year cycle, providing a hot bite for a year or two before the fishing takes a downturn.

Take Upper Red Lake for example. Recently, there was a boom in the numbers of slab crappies in the lake, and anglers quickly swooped in for the hot bite. Now indications are that the Upper Red crappie phenomenon peaked a couple of years ago. The walleyes stocked in Red are now competing for the space the crappies had. When the walleye season opens in 2006, anglers will no longer be heading for this huge lake to chase crappies. The walleyes will be getting all the attention.

It was inevitable that this would happen, and as the population of big crappies in Upper Red Lake diminishes, there will be a need to discover other locations on other lakes where big crappies are available. They do exist. Let's look at a few of the better ones.

RAINY LAKE
I would venture to say that Rainy Lake has secured its place back in the No. 1 spot as far as winter crappie fishing is concerned.

Many of the anglers who chase crappies during the winter on Rainy Lake will center their search on the deeper mudflats in Black Bay from 20 to 40 feet and look for schools of crappies suspended 8 to 10 feet off the bottom.

The crappies will feed on the minnows that are hovering around the big clouds of zooplankton visible on a good sonar.

With the moderate fishing pressure on the Rainy Lake crappies and the prime forage available, expect big fish. On this lake, it's not uncommon to set the hook on a crappie in the 16-inch range.

For more information, contact Woody's Fairly Reliable Guide Service at 1-866-410-5001 or check out the Web site www.fairlyreliable.com. The International Falls Area Chamber of Commerce can be contacted at 1-800-325-5766. Their Web site is www.intlfalls.org.

LAKE KABETOGAMA
The crappies on St. Louis County's Lake Kabetogama can be tough to find during the summer months, but come winter, the big slabs are not only easier to find, but they can be caught.

A great place for crappies is the Kabetogama/Ash River Narrows. You'll find some company there, and everyone is looking for crappies. What are they using? Glow-in-the-dark jigs. In that coffee-colored stained water, it helps to use a lure that provides some added attraction. Those red-glow jigs and the green-glow ones are both outstanding options.

The beauty of Kabetogama crappies is they start biting in the morning and will continue to bite -- although sometimes sporadically -- all through the morning and afternoon. This gives anglers the opportunity to catch some beautiful crappies and then get to their favorite walleye spot in time for the evening bite.

For more information, visit www.kabetogama.com.

WHITE IRON LAKE
Have you noticed a pattern here? The lakes that fall into the "slab crappie" designation tend to be up north. But there is a reason for this, as in less fishing pressure.

On White Iron Lake, just on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Lake County, you can get into schools of crappies that all weigh a pound-and-a-half. These are nice fish.

Another pattern to fishing these northern lakes is that you don't have the ability to follow crowds. There aren't any. The anglers who find their crappies on White Iron Lake work for them.

Expect to find fish near the deep-water dropoffs, of which there are only a few on White Iron. Crappies on this lake tend to move a lot, so they aren't always prone to hang over the holes. On some days you find crappies being caught in 8 to 12 feet of water a couple hundred feet from shore and they're biting on minnows about a foot off the bottom. The next day, you find these fish halfway between the top and the bottom over 35 feet of water near the island in the southern basin. What's great is that when you do find them, they are slabs.