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

BALL CLUB LAKE
Ball Club Lake, just east of Bena, was a hotspot for crappies about seven years ago and then it cooled off, with only smaller fish for a while. A drop in fishing pressure and the normal crappie cycle has brought Ball Club back into the spotlight.

The lake is basically two basins. Most anglers need not venture past the southern basin and the steep-dropping bottom coming out of the southwest corner. If you do venture into the northern basin, you will notice it resembles a big bowl with a sharp-dropping bottom extending from the shoreline and no major midlake structure. This means the crappies can be anywhere over that deep water.

Of course, this means you drill a lot of holes and use the Vexilar to find fish. Either that, or take advantage of the good visibility of the water and try to attract some fish. Last year I met a few guys up on Winnibigoshish for some perch fishing and we decided to see if we could get an evening crappie bite over on Ball Club going. We drilled a bunch of holes, and each angler dropped down a couple of big shiny spoons. We jigged them hard for about 15 minutes and the crappies came to us. They only stayed there for about an hour, but we all caught some real nice fish. For your information, we drilled those holes in 55 feet of water, and those crappies were coming in at 45 feet deep.

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

LAKE LIZZIE
Lake Lizzie northeast of Pelican Rapids has been a consistent winter crappie hotspot, which is tough to say about most lakes that tend to fit into a cycle where the fishing is good for a few years and then it's lean for a few years. Lizzie not only produces some good numbers of crappies, but the size of the fish can be impressive.

On Lizzie, think deep water next to midlake structure. There's plenty of that in this lake. You're looking for a sunken island that tops out at a few feet sitting right next to a 40-foot hole. There are a few spots in that northern basin where you find this phenomenon.

Crappie anglers also find themselves congregating over the 50-foot hole just to the north of the islands where the water gets shallow before entering that southern basin. Crappies stack up there all winter long.

In 2006, put Lizzie on the list of lakes to make a crappie outing on. This is going to be another good year.

For more information, visit the Pelican Rapids area Web site at www.pelicanrapidschamber.com, or call Park Region Sport Shop at 1-800-962-8553.

PELICAN LAKE
Pelican Lake, just south of Ashby, is a great lake to fish in wintertime because the water clears up and the crappies are very nice-sized. In the summer -- due to the shallow nature of the lake -- you get a pretty healthy algae bloom that can turn anglers off. It seems to slow the bite as well. Come winter, ice over the top and that cold water lets algae settle to the bottom, and the fish start biting again.

There are only a few holes in Pelican and they're not much over 20 feet deep, but the crappies like them, so you get the fish stacked up in a concentrated region, making them easy to find. Winter water visibility is better, but it still pays to use glow lures to attract the crappies.

Another benefit of the lower visibility is that the crappies aren't prone to bite in spurts. While the evening bite may still be the best, you can generate some action almost any time of day. Like most lakes with poor water clarity, the night bite is generally poor.

To learn more, call Dahlen's Sport Shop at (218) 747-2901.