# Early pymatuning lake crappie?



## Gju42486 (Mar 7, 2005)

like to get on some nice slabs early on in pymy, starting around may 1st. Obviously the north end stump fields are the place to be, but are there fish holding in the bay's that early to spawn as well? What have you guys had the best results with as far as baits go early on. I suspect the bays will be starting to bloom with lilly pads and what not so is a little twister tail jig under a bobber the best bet or is there others?


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## mastercatman (Jan 30, 2005)

Early????? Sounds to me like "late season" in my book. Early open water crappie fishing starts immediately following ice out. You are truly missing out on some of the best crappie fishing of the year if you're waiting till may to pursue them. Night fishing shallow weedy bays from shore or boat can be very productive. You can use live minnows or a variety of jigs to get in on the action. My personal favorite would be a tube-jig, fished under a small weighted float usually from 1-4 ft deep, March through Late Spring and then again September till Ice. Size of tubes and soft jigs I use range from 1-3" in 1/64-1/4oz weights. The only colors you really need are: White or Pearl, Chartreuse fleck, Pink/white,red/white,blue/white,green(darker shades), and purple. If you can't get fish to hit any of these colors then you're working too hard for them! You will find nightime crappies mostly in 2-6' of water with (very important!) MUCK bottom with weeds present. Daytime haunts have been a little tricky for me up until prespawn. If I find them it's usually on the first major break or structure in 6-14' feet of water outside of bays and creek arms/roadbeds adjacent to nightime feeding areas. Good Luck! Use this info wisely and luck will only be part of the equation!


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## Bulldog1149 (Feb 26, 2006)

I have pulled slabs and walleye and cats non stop for a few hours after dark on st patricks day. Had to keep busting the ice of the top of the minnow bucket to get to the bait. 1/16/1/8 oz jigs with a white twister tail (tail ripped off) and a minnow. 2-4 feet of water. Just before dark, you could see them swirling as they moved in and we could barely keep two poles in the water once they started................ I would agree, May is late season.


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## Gju42486 (Mar 7, 2005)

i may have to get out there earlier then. We fished far north last year around may 1st, stuart bay maybe? and did real well with just minny's under floats. Are there bigger fish to be caught out deeper or is this a good starting point? its around 1-4 ft deep with some "root" structures


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## mastercatman (Jan 30, 2005)

Don't worry about deeper water for big fish early. The biggest baddest fish in any water system will be found in the quicker warming shallows! Look for a dark muck bottom. If that is not possible, look for solid darkest colored rock you can find. The rock on sunny days will absorb and disperse warmth around it creating a fish magnet! I have caught trophy eyes, cats, and more in water 2 feet deep usually after dark of a really sunny warm day in the early spring.


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## buckipicker (Jan 8, 2008)

After the spawn, deeper water will definitely produce the bigger crappie.


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2008)

chaunc could teach classes on this subject. the guy is a slab machine.


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## esox62 (May 19, 2006)

do they still do that crappiethon tourney out there at pyma in the spring or is that a thing of the past?


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## peple of the perch (Sep 13, 2004)

they still do that, I believe that it is 40 bucks per team. But there is a lot of controversy on the lie detector test.


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