The Long Walk... Worth Every Step?

This past weekend we headed south once again to look for some crappies.  The lake has little access and no machines are allowed to move around on the lake.  A long walk through snow was something we were not going to avoid.  We were up to it for a chance to catch some big crappies that lurked in this small lake.

Once we got to the lake we started in the some of the deepest water the lake held.  This proved to be a good first move.  We started picking up fish slightly suspended off the bottom of the lake with our Vexilars and we started catching crappies, and we knew right then the walk was well worth it!  The weather was great for hole-hopping and we searched all day long.  I used a Reins Tungsten spoon most of the day, the quick drop on the Quantum Drive reel really makes fishing the deeper water quick and easy.  The middle part of the day was brutally slow, but then about 4pm, right on schedule, the crappies magically appeared once again.  It was a great way to end the day as reeled up our final catches of the day.  Dozens of crappies made their way to the top of the ice and some of those will make a nice meal soon.

Big takeaway from today was locating and fishing the active fish.  Fish were located on the bottom of the lake, 5-6 feet suspended and fish in the middle of the water column.  Only one group of these fish were the "biters" on this particular day.  The fish that swam 5-6 feet above the lake floor were the biters.  We were able to keep our spoons/jigs in that range to call the fish in from surrounding areas.  This no doubt led to bringing more fish under our Vexilars and helped us catch more fish all throughout the day.