Wil Wegman

Question:

Hi there Wil,

I am looking for any suggestions you may have on an ice fishing crappie lake in the muskoka area. I am a long time ice fisherman of Lake Simcoe for Lake Trout and Whitefish but am interested in finding some small crappie lakes to try in the winter as well. Any help you could provide would be much appreciated!

Thanks and Happy New Year!
Yvan Santin

Answer:

Hi Yvan,

Thanks for your question about crappie fishing in Muskoka Lakes.  This species is not native to the Muskoka Lakes but have become established in a couple of them.  One that comes to mind is Kashe Lake just south of Gravenhurst.  I've done well there in the past looking for neck down areas and fishing them in about 25-35 feet of water.   They are typically suspended and look up to feed, so it's important to present your small baits above them. If you look a little further west towards Georgian Bay and the Port Severn to Parry Sound area you may find more lakes that hold crappie by checking out the MNRF's Fish On Line website.   Just zoom in on the map for that region and check out the small lakes that interest you and whether they hold crappie.   One of them I can tell you about is Maclean Lake (sometimes known as Black Lake) which has held crappie for several years now.  Like most inland waterbodies where crappie show up, there is a boom and bust cycle ... often dictated by angler harvest. Releasing those larger crappie over 12 inches or so becomes an important  conservation tool to sustain quality crappie fisheries.  As for baits, I've done well with small artificials- like HT's Fish Scentz or Rapala Trigger X Micro baits tipped on small jigs like the HT Tungsten Marmooska.  Watching a high quality sonar ... such as a Lowrance Elite Ice machine helps you figure out where crappie are within the water column and should help you eliminate unproductive water.

Hope this helps and good luck this winter Yvan