Though most aren’t this big, larger fish are more the rule than the exception.

Another rather unique feature of Caro is that it’s the only lake in Baker’s unit where the black and white crappies have naturally hybridized.

“They spawn in the same areas at the same time and it just happens by accident,” Baker said.

A basic 8- to 10-foot rod for long casts to fish docks, tree limbs and other heavy cover works well here. Shorter rods may be used for brush and spots that don’t have much elbowroom. All kinds of small snap bobbers and floats will work.

This area of Michigan has several impoundments like Caro Lake with good populations of crappies. Most of these lakes are for the numbers, while trophy hunters should concentrate their efforts on Caro.

Caro Lake is an impoundment of the Cass River in Tuscola County. It covers 200 acres of water with a public access on the northeast side of the lake off Gun Club Road.

For more information, contact the Bay City DNR office at (989) 684-9141.

Saginaw Bay
“This is another of Michigan’s big-crappie waters and the problem is finding them,” biologist Baker said. “The fish are large and there are a lot of them, but to say they’re spread out over a lot of water is an understatement.

“Several years ago as a DNR technician, I checked a boat with one fisherman in it for his catch. I asked him how he’d done and he said ‘fairly well.’ I opened the 4-gallon cooler and all I could see was fish. There were 22 crappies in there with the smallest being 12 inches and the largest measuring 15 inches.”

Baker never forgot that sight. Spring crappies may be transitional moving from deep water into the warming shallows. By May, the fish concentrate near marina basins and river mouths where a bobber and minnow account for most of the fish taken.

“You won’t catch a lot of them, but there’s a lot of them out there,” Baker said.

Try fishing in the Lower Quanicassee River, Sunset Bay Marina, the Lower Sebawaing River and Bayshore Marina where you can pay a fee and fish from the shoreline.

For more information, call the Bay City DNR office at (989) 684-9141.

Holloway Reservoir
Holloway is an impoundment on the Flint River with plenty of crappies in it, fisheries biologist Joe Leonardi said.

“Holloway has a good population of crappies with a lot of them running from 8 to 10 inches,” he said. “The lake is traditionally a good crappie water with minimal flooding and plenty of undeveloped shoreline which crappies like.”

Finding a protected bay, inlet or backwater that warms quickly after ice-out is where anglers will find early-season crappies that are eager to bite. Catching them is mostly common sense.