For more information, visit the Ely area's Web site at www.ely.org.

LAKE VERMILION
Anglers searching for big crappies on Lake Vermilion stick to the western half. Going one step farther, you find a lot of crappie anglers drilling holes and dropping lures between Center Island and Turtle Island, and all the way up into Norwegian Bay.

On this St. Louis County lake, a sonar is mandatory because the crappies are prone to making vertical shifts in depth as the day progresses. If you're on a school of crappies in the morning, you can easily notice the fish shifting toward the bottom as the day progresses. By evening, the crappies will once again be suspended closer to the surface.

I thought this was because of light penetration, and it is to a certain extent, but there is also forage to consider. As clouds of zooplankton shift depth due to light penetration, so move the minnows. The crappies follow those minnows. Find the forage and you will find the crappies on Vermilion.

For more, visit Lake Vermilion's Web site at www.lakevermilion.com.

SPIDER LAKE
Itasca County has a lot of lakes within its boundaries, and many of them are great winter crappie lakes. This is fortunate because when anglers have so much to choose from, no one lake gets too much pressure -- unless of course a particular lake gets hot. And every once in a while, you hear about Spider Lake just off of Highway 38 north of Grand Rapids.

The south and central basins get the attention for crappies. The central basin has one deep drop into 30 feet of water, but other than that, there are no significant structural elements. Crappies tend to roam in the deeper water, sometimes hugging the bottom tightly and sometimes suspending.

The water in Spider Lake offers good visibility, so the crappies can be easily attracted to a lure. A trick I learned on a trip to Spider last year was that to shake a large hammered nickel-plated Swedish Pimple while watching the sonar. When a line shows up on the sonar indicating a fish, drop a smaller jighead down the hole tipped with a crappie minnow. When the small jig gets to the same depth as the big spoon, pull up the spoon. And you should have a couple of minnows impaled on the treble on the bigger spoon just in case the crappies are aggressive that day. We caught a bunch on the big spoon, too.

For more information, visit the Grand Rapids area's Web site at www.grandmn.com, or call Ben's Bait and Tackle at (218) 326-8281.

LAKE WABANA
You can get intimidated by a lake like Wabana. It's over 2,000 acres with a lot of structure and depth, with very clear water. Most people find this lake tough to fish.

There are big crappies in Wabana, probably because they are not present in great numbers. But the ones there are very nice-sized.

You need to do your homework on this Itasca County lake. Someone is going to be catching crappies there. They will start spreading the word, and soon others will know where the bite is happening. You need to be there.

While many anglers consider the deeper holes in a lake to be prime winter spots for crappies, that's not the case on Wabana. Straight out from the boat landing on the west side is a narrows that tapers into deep water as you head south. This is a great place to start a search. Another prime location is in Simmons Bay off the tip of the point that extends out into 30 feet of water.

By late February and into March, the crappies tend to hold in groups in front of the bays in deeper water, and there are plenty of those spots available on the south end. Pickerel Bay gets a lot of attention for crappies in the late season there.