Crappie Lakes - Waterloo/Irish Hills Areas

[duckboy]

If the smelt don't cooperate this weekend, I plan on trying for crappie in the small lakes around the waterloo rec area or maybe in the Irish Hills. Anyone have any tips on which lakes to try and what methods might work best?

[gsepan]

Wampler's Lake in the Irish Hills has been real good to me in the past. Fishing minnows on a fuzzy grub or any other small jig will produce fish. When you launch from the park there, head straight out to the other side of the lake and look for where the creek feeds the lake (on the left hand side of the lake if you were to head straight out from the launch) and fish the drop-off's. It's been a few years since I've been back there but this is the time that the crappies are active.

Sorry for not pinpointing the location but I'm giving you a "ballpark" area to check.

[CreekChub]

Wamplers is a great lake, but I, Myself have never really had any luck with Crappie there...more of a pike, walleye, bass lake for me! but in the waterloo area...MILL Lake and or Suragloaf lake. both have great Crappie. and to tell ya the truth...I've had my best luck simply with a slip bobber and minnow combo. bud of mine last year made a false cast( tangled line) and it dropped 3 feet from the boat...he hand lined it outta the water, and I watched a perch chase the minnow up...for the next hour I caught 10 to 11 inch perch...3 feet from the boat if 7 feet of water! lol but not gonna tell ya which of the 2 lakes those came from lol
:-{ )

[mal]

try four mile lake near chelsea if you want crappie. caught some really nice ones there this winter.

[duckboy]

Thanks for the tips. I fished Wamplers once this winter and caught one nice crappie and a bunch of small perch. I've fished Mill Lake several times but have never caught a crappie there - mostly small 'gills. Never tried Sugarloaf - my guess is that this is where the nice perch came from. Four Mile Lake gets hammered pretty hard but seems to produce fish. I've done well there a few times for perch and crappie - also lots of hammer handle pike.

Not sure where were heading tomorrow, but I'll post our results!!

[duckboy]

Well....never actually made it out fishing. We loaded up my 12' jon and the 4 horse Johnson and headed to Joslin Lake for crappie. Put the boat in the water, hooked up the motor and gave her two pulls before the pull cord broke! Long story short....we stopped at three local marinas before finding the right diameter pull cord. Tried for an hour or so to replace the cord with no luck. Spring finally let loose so we said screw it. Called a few marinas to have them fix it and finally found one that would work on a Johnson. Guy told me that there was no way to replace the pull cord without some special tool. Info I could have used earlier. Anyway...its gonna cost me $75 and it won't be done for at least a week. Great start to the fishing season.