The lake Menomin Crappie bite is just beginning and I’m thrilled! I’ve been out the last few days for short trips checking my spring crappie spots only to report back with poor results. Most folks anchored up in the cemetery and fishing from shore reported back with slow results as well. Yesterday was no different but I took on a whole new mindset, Move Move Move! Luckily I was joined by my buddy Chad and my girlfriend Kristie who had the patience to come along and give it a shot.
Seeing that water temps on the main lake were around 50-54 degrees depending on where you were, I opted to try any little cove or inlet that would possibly be an unpressured spot and retain a higher water temp. I found 4 or 5 spots around the lake that retained water temp into the high 50’s.
As for bait, I decided to take a different approach that 95% of the folks out fishing. Drag 1/32oz and 1/16oz fuzzy jigs tipped with a small crappie minnow and stay mobile. I wouldn’t say we had fish jumping into the boat, but were able to find steady action. The fish really were not whacking the jigs either, a very suddle ‘tap tap’, almost as if your fishing for finicky walleyes. A modest hookset was needed as well, lightly setting the hook was more than enough, a heavy hookset resulted in missing fish (right Chad? 
)
Depth honestly didn’t seem to really matter a whole lot. We fished anywhere from 4fow to 13fow and our jigs were being pulled slowly suspended 3 feet down or so. We didn’t find fish in large schools however, they seemed to just be roaming around not really relating to any structure in particular.
Overall the bite is starting to shape up but the best has yet to come! Looking forward to the next few weeks 
Pic1- Bait used
Pic2- Chad with 2 nice Menomin Slabs
Pic3- Kristie with a 12″er
Pic4- They even let me catch fish! 
See ya out there 
Pete
