Spectacular crappie fishing Fall to Spring

As the summer cools down, crappie fishing is heating up in Sunset Country. Fall is one of the best times of the year in Sunset Country to go crappie fishing; the weather is cooler and the mosquitos are gone. September, right through until the end of October is when you'll find the crappies biting the best in the fall. Often anglers like to fish for crappie in the deeper holes; jig in the 20 - 40 foot depths and you'll find the crappies in huge schools. Small jigs, tipped with live bait or small tubes is the best way in the fall. The schools can be 10 feet thick at this time of the year.

Winter ice fishing for crappie is fun as well. You'll find the crappies large in size and in good numbers. Combine your crappie fishing (and walleye, trout or northern fishing as well) with some snowmobiling. Stay in a winterized cabin and cozy up beside a fire after a great day of crappie fishing and snowmobiling. Crappie fishing in the Spring is the best through the ice or just after ice-out, when they move inshore to feed on schools of bait. In most cases, you'll find crappie in 20 to 40 feet of water or suspended along deep weedlines. Live minnows on a small jig work great.

Black crappies are a favourite of panfish anglers. A schooling fish, crappie are not always easy to find but when you do locate them, you're usually over a lot of fish. This popular panfish can be found in large numbers in certain lakes such as Rainy Lake, Lake of the Woods, Off Lake and the Winnipeg River System. A true delicacy, crappie make for some of the best eating if you love to eat fish.

Black crappies are generally 7-10" (18-25cms) long and weigh between 0.5 and 1 lb. They have 7-8 dorsal fin spines; 6 or 7 anal fin spines and an irregular mosaic of distinct black blotches.

Black crappie can be found in Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) Zones 4, 5 and 6. Crappie fishing season is open all year round. The crappie limit is 15 with a Sportfishing license and 10 with a conservation fishing license in Zones 4 and 6 and 10 (Sport) and 5 (Conservation) in Zone 5. You can download the Ontario fishing regulations to find out more about the rules of fishing in Ontario as there are certain lakes that have exceptions to the rules.

Link to Ontario lodges and resorts to inquire about crappie fishing opportunities available at their location.

Find out more about the fishing lodges in Sunset Country

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