Photo by Ron Sinfelt

It's tough to be a Minnesota angler and not enjoy ice-fishing. But around this time of year, cabin fever is gnawing on us, and sitting on a bucket atop a frozen lake is getting kind of old. Right now, most of us eagerly wait for the melting of our ice-capped waters.

Whether you call it spring fever, March madness or just plain old wintertime blues, the need to float a boat or cast from shore is sorely missed by many of us right now. The good news for folks who like open-water fishing is that as soon as the lakes open up, there are plenty of tasty crappies to be caught.

"There's nothing better than going crappie fishing from a boat when the water is still cold," said Bryan Sathre of First Choice Guide Service out of Cass Lake.

Sathre loves chasing crappies, and he considers himself an ice-fishing nut because he actually puts a plank across open water to fish the last few days before ice-out. But Sathre knows that once the ice is gone, the open-water fishing is just as hot as the late-ice bite.

"It's even fun getting out there when the ice is too bad to walk on, but there's enough open water to take out the boat," Sathre said.

The unpredictable thing about a crappie fishery is that it can change from year to year on your favorite body of water. What often makes a good crappie lake is one successful year-class. Once that population is caught or dies off, a lake can experience several years of slow action.

Upper Red Lake in northern Minnesota is a perfect example of this. Just about every article written on crappie fishing in our state over the last seven or eight years has mentioned Red. The big catch there consists of a single year-class of crappies that came about because the walleye population was next to zero. Over the years, the reports from Upper Red Lake progressed from phenomenal numbers, to great numbers and size, to nothing but trophy-sized fish. This year, that year-class continues to age, and as more fish are harvested, their numbers will decline. Red is not spotlighted in this article because people already know about it and, quite simply, there are plenty of other high-quality crappie waters to be found across Minnesota.

This article will focus primarily on larger bodies of water that can handle heavy fishing pressure on crappies. Minnesota is full of topnotch papermouth lakes -- both with slabs and a lot of them. The way to find these secret lakes is to search around, ask questions and do your homework.

There are plenty of lakes that fit in the middle of this scenario. They may not be well known around the entire state, but they are local hot crappie lakes that can handle a bit more pressure if anglers practice selective harvest. Most of the lakes spotlighted in this article fit into that category.

Don't forget to carefully read the 2007 Minnesota Fishing Regulations booklet before venturing onto a new body of water. The Department of Natural Resources is protecting more lakes with special size limits and bag limits so that these high-quality crappie waters stay that way for more than a year or two. That listing in the regulations is another great source for finding high-quality crappie lakes, because if it's on the DNR radar screen as needing protection, then it's a good lake. As one DNR biologist put it, "You can't protect what's not there, so if we've identified it, then the fishing is either good or a few years away from being good."

SOUTH LINDSTROM CHAIN
Roger Hugill is the Hinckley area fisheries manager for the DNR, and he said there are a lot of quality crappie lakes in his area.