Photo by Scott Maloch

Crappies are not an easy fish to catch. Their propensity to suspend in the water column during much of the year makes them difficult to find -- especially if you don't have a boat and have limited knowledge of how to use your electronics. Even then, crappies can be a here-today, gone-tomorrow proposition. The one time you can count on crappies being in one location is in the spring.

Crappies pack into the shallower water in the early spring for two reasons: They are there to feed and to spawn. Crappies are one of the earliest fish to spawn. They can be found in the shallows right after ice-out. Melting ice, warm sunlight and prevailing winds draw schools of papermouths to the shallows in search of minnows and aquatic insects that also congregate in the warmer water. Warming temperatures and increasing sunlight also prompt crappies to begin carrying on the family name. However, specks do not build spawning beds like many panfish, but instead they are "broadcast spawners," so look for them in the shallow emerging weeds right after ice-out.

Crappies are very common in most Michigan lakes, but if you want a sure-thing hot bite, head for these waters.

TIPPY DAM POND
If you tried to describe the perfect crappie lake, you would probably come up with something pretty similar to Tippy Dam Pond.

Fed by the Manistee and Pine rivers, 1,540-acre Tippy Dam Pond's irregular shoreline, sinuous bends, islands, stumps, downed timber and humps is about as close to the perfect crappie habitat as you can get. Not so coincidently, the lake has a good population of black crappies, although they don't draw much attention.

"The last time we surveyed Tippy Dam Pond we found a pretty good population of crappies," claimed Central Lake Michigan Management Unit fisheries biologist Mark Tonello of the Department of Natural Resources. "In fact, I don't know if it was the timing of the survey or what, but we found more crappies than just about anything. They averaged a solid 9 inches and we found them up to 13 inches."

Filled with sunken trees, downed timber and stumps, the current that flows through the impoundment means that ice conditions on Tippy Dam Pond are often iffy. The warming spring sun quickly erodes the ice in the pond's south-facing bays and coves. These are good places to begin your search. Ideal locations are where the old river channel touches the mouth of the bay. Use a surface temperature gauge to locate the warmest water you can find early in the season.

With all the trees, stumps and snags in Tippy Dam Pond, casting will result in a lot of lost tackle. Suspending a minnow or a white marabou jig under a slip-bobber will keep snags to a minimum, and is an effective combination for the crappies.

For maps, tackle and fishing reports on Tippy Dam Pond, contact Pappy's Bait & Tackle in Wellston at (231) 848-4142.

HAMLIN LAKE
"Hamlin Lake has a pretty decent crappie population that is probably underfished because the bluegill fishing is so good," suggested Tonello.

During the most recent fishery survey in 2004, biologists collected 104 crappies that averaged 10 inches and measured up to 13 inches. But this was compared with over 900 bluegills that were netted during the survey.