FML Outdoors.com

Rain and Wind Made Fishing Challenging!

I decided to fish, instead of video record, this year’s crappie contest. It’s always fun to watch the boats come in and see kids faces light-up, as they proudly carry their prize-winning fish!

My friends (Brian and Ryan) and I planned to get up early and meet at the launch in Spring Park. It was 6:20 a.m. when we pulled into the Holiday gas station. We grabbed some coffee and donuts and in no time we were in the water!

I was surprised to see very few boats at the landing? The weather for that day called for 70% chance of rain. Perhaps, the threat of rain kept fair-weather fishermen off the lake?

Rain It Did!

It poured buckets of rain as we navigated through the Narrow’s. Earlier at the landing, we saw the winning boat from last years event. We did what any fishermen would do — and followed them! We watched were they motored to and planned to make that one of our spots.

The weather has been odd? It’s been very warm, but yet — the water temperature is less than 55-degrees? The fish haven’t moved into the shallows to spawn! I was up north, putting in the dock about a week ago and the water temperature was only 48-degrees! The majority of crappies won’t move to their spawning beds until the water reaches closer to 60-degrees.

Back on Lake Minnetonka, we fished a variety of depths and found the crappies staging in 10 to 12 feet of water — next to deep weedlines. My plan was to fish with a larger jig, in hopes of tantalizing a 1-pounder to bite! All of a sudden, Ryan yells, “I’ve got a good one!” Sure enough, it was a nice 12-inch crappie. I told Ryan that he just might be in-the-running with that fish! We caught a few more crappies, but none as big as Ryan’s.

By the way…Yes! We fished the previous winners hot spot and found nothing! In fact, they won the contest twice, but this year they didn’t register a fish!

With little time to spare we pulled into Lord Fletcher’s with 6-minutes left to the contest. Ryan raced to the counter with his fish. At 12-ounces, third place went to a previously registered fish that exact weight! It was fun to be a part of this annual event. I was hoping to catch a 1-pounder! Oh well, there’s always next year!